AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott
For years, congressional Democrats have used military spending bills as a vehicle to push their radical social and cultural agenda on the men and women of America’s armed forces. But with the GOP now in control of the House, conservatives have pledged to cut funding for “woke” military programs – if they can win over moderate Republicans.
While congressional Republicans have long called for reigning in federal spending, military funding has typically been exempt from these demands. Since at least the Reagan administration, Republicans have generally recognized the importance of not skimping on national defense and military readiness. Last December, Congress approved the largest military budget in United States history, at $858 billion.
But as many conservatives both in and out of Congress have increasingly warned, there are now buckets of cash for far-left ideologues lumped in with funding for essential military programs and weapons development. Just as they have with other policy areas like infrastructure, Democrats use essential spending on things like roads and bridges to fund their radical crusade to “remake” America.
Some House Republicans, including the new Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, have hinted that targeted cuts to military spending could be one way to clean out the wokeism that has crept in under Biden. “We got a $32 trillion debt. Everything has to be on the table,” Jordan told Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday” earlier this month. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has also suggested that he could be open to defense spending cuts.
The news sparked immediate and predictable backlash from mainstream media outlets and congressional Democrats, who blasted Republicans for “undermining military readiness.” Some moderate House Republicans also chimed in and voiced their opposition to any cuts to defense spending.
But, as several conservative Republican House members have emphasized, cutting military spending doesn’t mean sacrificing readiness or pay increases for troops. Rep. Jordan suggested “focus[ing] our military spending on the soldiers” and “getting rid of all the woke policies in our military” so that “we’d have the money we need to make sure our troops get the pay raise they deserve, we have the weapons systems and the training that needs to be done, so we’re ready to deal with our adversaries around the planet.”
Taxpayers have increasingly seen their money go toward funding woke training programs on military bases and at military academies, drawing criticism from Americans both in and out of uniform. Last month, for example, it was revealed that the Pentagon had spent more than $2 million on a University of Pittsburgh Commission that recommended the Marines stop addressing senior members as “sir” or “ma’am.” The Air Force also spent $540,000 last year developing a “maternity flight suit,” despite obvious concerns about whether pregnant women should be subjected to the pressures and stress involved with operating high-powered aircraft.
Democrats in Congress have also set aside millions of dollars for the military to combat alleged “extremism” in its ranks, which Republicans believe is thinly-guised code language for purging political conservatives from the armed forces. According to Republican Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, “For every documented case of extremism in the military, our military spent a whopping 58,000 hours in training on extremism.”
Various accounts have also alleged that cadets at West Point and other military academies are being force-fed Critical Race Theory, which teaches that America is systemically racist and evil. So-called “equity and inclusion” offices and programs now proliferate in every branch of the military. Hundreds of soldiers have complained that these programs criticize conservative organizations and suggest white people are inherently “racist,” while ignoring the dangers of actual extremist groups like antifa.
Military leadership has also “gone woke” in recent years, working hand in glove with Democrats to push a radical social agenda through the ranks. In 2021, the Navy included on its “recommended reading list” works like How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, a leading proponent of Critical Race Theory. General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, infamously stated that he wants to “understand white rage.” Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also signed a “stand down” order directing military leaders at all levels to “address extremism.”
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to Republicans cutting wokeness out of the military, however, will be the military itself. Every year, the Pentagon is required to perform an annual audit of its $3.5 trillion in assets. It has failed at this task each year since 2017, and in 2022 could only account for 39% of its assets. The alarming truth is that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars each year simply disappear into the cavernous military bureaucracy.
The challenge of getting woke politics out of the military is a daunting one. But unless House Republicans are up to the task, the country may soon have a very real readiness crisis on its hands, no matter how much money Congress spends.
Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.