January 24, 2002

MEMORANDUM TO: OPINION LEADERS

FROM: William Kristol

SUBJECT: A War Budget

President Bush’s plan to make increased defense spending “a centerpiece” of his 2003 federal budget request is good news. It’s evidence that the war on terrorism remains, as it should, the president’s top priority. “I have the responsibility to prepare the nation for what lies ahead,” Bush told the Reserve Officers Association yesterday.

The president’s defense spending plan is a war budget. Not only does it include a $10 billion “war reserve,” but the balance of the intended increase is targeted at strengthening the forces needed to fight the war. Other than a slight rise in spending for missile defense and space systems, the remaining $38 billion will go primarily for military pay raises, added health care and retirement costs, maintenance, training, and an increase in stocks of precision-guided munitions, unmanned reconnaissance drones, communications gear and other systems that have proved so useful in recent wars. The clear purpose is to ensure the ability to sustain operations in Afghanistan and to be ready for Phase Two of the war on terror- including a move against Iraq.

The president is right to point out that his 2003 request is “the largest increase in defense spending in the last 20 years.” It’s also true that anything less would have meant we were not in fact serious about the war on terrorism, and that defense spending next year will still amount to just over 3.3 percent of our gross domestic product (it was 4.8 percent only a decade ago). This makes all the more appalling the reaction of Senate Democrats, for whom this “huge” defense request provokes “heavy skepticism.” Majority Leader Tom Daschle thinks it’s “too early to come to any conclusion about what the [defense budget] number ought to be.”

President Bush has proposed the minimum budget we need to “win the first war of the 21st century” (though given the uncertainties of war, he should not hesitate to ask for more if and when more is required). The Bush request will also have to be followed up with robust increases in future years to carry out the needed longer-term program to recapitalize and transform the U.S. military.