How Coronavirus Spending Cuts Could Impact Defense Spending

The Pentagon will protect funding for its key strategic priorities, even if it means deeper cuts to older, so-called "legacy systems," according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to shuffle Washington priorities, with the U.S. government committed to upwards of $3 trillion in unanticipated spending to deal with the pandemic. It is too soon to know what the implications of all of that spending will be on the fiscal 2022 United States budget, but Esper conceded it is a concern.