Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) called the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request “outrageous.”
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that is true. Of course know their argument that this was an inevitable conflict in some ways. But when it comes to making America ready to defend our allies and ourselves, does what you describe basically make it impossible for a Democrat like yourself to say no to that request from the White House for one and a half trillion dollars in defense spending?
KELLY: Well, first of all, let me, let me just back up a second. Things like this, nothing is inevitable. There are always other options. During the Obama administration, the Iran deal, the JCPOA kept the enrichment at a lower level, Donald Trump tore that up. That’s the reason we’re- we’re here. But this also was not inevitable. There were other things that we could do. The $1.5 trillion request from this administration. It’s outrageous. When I got to the Senate five and a half years ago, the defense budget was just over $700 billion. Now, they’re asking for twice as much money. It’s nearly the amount that the rest of the world pays for its defense.
BRENNAN: — So you’re a no? —
KELLY: — And as I pointed out in that- and I pointed, as I pointed out in that hearing, there’s stuff in there, like the Golden Dome, the physics on that stuff is really, really hard. I’m very confident we’re going to spend a lot of money, and we’re going to get a system- that going to get a system that doesn’t work. There are other things in there we do not need. I mean, they need to submit a defense budget that makes sense for the moment we’re in.
BRENNAN: Okay, it sounds like you’re saying no on that.
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