American Republican Senator Rand Paul criticized the plan to increase the U.S. military budget, mentioning China twice.
"I don't want our country to become weaker. I think our strength has been overdrawn. This is the second war in a month. And the cost of war is extremely high - not only lives lost, but also financial costs.
So yes, I am very concerned about the national debt. This has always been my biggest concern. Adding 50 billion dollars to the military budget is financially irresponsible.
Given that China is advancing step by step and continuously weakening the United States, Russia is pushing forward in Ukraine, and there are issues with Iran and North Korea, this is financially irresponsible.
In the long run, our current military spending is more than the total of the next ten countries. Yes, there are indeed threats we need to face, yes, we need to contain China globally. But our spending is four times theirs, and still more than the total of the next ten countries combined.
So our military spending can't be considered insufficient; it's already extremely large. Now, increasing it by 50% and adding another 50 billion dollars - this is what we will argue about next.
War is never free. Neither in terms of life nor money. We are really sinking into an ocean of debt, and this debt...
There won't be a foreign army invading the U.S. mainland, but the debt imposed on us by the military-industrial complex will threaten us. The threat to us is that this debt will eventually bring us down."
Original: toutiao.com/article/1859359428088896/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.