The Pentagon Might Win the Lottery

Given the challenges the Pentagon faces with Iran, Russia, China, and the southern border, one might assume that granting it $1.5 trillion—that’s trillion, with a t—in annual funding could only strengthen America’s overstretched military. “President Trump’s historic defense budget guarantees that we keep our competitive edge across every sector,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says in a video posted on his Facebook page. But, much like the lottery winners who haul in mega millions and then see their lives deteriorate, that influx of funding could actually be the worst thing to happen to the Defense Department.Such overwhelming abundance would allow the president and the Pentagon to postpone the hard strategic choices modern warfare requires. An administration flush with cash can afford the illusion that it can prepare simultaneously for every possible threat—large-scale war with China, attacks by terrorist groups, Russian land grabs in Europe, missile strikes from North Korea, maritime competition in the Arctic, asymmetric warfare with lesser powers—without deciding which missions to prioritize. The windfall would pay for the military to attempt to be everywhere without answering whether the military should be. The current budget, which has cleared both the House and the Senate Armed Services Committees, calls for more than $1.15 trillion for personnel, weapons, and readiness, up from a $848-billion funding request last year. Separate legislation includes roughly $350 billion in additional funding and a still-unknown amount for the Iran war and to repair damaged U.S. facilities in the Middle East.The sheer scale of the budget sets up the Pentagon to invest in multiyear contracts that it may struggle to fund in the future should there be less political appetite to spend like there are no limits. And if the budget passes and that elevated base number becomes a permanent fixture, the Pentagon will have to spend more every year than the GDP of 170-plus nations.The White