--- title: The Limits of Military Spending description: Trump's stated solution to the U.S. military's woes is more money. Aides say he wants to boost the annual Pentagon budget by about 10% and... canonical: https://time.com/4574495/military-spending-limits/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-17T12:25:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:52:31.501Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Limits of Military Spending og:description: Trump's stated solution to the U.S. military's woes is more money. Aides say he wants to boost the annual Pentagon budget by about 10% and... og:url: https://time.com/4574495/military-spending-limits/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Limits of Military Spending twitter:description: Trump's stated solution to the U.S. military's woes is more money. Aides say he wants to boost the annual Pentagon budget by about 10% and... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Limits of Military Spending by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Nov 17, 2016 12:25 PM UTC by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Nov 17, 2016 12:25 PM UTC Trump’s stated solution to the U.S. military’s woes is more money. Aides say he wants to boost the annual Pentagon budget by about 10% and reinvigorate the Department of Veterans Affairs. That would pay for more troops, new bombers and submarines to deliver nuclear weapons, as well as a “state-of-the-art missile defense system.” But cash alone probably won’t cut it. President Obama spent more on defense than his predecessor and hiked the Department of Veterans Affairs budget by 77%. Trump also wants to hire more mental-health professionals and trim wait times for veterans, who could be offered free health care at private medical facilities. Fulfilling those proposals would require Congress to lift budget limits that aren’t set to expire until 2021\. Capitol Hill’s deficit hawks are committed to keeping those caps in place. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4574495/military-spending-limits/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4574495/military-spending-limits/"},"headline":"The Limits of Military Spending","datePublished":"2016-11-17T12:25:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:52:31.501Z","description":"Trump's stated solution to the U.S. military's woes is more money. Aides say he wants to boost the annual Pentagon budget by about 10% and...","url":"https://time.com/4574495/military-spending-limits/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4574495/military-spending-limits/","name":"The Limits of Military Spending"}}]}] ```