There has been a highly political battle on Capitol Hill -- actually, that's the only kind of battle they have on Capitol Hill -- over U.S. defense policy and spending. The fight has been on two fronts: 1) passage of the yearly National Defense Authorization Act, which sets military spending levels; and 2) a Republican senator's decision to block Senate confirmation of military promotions until the Biden Pentagon changes its policy on abortion.
For the last week, Democrats have been accusing Republicans of "politicizing" what should be the nonpolitical issue of defending the United States against foreign attack. GOP lawmakers have questioned the need for Pentagon policies for transgender soldiers, for example, and for various types of diversity programs. Some have also focused on overturning a Biden policy in which the Pentagon will pay the expenses of servicewomen who, in this post-Roe world, travel to receive an abortion.
"Extreme MAGA Republicans have hijacked a bipartisan bill that is essential to our national security," said New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the House. "The historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act has been hijacked by extreme MAGA Republicans," said Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott. "Rep. Sewell Votes Against National Defense Authorization Act Following Hijacking by Extreme MAGA Republicans," read a press release from Alabama Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell.
Some of the press coverage went along with Democrats' portrayal of themselves as the good guys and Republicans as the bad guys. A National Public Radio report on the debate was headlined simply, "The politicization of the National Defense Authorization Act." And the widely read Politico Playbook went fully in the tank when it reported that "the formerly sacrosanct Pentagon bill became the target of culture-war amendments on abortion, diversity, and gender that could scuttle its passage."
"Sacrosanct"? Really? In the past, year after year, was the National Defense Authorization Act a "sacrosanct" piece of legislation on Capitol Hill until extreme MAGA Republicans came along to hijack it?
The answer is no. Go back to the long-ago year of 2019. Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. And the "sacrosanct" National Defense Authorization Act they approved (with only Democratic votes) was filled with measures that might be called political. Among them was a measure to "block the Defense Department from spending money at Trump properties unless the president reimburses the government," according to a July 12, 2019, report in Roll Call.
There was a measure to make it more difficult for the Trump administration to detain illegal border crossers by banning "Defense Department facilities from housing any foreign national detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." There was a measure to "allow transgender people to join the armed forces." There was a measure to remove the names of Confederate generals from U.S. military bases.
Does any of that sound even a little bit ... political? The fact is, Congress decides what the military can spend, and how it can spend it. And passing spending legislation in Congress is a political exercise. It's intended to be that way. The Democrats who today are claiming that Republicans are politicizing the National Defense Authorization Act were politicizing the NDAA just a few years ago. They'll be doing it again as soon as they win back the majority in the House. That's the way things work.
On the military promotions, since March Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has been blocking the mass confirmation of about 260 military promotions. As the Associated Press explained, "It's a decades-long tradition for the Senate to group military promotions together and approve them by voice vote, avoiding lengthy [roll call votes]." Tuberville has temporarily stopped that, although the Senate could proceed with confirming any individual promotions at any time. Like Republicans in the House, Tuberville is demanding that the Pentagon rescind the Biden policy allowing military women to use official travel to get an abortion.
Democrats are outraged at Tuberville. (Some Republicans want him to relent, too.) Among those most outraged is Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a veteran who was an Army helicopter pilot and lost both legs in 2004 fighting in Iraq.
"It is bizarre for Sen. Tuberville to say that he's not jeopardizing national security when he injects politics into the defense process," Duckworth said on "Meet the Press." In a new column on MSNBC, Duckworth notes that Tuberville did not serve in the military and calls Tuberville's tactics "shameful and disgraceful; misogynistic and sadistic; self-interested yet self-defeating."
But here's the thing. Way, way back in 2020, a senator blocked a huge number of military promotions -- 1,123, to be exact -- in an effort to protect the status of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who played a key role in bringing the whistleblower complaint against then-President Donald Trump that led to Trump's first impeachment in 2019. And who was that senator? Tammy Duckworth.
"Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth has put a blanket hold on 1,100 military promotions until Defense Secretary Mark Esper assures her in writing that impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alex Vindman will not be punished for his testimony," Roll Call reported. Duckworth's own office called her move "unprecedented in modern times."
Duckworth's blockade, which covered many more officers than Tuberville's, ended after two weeks. And how did it end? It ended when the Trump Pentagon gave her what she wanted. "I'm glad the Department of Defense was finally able to set the record straight," a satisfied Duckworth said upon lifting the hold.
The point here is that within the last few years, Democrats on Capitol Hill have inserted plainly political measures into the National Defense Authorization Act and have blocked military promotions en masse for political reasons. Remember that when you hear some of those very same Democrats complaining that today's Republicans are "politicizing" the defense process.
This content originally appeared on the Washington Examiner at washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/politicize-defense-never.
(Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner. For a deeper dive into many of the topics Byron covers, listen to his podcast, The Byron York Show, available on the Ricochet Audio Network at ricochet.com/series/byron-york-show and everywhere else podcasts are found.)
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