Republican Senator Joni Ernst says President Biden has proposed a federal budget that would spend too little on the military and too much on the Internal Revenue Service.
“Who does the president think he will be able to call on should we need to fight off foreign threats? His new army of IRS agents?” Ernst asked during a speech this afternoon on the Senate floor. “…Americans may fear an IRS audit, but ‘Red China’ won’t.”
Biden has proposed increasing the number of IRS agents by 15% in each of the next 10 years in order to beef up efforts to catch Americans who aren’t paying what they owe in taxes. Ernst, the first female combat veteran elected to the US Senate, said Biden’s proposed budget is “far less generous” to the military.
“The small number of new ships added to the Navy will not keep pace with the growth of communist China’s ship building,” Ernst said. “This is especially concerning since the CCP now boasts the world’s largest Navy and is attempting to expand its Naval presence in the Atlantic.”
Reports indicate China is trying to establish a port on the west coast of Africa that would be home base for Chinese submarines and air craft carriers. President Biden has proposed a $715 billion budget for the US military and a 2.7% pay raise for soldiers. The plan calls for retiring older, high-maintenance military equipment and spending more on “next generation” systems, including “hypersonic” weapons with irregular routes that fly at five times the speed of sound.