The Trump administration revealed its first budget Thursday, which included more money for defense and veterans while cutting nearly everywhere else in the federal budget.
A$54 billion boost in the defense budget would show up pretty quickly in San Diego. The money targets readiness — things like deferred maintenance and extended deployments.
“When we talk about this hollowed out military, that’s clearly what the president will be focusing in on with this particular budget,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. “It’s not the big new projects. It’s just to fill in the gaps, the readiness, the spare parts.”
Reaser compiles the annual San Diego Military Economic Impact Study. The administration has also pledged to increase the size of the Navy to more than 350 ships, which would give a boost to local shipyards. Building new ships is the type of long-term program that probably would show up in a congressional defense budget. Congress has been unable reach a consensus on a budget for several years, relying instead on short-term continuing resolutions.
The $54 billion increase has been described as a 10 percent increase in the defense budget, but, Reaser said, it is roughly 3 percent above what the Pentagon’s budget would have been without sequestration. The 2013 deal between the Obama administration and congressional leaders initiated the series of cutbacks in the federal budget, including defense.
Since then, nearly half the Navy’s F/A-18s have been grounded for lack of parts.
In the Army, readiness has led to a decrease in the number of brigades considered ready to deploy.
In the Navy, maintenance issues have contributed to crews spending longer time at sea. The Navy has pledged to cut back on long deployments, trying to keep sailors at sea for less than 7 months. Speaking before the House Armed Services Committee in February, Adm. William Moran, vice chief of Naval Operations, pointed out that the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt spent 8 1/2 months in the Middle East in 2015, before finally arriving in San Diego.
