Graham pledges to address Biden’s defense budget crisis in debt ceiling agreement.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is not happy with the debt ceiling agreement.”>debt ceiling deal agreed upon by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). In a tweet on Monday, Graham vowed to use all powers available to him in the Senate to have amendment votes to undo what he called a “catastrophe” for defense spending. He supports raising the debt limit for 90 days to give them a chance to correct this disaster for defense.

“Have total disgust for political leaders’ decision to make it remotely possible to gut our national security apparatus at a time of great peril,” Graham added. “Take this absurd idea off the table.”

The Issue with the Debt Ceiling Agreement

The debt ceiling agreement would cap defense spending at $886 billion in fiscal 2024, which is only a 3.5 percent increase. This is below the current rate of inflation, which was 5 percent in March and 4.9 percent in April. At the heart of the issue is the defense budget allocated for the U.S. Navy, which has to confront a China currently boasting the largest navy in the world. Republican lawmakers have argued that Navy’s share of the FY2024 defense budget, estimated at $255.8 billion, is inadequate.

China’s Growing Threat

By 2028, China would have “upward of 440” ships while the U.S. Navy would have 291 ships, said U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro during a congressional hearing in March. However, the Navy chief added that the U.S. naval ships would be “extremely more modern than they ever have been.” As of April, the U.S. Navy had a fleet of 298 ships, according to the Congressional Research Service.

“How far the Party of [former President] Ronald Reagan has fallen. The Biden defense budget has been ridiculed by Republicans for over a year,” Graham wrote in a separate post on Monday. “Republicans and Democrats both have been screaming about the rise and growing threat of China.”

Bigger Fleets Win

Sam Tangredi, a professor at the U.S. Naval College and a former U.S. Navy captain, warned that bigger fleets always win in naval warfare, in an article published in the January issue of the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine. Tangredi reviewed 28 naval wars from about 500 BC to recent Cold War proxy conflicts and interventions, and found that 25 were “won by the side with the larger fleet.”

“All other wars were won by superior numbers or, when between equal forces, superior strategy, or admiralship,” Tangredi wrote. “Often all three qualities act together, because operating a large fleet generally facilitates more extensive training and is often an indicator that leaders are concerned with strategic requirements.”

Tangredi ended his article with a warning about the United States fighting China’s military (PLA) and its Navy (PLAN).

“A naval war against China in the western Pacific in this decade would pit a smaller U.S. naval force against a larger PLAN, on China’s home turf, within range of the PLA’s air and rocket forces,” he wrote. “U.S. leaders must ask themselves to what extent they are willing to bet on technology.”

Senator Graham called out McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) while pointing to the Ukraine war. “Nothing in this bill provides weapons or technology to help Ukraine defeat [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and make the world more stable,” Graham wrote on Twitter. “To Biden, McConnell, and McCarthy, what are we going to do about our own national defense as well as our support of Ukraine? We need to know.”