{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=EF4BBC2F-0B29-4615-B76C-000CB7CE56D2", "McConnell On U.S. Hard and Soft Power at Senate Appropriations Hearing w/ OMB Director Vought", "2025-06-25", "2025", "2025-06", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and a senior member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, participated in today\u2019s full committee hearing where he questioned Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought about spending on defense and foreign assistance:\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll start by associating myself with the comments Chair Collins made about the importance of American soft power:\n\n\u201cInterestingly enough, over my years in the Senate, the biggest supporters of soft power I have run into have been the military \u2013 generals \u2013 who are fully aware of how much more costly it is to have a war than to prevent one. And it's at a very low cost to our country, built some pretty good relationships, particularly in countries in the Middle East that certainly wouldn't be described as democratic.\n\n\u201cReforming the way we invest in peace and stability is certainly worthwhile. And there\u2019s plenty of absolute nonsense masquerading as American aid that shouldn\u2019t receive another bit of taxpayer funding.\n\n\u201cBut the Administration\u2019s attempt to root it out has been unnecessarily chaotic. In critical corners of the globe, instead of creating efficiencies, you\u2019ve created vacuums for adversaries like China to fill.\n\n\u201cResponsible investments in soft power prevent conflict, preserve American influence, and save countless lives at the same time for pennies on the dollar.\n\n\u201cSo if we\u2019re concerned about spending and we should be, it\u2019s important to remember what wars cost. At the height of world war II, 37% of our GDP was spent on defense. In Korea, 13%. In Vietnam 9%. The Reagan buildup, only 6%. Obviously peace through strength means more than just saying it. It means actually demonstrating it.\n\n\u201cSo, that\u2019s just a fact: that soft power at very little expense goes a long way.\n\n\u201cAnd tellingly, some of the folks who talk most open about the importance of soft power, as I just indicated, are the military as they know exactly what I\u2019ve already said about the cost of already having one.\n\n\u201cI welcomed the President\u2019s intention to restore American hard power. His repeated commitments to strengthen the military signaled that he understood this, like President Reagan, that peace through strength really has to be more than a slogan.\n\n\u201cLikewise, his authorization of this weekend\u2019s strikes, over the objections of isolationists who downplay the threat of a nuclear Iran, was another indication in the right direction.\n\n\u201cBut the Administration\u2019s approach to funding the Department of Defense calls into question the ability to keep those campaign promises:\n\n\u201cA continuing resolution that forces the Department to meet today\u2019s requirements with yesterday\u2019s dollars\u2026\n\n\u201cA base budget request that fails to keep pace with inflation, let alone with the \u201cpacing threat\u201d of China\u2026\n\n\u201cAnd a reconciliation lump-sum crowded with priorities that require stable, annual appropriations.\n\n\u201cOur colleague, Chairman Wicker, and his House counterpart had hoped that reconciliation would be a one-time injection on top of a growing base budget, not a shell-game to avoid making the sort of annual investments we begged your Democratic predecessors to make.\n\n\u201cI share this concern: we need sustained annual growth to meet the growing threats facing our country.\n\n\u201cAt your confirmation hearing earlier this year, you said \u201cwe have to use taxpayer dollars wisely.\u201d\n\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t agree more. I want to get the most out of every dollar the Department of Defense requires to keep America safe and advance our global interests.\n\n\u201cBut providing for the common defense is our most fundamental obligation.\n\n\u201cDividing funding for major existing bipartisan priorities between base budget and reconciliation isn\u2019t just counterintuitive \u2013 it\u2019s actually counterproductive.\n\n\u201cAnd asking Congress to fund a budget that defines our strategy, rather than using strategy to define the budget, is dangerous.\n\n\u201cSo help me understand a few things:\n\n\u201cWhy haven\u2019t we received the Administration\u2019s analysis of the future year impacts of major reconciliation in investments like Golden Dome?\n\n\u201cHow do you propose to pay for them without significant increases to future base budgets?\n\n\u201cWhy has the Administration taken programs with broad and longstanding bipartisan support, like the Virginia-class submarines, and put them in a partisan reconciliation bill?\n\n\u201cFinally, do you even believe we need sustained growth above inflation in our defense budget?\n\n\u201cOr should we expect annual cuts from this Administration like we got from the Biden Administration?\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:34:38Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=EF4BBC2F-0B29-4615-B76C-000CB7CE56D2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9373088832944632, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}