Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) recently delivered a speech that didn’t get much attention, but it was noteworthy.
Thune, who will be Senate majority leader next year, highlighted a quote last week from the bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy’s final report: “The Commission finds that the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.”
Thune repeated the line for emphasis, adding, “That’s a pretty damning statement.”
He called on Congress to prioritize the pending Defense authorization bill. The foreign policy challenges facing the U.S. are growing, Thune said, and delays to the defense policy measure aren’t helping.
The commission, which was created by Congress and whose members are nongovernment experts in national security, found China is outpacing the U.S. military in many ways and unless there is a pivot in U.S. plans, “the balance of power will continue to shift in China’s favor.”
Trump, Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are vowing next year to boost defense spending, which will attract many Democratic votes. At the same time, members have to crack down on wasteful government spending, and the Pentagon’s track record is poor — it recently failed an audit for the seventh year in a row.
The bottom line is that wonky defense bills don’t attract a lot of headlines, but they are vital to our national security.
