[Washington Examiner] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley has predicted a coming defense budget cliff under a Biden administration, the product of the dual impact of a struggling economy and continued coronavirus pandemic.The defense budget challenges, he said, come at a time when investment in defense modernization must be America’s key security priority to prevent a great power war with China.
"We’ve got to do a quick reality check on the national budget and what is likely to happen in the not-too-distant future," Milley said at a Brookings Institution discussion with security scholar Michael O’Hanlon Wednesday.
"There's a reasonable prospect that they could actually decline significantly," Milley added after saying that, at the very least, budgets are expected to be flat instead of the 3% to 5% annual increases that would be required to maintain current defense needs.
Milley said the nation’s high unemployment, battered economy, and the continued fight against the coronavirus pandemic were factors that influenced his stark assessment just seven weeks before Biden takes office.
"The most important priority that you need to do is to take care of the COVID piece, get that behind us, and breathe new life into the economy," he said. "Once you do that, then you can put additional monies into military."
The Heritage Foundation was surprised that the military leader would delve into politics and guess at future budgetary decisions rather than stick to military analysis and the nation's national security needs.