A hearing that was supposed to be about the fiscal 2027 military budget turned into a partisan shouting match about the Iran war as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared before Congress for the first time since the conflict started.
Mr. Hegseth came loaded for bear, saying in his opening statement that, although the war was going well, Capitol Hill politicians were the military’s greatest hurdle.
“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he told the House Armed Services Committee.
Democrats reciprocated.
They pressed Mr. Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about war costs, munitions shortages, the mistaken bombing of a school, the leadership of President Trump and the conflict’s effects on gas prices.
“Secretary Hegseth, you have been lying to the American public about this war from Day 1, and so has the president,” said Rep. John Garamendi, California Democrat.
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Mr. Garamendi called the war “another Middle East quagmire,” “a geopolitical calamity” and a “self-inflicted wound to America.”
Mr. Hegseth, a former Fox News host, wasn’t having it.
The Pentagon chief said Mr. Garamendi’s comments “stain the troops” and were “handing propaganda to our enemies.”
“You should know better. Shame on you [for] calling this a quagmire two months in,” Mr. Hegseth shot back. “Your hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission and the historic stakes the president is addressing.”
Another tense exchange during the six-hour hearing came over the first estimate yet of the cost of Operation Epic Fury, which is approaching the 60-day mark.
Pentagon comptroller Jules W. Hurst III told Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee, that the price tag is estimated at $25 billion at last count.
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“Most of that is on munitions, part on [operations and maintenance] and equipment replacement,” Mr. Hurst said, sitting at a table with Mr. Hegseth and Gen. Caine.
Mr. Smith was taken aback by the comment, the most succinct public estimate of the war’s financial impact so far.
“We’ve been asking for [the cost estimate] for a hell of a long time, and no one has given us the number,” he said.
Mr. Hegseth continually parried questions about the war’s costs by pointing to the alternative.
“What is the cost of Iran having a nuclear weapon that they wield?” he said.
Democrats also grilled Mr. Hegseth over the surprise decision to fire Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff.
He declined to discuss the details of the ouster, but said the service “needed new leadership.”
“I will note it’s very difficult to change the culture of a department that’s been destroyed by the wrong perspectives,” he said in response to questioning from Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Pennsylvania Democrat.
“So Gen. George destroyed a culture?” she asked. “You have no way of explaining why you fired one of the most decorated and remarkable men who’ve ever served this nation.”
“We needed new leadership. That’s my answer,” Mr. Hegseth said.
Several times during the hearing, a Democrat would ask a question that would stretch for minutes into a speech, prompting Mr. Hegseth to interrupt or say he rejected the question’s factual premises. That then prompted Democrats to yell at him, and the two parties would talk over one another.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, Texas Republican, called comments from his Democratic colleagues “crazy and disrespectful,” but said Wednesday’s hearing was a “great day.”
“Today is a win because we are discussing American power and dominance, national security and making America great again,” he said.
Mr. Jackson said that despite differences, “at least we are not wasting all our time talking about how to restructure the Department of War into a social experiment that appeases the far-left, woke agenda that existed for the last four years.”
Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the committee’s Republican chairman, said the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request — the hearing’s nominal subject — marks the first time in 40 years that Congress has been presented with a budget that accounts for the true cost of American deterrence.
“It provides a 24% increase in operations and maintenance, including a 20% increase for core readiness programs, like flight hours and combat exercises,” Mr. Rogers said. “It includes a 115% increase in funding to repair and improve facilities for our service members and their families.”
Mr. Hegseth said the budget request reflects the “urgency of the moment” and addresses both the deferment of long-standing problems and the positioning of U.S. forces for the current and future fight.
The Trump administration inherited a defense industrial base that had been hollowed out by years of “America last” policies, resulting in a diminished ability to project strength, he said.
“Under the [Biden] administration, we were focused on offshoring and outsourcing, riddled with cost overruns and degraded capabilities,” he said. “We are reversing this systemic decay and putting our defense industrial base back on a wartime footing. Urgency informs everything we do.”
Mr. Hegseth said the $1.5 trillion budget will build upon the $1 trillion top line from fiscal 2026 and continue to reverse four years of underinvestment and mismanagement under the Biden administration.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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