Years of structural deficits have eroded the fiscal capacity needed to confront geopolitical threats. Overspending threatens our security.

Wars test nations. They test military readiness, alliance cohesion, and political resolve. But they also test something less visible and just as important: fiscal strength.

Just days before the United States entered war with Iran, President Trump was arguing for a $500 billion defense spending increase. The Washington Post reported that administration officials were struggling to justify such a massive military budget blowout in this year’s executive budget proposal, while warning about what it would mean for an already crisis-level federal deficit.

Although the absurdity of President Trump’s arbitrary defense budget request hasn’t changed, the terms of the debate have. Whether justified or not, war places immediate pressure on defense budgets. The real question is whether the United States has put itself in a position to afford it.

Washington politicians have spent irresponsibly in times of peace and war, during economic expansion and contraction, through pandemics — you name it.

Debt held by the public is already near historic highs as a share of the economy and is surpassing its World War II record high in fewer than four years. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the federal government is projected to continue running structural deficits indefinitely, with debt rising to fiscally dangerous levels over the next few decades.



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