Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened the 2018 Senate session with a statement that sets up a clash with Democrats on spending legislation that must pass in mere weeks.
McConnell, R-Ky., said the fiscal 2018 government funding bill should add extra money for military spending, which he said has been “stretched thin” under federally mandated spending reductions, beyond any cuts suffered by domestic budgets.
McConnell said the additional defense spending should not be automatically matched by a domestic funding increase, which Democrats are demanding.
“We need to set aside the arbitrary notion that new defense spending be matched equally by new non-defense spending,” McConnell said. “There is no reason why funding for our national security and our service members should be limited by an arbitrary political formula that bears no relationship to actual need.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner.
