McCain: Time to 'change course' on defense budget

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) formally launched his effort to increase defense spending Tuesday with a hearing dedicated to the Pentagon's fiscal year 2018 budget and beyond.

"It will not be cheap. In my estimation, our military requires a base defense budget for fiscal year 2018, excluding current war costs, of $640 billion, which is $54 billion above current plans, and sustained growth for years thereafter," he said in his opening statement.

The committee hearing comes one week after McCain released a budget blueprint calling for an additional $430 billion in defense spending above what has been planned for the next five years.

Sources say McCain crafted the plan because he wanted "get ahead" of the debate in the event that Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), President Trump's nominee to run the White House Office of Management and Budget, chooses to bring his deficit hawk ideology with him into his new job should he be confirmed.

Sen. Angus King (R-ME) praised McCain for putting the plan together.

"I think the first person to put pen to paper has the maximum power," King said.

McCain said it was time for America to "change course" on the defense budget, arguing that a military buildup similar to the Reagan era should be equal to other GOP priorities.

"Rebuilding America's military will require spending political capital and making policy tradeoff," he said. "That's why national defense must be a political priority on par with repealing and replacing Obamacare, rebuilding infrastructure, and reforming the tax code -- indeed, more so, because national defense is job one for the federal government."