Key Republicans Support Ditching McCarthy–Biden Debt Ceiling Deal to Boost Defense Budget

Key Republicans are calling for more defense spending than is permitted under the debt ceiling deal negotiated less than a month ago between House GOP leadership and the Biden administration.
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)—in a statement accompanying the panel’s June 23 adoption of the $886.3 billion fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (FY24 NDAA)—said the proposed annual defense budget “does not adequately fund our defense needs, and I will work to increase the Department of Defense top level as the bill progresses.”
Wicker is among bipartisan critics who note that the debt ceiling deal constrains defense spending to “a historic low” relative to the United States’ gross domestic product and that its 3.3 percent cap above last year’s NDAA is more than 2 percent below the current rate of inflation….}