Another Increase in American Defense Is Enacted

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, signed into law a bipartisan temporary funding bill for several key departments, particularly Defense, to avert a shutdown after the expiration of congressional authorization to spend money. Although a liberal Democrat, Biden has consistently signed increases in defense spending, including pay raises for servicemen and retirees. The bill passed both Republican-led chambers of Congress with support of most Republicans and Democrats, with significant opposition from libertarians who oppose every spending measure and fiscal conservatives because of the overall spending level, thereby risking a fiscally and politically costly government shutdown. A critical bill that passed the Senate for defensive aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan remains held up in the House because of opposition from GOP leader Donald Trump and pro-Russian far-right members after the majority rejected a bipartisan-negotiated tough but fair border security reform. Republicans had insisted on an even more rigid border policy than under current law in exchange for support for Ukraine, but far-right Trumpist rejected the deal not only to prevent a political victory for Biden during an election year, but because of nativism and demagoguery about migrants, despite the economic need for more workers because of the labor shortage that has contributed to inflation, and the benefit of refugees seeking asylum from persecution because of their greater appreciation for freedom. Furthermore, unfair restrictions on legal migration incentivize irregular migration, instead of a more reasonable approach that balances freedom, security and economic benefit, which was proposed by the bipartisan negotiators. As I have noted, Trumpism, a populist mix of protectionism, nativism and isolationism, is anathema to conservatism.