Defense Budget

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, as my colleague from Oklahoma Senator Lankford just gave a wonderful speech on the Fourth of July, we are all focused on heading home for the Fourth of July, celebrating freedom, celebrating our independence, celebrating liberty.

And we all know that that freedom is not free. There is a saying at the Korean War Memorial, etched in stone, that says those very words: ``Freedom is not free.''

The sacrifices of our military are something that all of us are going to be thinking about over the course of the Fourth of July week, weekend, as we celebrate and commemorate American liberty, American independence, and American freedom.

Our military has helped us provide that, both here at home but also, importantly, abroad.

I had the opportunity to go on a congressional delegation--Senate delegation with two of my Senate colleagues, Senator Coons and Senator Duckworth, a couple weeks ago to Korea--South Korea and Taiwan.

And it doesn't matter where you are from in America, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, when you go overseas and you go to countries like that, countries and places that literally exist because of the sacrifice of the American military, it makes you humble, and it makes you proud.

South Korea and Taiwan--vibrant economics, vibrant democracies. And if you know the history, those two places wouldn't be that way if it weren't for the sacrifice, literally, of tens of thousands of Americans.

It is no exaggeration to say--whether it is in those places or in places at home or in Europe or in Asia--that the United States has been one of the most powerful forces for liberating humankind from oppression and tyranny than any other force in the world.

Think about it. Hundreds of millions of people across the world and in our own country, over the decades, have been liberated by men and women wearing the uniform of the United States.

As we contemplate the Fourth of July week, weekend, that is something every American can take pride in and should take pride in.

But as we all know, freedom is not free. Many of us think that defending our Nation should be our priority No. 1 as part of our job in the U.S. Senate. Budgets are a reflection of an administration's values and priorities.

And if you look at this budget--this is the $6 trillion blowout budget of the Biden administration, where up here you have every single Federal Agency with double-digit--20-percent increases, 40-percent increases, 15-percent increases across the board.

The two Agencies charged with the national security of our Nation, the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, in terms of priorities for this administration, are dead last.

Actually, if you adjust the budgets for inflation, these are cuts-- almost 3 percent cut in our military budgets and probably close to 4 to 5 percent for Homeland Security.

Budgets reflect values of administrations and priorities, and this administration, right now, is prioritizing our military and our national defense dead last.

We had the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in front of the Armed Services Committee last week, and I showed them this chart, and I asked them: How can you tell the troops that you lead that this administration prioritizes our military and national defense over other missions of the Federal Government?

They couldn't give a really good answer because there is no good answer. If you look at this chart, if you look at the Biden administration's budget, they are prioritized at the bottom.

This is a battle of ideas, and when we come back from the Fourth of July recess, we are going to have this battle. I know I have colleagues, Democrats and Republicans--I have spoken to many on both sides of the aisle--who fundamentally disagree with this--fundamentally disagree with this.

You might remember last summer we had a debate when Senator Sanders brought forth his defund the Pentagon amendment. That is what he called it. At the height of defunding the police, we had Senators saying we are going to now defund the Pentagon--15 percent across-the-board cuts to the military. That is what Senator Sanders wanted.

By the way, Senator Schumer was a cosponsor of that.

And now they are in charge here, the majority leader, the chairman of the Budget Committee, and in many ways they are getting what they wanted--almost 3 percent cut to our military.

I guarantee it is not what the American people want; it is not what my constituents want; and I don't think it is what the vast majority of U.S. Senators want.

So we are going to battle this. We are going to battle this, and I am going to ask my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work with me to reject this. We need to reject this. We shouldn't prioritize our military dead last, which is what the Biden administration and, unfortunately, some of my colleagues here are doing.

I would like to end by just noting that tomorrow is actually another anniversary. We were talking about the Fourth of July, but June 25 is the 71st anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean war, which was June 25, 1950.

Unfortunately, not enough Americans, in my view, have a lot of knowledge of the Korean war. It is even called the forgotten war. I don't think it should be called the forgotten war. It should be called the noble war because Americans went to a place they didn't even know to defend freedom, which they did after a hard, difficult, violent struggle.

But in the summer of 1950, we lost thousands and thousands of young Americans, young American soldiers, young American servicemen. Why?

Because they were not prepared to fight. We went from 1945, having probably the most formidable military in the history of the world, to 5 years later--because of defense cuts, because of lack of leadership by civilian and military leaders in the United States--a military that could not fight, a military where we lost thousands of young American soldiers because they weren't ready because budgets had been gutted.

We can never allow that to happen again, and as we head into the Fourth of July weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July and our hard- fought freedoms and liberty, we need to look at this budget, come back here and say to the President and others: We are not--we are not going to prioritize the national security of our Nation last.

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