Time is running out for lawmakers on Capitol Hill to address a number of pressing issues before the session ends and they leave Washington until after the Nov. 5 election. The government will run out of funding come Sept. 30 without a continuing resolution; House Republicans are putting a full-court press on the Harris-Walz ticket through a number of committee probes; legislators are attempting to get to the bottom of not just one but two attempts on former President Donald Trump’s life.
That sense of urgency is apparently lost on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, sources tell The Daily Signal. Rather than addressing House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to attach the SAVE Act to a six-month continuing resolution or the second assassination attempt on Trump in just over two months, McConnell devoted the Senate GOP’s Tuesday luncheon to discussing the merits of raising taxes to increase Pentagon funding.
McConnell brought in experts from the Commission on the National Defense Strategy to discuss the commission’s recent report. In the executive summary of the report, the commission claims that “increased security spending should be accompanied by additional taxes and reforms to entitlement spending.” Furthermore, the United States should be prepared to “lead NATO planning… to deter and, if necessary, defeat Russian aggression.”
One GOP senator asked his colleagues why the Senate GOP conference was mulling proposals to increase taxes when the current Republican nominee has made reducing taxes a core part of his campaign. The same senator also noted that these taxes would fork over more taxpayer dollars to the Pentagon when the public’s confidence in its leadership is at an all-time low, one source familiar with the luncheon’s proceedings told The Daily Signal.
The presenters, according to the source, responded that spending cuts elsewhere could make up the difference, but did not specify where those cuts might come from.
The source also suggested McConnell apparently lifted talking points straight from the report. McConnell told the Senate GOP conference that defense spending as a percentage of gross domestic product was much higher during previous wars.
“Defense spending in the Cold War relied on top marginal income tax rates above 70 percent and corporate tax rates averaging 50 percent,” the report’s executive summary claims. “Using the Cold War as a benchmark for spending should be accompanied by acknowledging the other fundamental changes that could supplement America’s efforts to deter threats and prepare for the future.”
Today, the top marginal income tax rate is 37% and the corporate tax rate is 21% because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which McConnell pushed for and Trump signed into law.
