Through his budgets and stated policy, Biden has already established that he doesnР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›t plan on making any substantive changes to the US militaryР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s global footprint, despite empirical evidence indicating this posture promotes insecurity. The Pentagon budget gives life to an imperial architecture that includes 750 military installations abroad and active counterterrorism operations in at least eighty-five countries. Moreover, thereР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s plenty of evidence that the output of social spending - like stimulus checks - reduces hardship and boosts safety, while military spending does not. For example, Biden blamed the $1,400 stimulus checks for causing inflation, even though the provisionР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s total cost ( $391 billion) was less than the amount BidenР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s first and second military budgets will likely divert to for-profit military contractors ( $405 billion and $425 billion, respectively). Biden has gone out of his way to stigmatize social spending but not military spending, even when the latter wouldР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›ve been a more appropriate target. The president has looked increasingly disinterested in that. Even quintessentially establishment figures like Hillary Clinton argued that the pandemic would bring a Р В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р РЋРЎв„ў national security reckoningР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р РЋРЎС™ where nonmilitary threats would finally be taken as seriously as military ones - new priorities that would be reflected in future budgets. In other words, BidenР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s FY 2023 proposal will probably look like the typical preР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†Р вЂљРЎС™COVID pandemic budget where Р В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р РЋРЎв„ўnational securityР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р РЋРЎС™ spending crowds out social spending.

However, a key difference is that it was proposed soon after the American Rescue Plan passed in Congress and before the collapse of the presidentР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s multitrillion-dollar plan for climate, infrastructure, and health.

BidenР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s first budget request looked like this. The DOD spending bill - despite being just one of twelve appropriations bills that comprise the federal discretionary budget - typically eats up about half of all discretionary funding. This doesnР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›t bode well for the social programs in the FY 2023 budget. This means that a $773 billion DOD budget proposal - as Biden will reportedly offer - is essentially a proposal to privatize $425 billion in public funds. How much federal funding a given Pentagon budget can be expected to privatize, then, can more or less be inferred from its top-line number. The portion of annual DOD spending obligated to contracts varied little during this twenty-year span contract values largely grew and shrunk as overall budgets did.

Instead, most of the DOD budget goes to for-profit companies: 55 percent of the $14.5 trillion Congress gave the Pentagon between FY 2002 and FY 2021 ended up going to private sector firms through contracts. Save for the stretch of military budgets between 20 that sponsored back-to-back troop surges - first in Iraq and then in Afghanistan - BidenР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›s plan would give more money to the Pentagon in FY 2023 than in any year since World War II.Р В РІР‚СњР В РІР‚С› massive Pentagon budget entails a massive redistribution of wealth, and the primary recipient isnР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р Р†РІР‚С›РЎС›t Р В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р РЋРЎв„ўour troopsР В Р вЂ Р В РІР‚С™Р РЋРЎС™ as US politicians like to say. The fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget request Biden will send to Congress this month reportedly proposes more than $800 billion in military spending $773 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD) and most of the rest for nuclear weapons programs in the Department of Energy. For the second year in a row, Joe Biden is planning on increasing the military budget.

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