US Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jets fly over Poland in 2023. US military spending may see a 50 percent increase in the next fiscal year. (Shutterstock/Joris Van Boven)

The Right Way to Increase Defense Spending

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The US military is best served by steady and consistent growth in defense spending rather than sugar-high splurges.

In January, President Donald Trump asked Congress for $1.5 trillion for national defense for fiscal year 2027, which begins in October 2026. Now, as the administration dives into hostilities with Iran, its roughly 50 percent increase proposal would ensure the largest defense budget in American history when adjusted for inflation—easily surpassing the highest defense budgets under presidents Ronald Reagan, George W Bush, and Barack Obama, and exceeding even the peak levels of World War II. 

It would not be a record when measured against the size of the nation’s economy, since GDP is so much bigger today than in those earlier periods. Still, it would be a huge boost, particularly at a time when the nation’s federal fiscal deficit is already $2 trillion a year.

While there is a case for modest real growth in the US defense budget, $1.5 trillion is more than we need and more than we can afford. But if President Trump insists on shooting for that figure, he should do so gradually rather than suddenly. Bumping the annual defense budget up by $100 billion annually for each of the next five years (beyond when Mr. Trump will be in office, but not beyond what his Pentagon’s five-year budget plan can project) would make for a much healthier fiscal path that will do the nation’s armed forces more good than a quick one-time injection of a........

© The National Interest