{"id":33762,"date":"2015-03-23T17:01:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T17:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2015\/03\/23\/cotton-big-hike-for-declining-military\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:50:27","slug":"cotton-big-hike-for-declining-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2015\/03\/23\/cotton-big-hike-for-declining-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Cotton: Big Hike for &#8216;Declining&#8217; Military"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Freshman GOP Sen. Tom Cotton says the United States must show it will start a war to prevent one, and suggests the country might need to spend nearly $900 billion annually on its military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Arkansas lawmaker, who in January moved from the House to the Senate, told an audience on Capitol Hill that the US is in a similar position as in the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, for Cotton, the Islamic State group, Iran and Russia are public enemies one, two and three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Iran is only growing   <g class=\"gr_ gr_42 gr-alert gr_gramm Grammar multiReplace\" data-gr-id=\"42\" id=\"42\">    more bold   <\/g> and more aggressive,&#8221; Cotton said, adding that Washington under President Barack Obama has &#8220;withdrawn from the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cotton, an Army veteran, claims Iran now &#8220;dominates or controls five capitals&#8221; in the Middle East &#8220;in its drive for regional hegemony.&#8221; What&#8217;s more, he says Tehran has improved its ballistic missile fleet &#8220;without the [nuclear] bomb.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Imagine Iran with the bomb,&#8221; Cotton said.&#8221;You don&#8217;t have to imagine much, just look at North Korea.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"587\" height=\"266\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wp-govmedia-gearscout-25339-new-t-shirtsjpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-72912\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wp-govmedia-gearscout-25339-new-t-shirtsjpg.jpg 587w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/wp-govmedia-gearscout-25339-new-t-shirtsjpg.jpg?resize=300,136 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 587px) 100vw, 587px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cotton was the author of a controversial letter to Iranian officials threatening a GOP rejection of the reported parameters of a deal Iran is pursuing with the US and four other global powers over its nuclear program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meantime, Cotton says America&#8217;s military is in decline. The percentage of US gross domestic product that is spent on the military is &#8220;paltry,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He noted Washington spent around 5 percent of its GDP on defense during the Reagan administration. That would translate to about $885 billion today, and Cotton believes the country can afford it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such spending is needed, he   <g class=\"gr_ gr_45 gr-alert gr_gramm Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep\" data-gr-id=\"45\" id=\"45\">    said,   <\/g> because the US military   <g class=\"gr_ gr_46 gr-alert gr_tiny gr_gramm Punctuation replaceWithoutSep\" data-gr-id=\"46\" id=\"46\">    \u2014   <\/g> and a willingness by   <g class=\"gr_ gr_41 gr-alert gr_spell ContextualSpelling\" data-gr-id=\"41\" id=\"41\">    presidents   <\/g> to use it for &#8220;war&#8221; \u2014 is the lone guarantor of global stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cotton said <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">did say that<\/span> no single amount can be pinpointed for what level of military spending is really needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We must again show the US is willing and prepared to [get into] a war in the first place,&#8221; he said. And US leaders must make clear that potential &#8220;aggressors will p<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">l<\/span>ay an unspeakable price if they challenge the United States.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; background-color: #ffffff;\">Email: <\/span><span style=\"color: #1990e5;\"><a href=\"mailto:jbennett@defensenews.com\" style=\"color: #1990e5;\">jbennett@defensenews.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333; background-color: #ffffff;\">Twitter:<\/span><span style=\"color: #5b9bd5;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BennettJohnT\" style=\"color: #1990e5;\">@bennettjohnt<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freshman GOP Sen. Tom Cotton says the United States must show it will start a war to prevent one, and suggests the country might need to spend nearly $900 billion annually on its military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":72910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,33,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1090],"class_list":["post-33762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-home","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"UVXC6ST6TJA4FGXFIUJEYERCHQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2015\/03\/23\/cotton-big-hike-for-declining-military\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cotton: Big Hike for &#039;Declining&#039; Military - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Freshman GOP Sen. Tom Cotton says the United States must show it will start a war to prevent one, and suggests the country might need to spend nearly $900 billion annually on its military.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cotton: Big Hike for &#039;Declining&#039; Military\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Freshman GOP Sen. Tom Cotton says the United States must show it will start a war to prevent one, and suggests the country might need to spend nearly $900 billion annually on its military.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2015\/03\/23\/cotton-big-hike-for-declining-military\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-23T17:01:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T22:50:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John T. Bennett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John T. 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