My personal take:

More pay for personnel, better barracks conditions, upgrades to the decades old hardware? Great. Future opportunities for civilian logistical training that would help in the event of a war-like situation or disaster? Great.

Billions on shiny new toys be it the F35 or the Gripen? That’s where I think there are way more cost effective ways to wage a war that would be asymmetrical, should one of the major powers (China, Russia or the US) try to engage in one with us. Some are necessary but the whole plan can’t be rested on ribbon cutting for novelties at the expense of the basics.

Do we have the capability to convert our factories, refineries and shipyards to produce drones, autonomous vehicles, mines and short range missiles? Can we learn the lessons from Ukrainian commanders that clearly the current US top brass don’t care to listen to? Can we build railway infrastructure that would be useful to mobilize tens of thousands of troops, so that one chokepoint bridge destroyed won’t sever our national logistical network?

Focusing more on that will free up more room on the other end to make our lives better. The US Israel Iran war shows that spending endless coffers of money on the MIC doesn’t guarantee victory.

Yep, the 5% target is madness. People are being frightened into accepting it.