Misplaced priorities in proposed defense budget<\/p>\n
Editor: Early in my elementary school years, I visited a Hazleton toy store with my grandmother,Margaret Bonin Kotch, to buy GI Joe equipment. The toy set was a big seller in the mid-1960s, during the post-World War II\/Cold War era. Wanting to buy tens of dollars worth of toys, possibly well over $100 in today\u2019s dollars \u2014\u00a0 my frugal grandmother cut the cost dramatically.<\/p>\n
If only she were serving on the House Appropriations Committee\u2019s Defense Subcommittee today.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration, under the Pentagon leadership of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, is advancing a FY 2027 budget request of $1.5 trillion.<\/p>\n
Respected defense analysts like Max Boot question the wisdom of the Trump\/Hegseth wish list. For instance, Boot faults the administration\u2019s cutbacks on scientific research which is \u201cintegral to the nation\u2019s economic and military competitiveness\u201d while showering dollars on new,\u00a0 big-budget battleships that are considered outmoded for today\u2019s conflicts. And there are other projects that have \u201clobbying muscle\u201d behind big pricetag items like the B-21 bomber and the F-47 fighter, but the Ukraine war shows how important drones are to emerging warfare.<\/p>\n
Trade, fiscal stability and public health are just as important to our\u00a0 national security too, all short-circuited by this administration\u2019s appointments, policies and actions.<\/p>\n
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, R-NC,\u00a0 recently asserted\u00a0 via an\u201cX\u201d post: \u201cHegseth continues to surprise and disrespect our greatest allies and some of our best military professionals with impulsive decisions not grounded in reality or good judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n
If only there were more Republicans in Congress like Thom Tillis. At least, my grandmother, a mortuary school gradate, would see this budget request gets the burial in committee it deserves and demand a more realistic, cost-effective request.<\/p>\n
Steve Lilienthal,\u00a0Pottsville native, Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
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