Humanitarian aid. trump s budget increases by $54 billion bringing the total defense budget to $603 billion. ironically, they don t realize how little money goes to foreign aid. according to a recent survey, americans guessed on average that 26% of the federal budget is used to assist other countries. the truth is only 1% of the federal budget is used on foreign aid. so what is the argument in favor of continuing to spend even the small amount of money to help other countries? there is a strong case to be made that it is in america s national security interest. it makes the united states more safe. fragile populations will cause weak states to crumble with safe havens for organizations. we see this happen in afghanistan in the late 1990s with consequences still being felt today.
there s always going to be a big battle on the budget question. i disagree with that, this is not a huge increase, it was a sufficient increase. not just mccain and others, i think you ll hear this from the house armed services committee, from rank-and-file republicans who say, we can t afford to have a budget that spends just a minor increase, 3% more than president obama did in his last year. you re going to have a much more substantial increase. the other stuff is big. but this increase is not enough. have john mccain and lindsey graham and others saying, this has got to be $640 billion, to come out at $603 billion i think left a lot of national security types saying, this isn t even serious. when you walk off 60% of the federal budget, you don t want to touch entitlements, you are limited. you have to get it from somewhere. to bret: again, we think those numbers are going to change by the time we get into may, because mick mulvaney is going to not do that.
there s always going to be a big battle on the budget question. i disagree with that, this is not a huge increase, it was a sufficient increase. not just mccain and others, i think you ll hear this from the house armed services committee, from rank-and-file republicans who say, we can t afford to have a budget that spends just a minor increase, 3% more than president obama did in his last year. you re going to have a much more substantial increase. the other stuff is big. but this increase is not enough. have john mccain and lindsey graham and others saying, this has got to be $640 billion, to come out at $603 billion i think left a lot of national security types saying, this isn t even serious. when you walk off 60% of the federal budget, you don t want to touch entitlements, you are limited. you have to get it from somewhere. to bret: again, we think those numbers are going to change by the time we get into may, because mick mulvaney is going to not do that.
Did with all the money that we spent on defense over the course of the last eight years, i will tell you this, maria n arriving at the $54 billion, there s a couple of things that got us to that number. it s the number that the president promised in the campaign. it s the number that would be for the military, $603 billion if there was no sequester. that s exactly what this does. we sat down with the defense department, with the pentagon to go over how much money they actually needed to start solving some of these problems. we are not going to undo the damage that s been done in just one year, this is the first step of several years of additional defense spending the president wants to see, but, again, we worked in close lock step with d oe to arrive dod to arrive at this number. it would be easy to take any number out of the air, but inevitable add to the deficit this year. what i don t want to get lost in all of this the president s
Rebuild the military. here s what i would suggest. 603 billion is not going to cut it. john mccain has a plan for 643 billion. i want to end with this thought. as hawkish as i am, and i m not hawkish. i m realistic. we re dealing with crazy people and we d better get it right. you re never going to win the war through military force. if don t have a plan for the day after, it s going to fall apart. if you don t have a way to deliver services to people, the terrorists are offering a glorious death. you know what we got to offer? a hopeful life. and this is the hardest part about being a politician in war. people get tired. the bottom line is we got to stick with it on the military side. but the foreign assistance, the state department, the soft power is the key to winning the war. president trump, do not destroy soft power, because we cannot win through military force alone. senators, you began to do