ISSUE BRIEF
No. 5320 | JUNE 30, 2023
CENTER FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE
This paper, in its entirety, can be found at https://report.heritage.org/ib5320
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Tailoring the Defense Budget
to Defense Priorities
Wilson Beaver
The President’s requested FY 2024
Defense Budget does not match strategic
intent, even as China’s defense spending
and overseas threats continue to rise.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The budget request fails even to account
for the record inflation levels, and would
thus represent a cut in defense purchas-
ing power from FY 2023.
The defense budget merits careful
scrutiny and consideration to ensure
that the national defense is appropri-
ately funded and that taxpayer dollars
are not misspent.
D
espite Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s
repeated insistence that the President’s
fiscal year (FY) 2024 Defense Budget is a
“strategy-driven document built on the bones of the
National Defense Strategy” and reflects the focus on
China as the pacing challenge, the President’s budget
request fails to match strategic intent in some critical
ways, even as China’s defense spending continues to
rise and threats to America’s key national interests
overseas are increasing.
1
Critically, the budget request fails even to account
for President Joe Biden’s record inflation levels and
would thus represent a cut in defense purchasing
power from FY 2023. The defense budget contains
cost eciencies, many of which were laid out in The
Heritage Foundation’s Budget Blueprint for Fiscal Year
2023.
2
The defense budget merits careful scrutiny and
