Donald Trump’s presidency was quickly seen as a win for defense companies, who hope to benefit from what the commander in chief has vowed would be a military buildup of historic proportions. The White House said last week it would propose increasing the military’s budget by $54 billion, which the White House described as a 10 percent jump in defense spending. The budget increase announced Monday “is a pretty pedestrian increase compared to the Reagan era … some of these [defense] companies were growing at 15 to 20 percent in the early 1980s,” Callan said. “With a world on fire, America cannot secure peace through strength with just 3 percent more than President Obama’s budget. Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) accused the White House of “fake budgeting” for claiming its $54 billion budget increase would increase defense spending by 10 percent, when the plan is only 3 percent higher than what Obama had planned.

Source: Washington Post March 05, 2017 17:18 UTC