Washington is shrieking at the prospect of a defense budget cut. But would it really be so bad? | Ben Armbruster

Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to course-correct the copious funding allocated to the Pentagon, the White House came out swinging

Many say that Washington is more divided than ever, but political quarrels in the nation's capital and beyond are easily cast aside to unify against even the mere suggestion that perhaps the defense department's budget might be a bit too high.

That's what happened when reports emerged late last week that Representative Kevin McCarthy had secured a deal with rogue Republicans to become the next House speaker. In exchange for their votes, the Freedom Caucus - a group of more rightwing House GOP lawmakers - received assurances that the federal budget will freeze at FY2022 levels, which could effectively mean a cut to the Pentagon budget by anywhere from $75bn to $100bn.

Ben Armbruster is the managing editor of ResponsibleStatecraft.org, the news and analysis publishing platform of the Quincy Institute