Follow us on social

Eli Crane Republican Congressman

GOP Rep. Eli Crane: Do not aspire to 'empire'

In a hearing designed for threat inflation, several Republicans nonetheless questioned endless military spending

Reporting | QiOSK

In a House subcommittee hearing on U.S. national security on Tuesday, a handful of Republican lawmakers voiced support for general restraint and called for cuts to Pentagon spending, citing the debt and deficit. One even quoted John Quincy Adams.

“The United States have no business in making conquests, nor in aspiring to any kind of empire,” said freshman Rep.Congressman Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), directly quoting Adams to a panel of mostly hawkish experts. “The principal object of government is to secure the happiness of society, not to extend the boundaries of an empire.”

Crane added, “Does it concern you guys that we’re $36 trillion in debt, (with an) annual deficit of $2 trillion as we sit here and talk about the United States’ global involvement? Do any of you guys wonder when that tipping point is going to be?”

The subcommittee hearing, titled “Emerging Global Threats: Putting America’s National Security First,” featured a panel of foreign policy experts who primarily focused on why Washington needs to reassure allies of its commitment to security.

“America first does not mean America alone,” said the Heritage Foundation’s Brent Saddler. “And a key lesson of the Ukraine war, many of our Asian allies have noted, is that an ally unable to defend itself or delay adequately, an aggressor is a liability to our collective defense and very likely to suffer defeat.”

Sadler added that “America must heed this lesson as well and tend to its defenses better, to include securing our economy while our allies work with us to bolster our common defense that has been neglected for too long.”

Despite these warnings, the committee members largely focused on spending and how America’s $36 trillion debt could threaten national security.

Freshman Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.) echoed this sentiment: “I've heard people saying we need more money for Taiwan, we need more money for the Middle East. ... Number one, we have got to get our spending under control.”

Lawmakers also brought up the Pentagon at the hearing. “I want to point out that Pentagon spending is on the chopping block,” commented subcommittee chairperson Rep William Timmons (R-S.C.). “It's (discussion around Pentagon spending cuts) not only going to be on the role of foreign aid. It's going to be across the board because we have $36 trillion in debt, and we have a $2 trillion annual deficit.”


Top Photo: U.S. Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ). REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw
Reporting | QiOSK
President Trump with reporters
Top photo credit: President Donald Trump speaks with members of the media at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Sunday, September 7, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Is Israel forcing Trump to be the capitulator in chief?

Middle East

President Donald Trump told reporters outside a Washington restaurant Tuesday evening that he is deeply displeased with Israel’s bombardment of Qatar, a close U.S. partner in the Persian Gulf that, at Washington’s request, has hosted Hamas’s political leadership since 2012.

“I am not thrilled about it. I am not thrilled about the whole situation,” Trump said, denying that Israel had given him advance notice. “I was very unhappy about it, very unhappy about every aspect of it,” he continued. “We’ve got to get the hostages back. But I was very unhappy with the way that went down.”

keep readingShow less
Europe Ukraine
Top image credit: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, President of Ukraine, Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK, and Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, emerge from St. Mary's Palace for a press conference as part of the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Kiev, May 10 2025, Kay Nietfeld/dpa via Reuters Connect

Is Europe deliberately sabotaging Ukraine War negotiations?

Europe

After last week’s meeting of the “coalition of the willing” in Paris, 26 countries have supposedly agreed to contribute — in some fashion — to a military force that would be deployed on Ukrainian soil after hostilities have concluded.

Three weeks prior, at the Anchorage leaders’ summit press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Ukraine’s security should be ensured as part of any negotiated settlement. But Russian officials have continued to reiterate that this cannot take the form of Western combat forces stationed in Ukraine. In the wake of last week’s meeting, Putin has upped the ante by declaring that any such troops would be legitimate targets for the Russian military.

keep readingShow less
After bombing, time to demystify the 'Qatar lobby'
Top photo credit: The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, is standing third from the left in the front row, alongside the Minister of Culture of Qatar, Abdulrahman bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, who is at the center, and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth of Oman, Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham Al Said, who is second from the right in Doha, Qatar, on May 9, 2024. (Photo by Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto)

After bombing, time to demystify the 'Qatar lobby'

Middle East

On Tuesday, Israel bombed Doha, killing at least five Hamas staffers and a member of Qatari security. Israeli officials initially claimed the US green-lit the operation, despite Qatar hosting the largest U.S. military in the region.

The White House has since contradicted that version of events, saying the White House was given notice “just before” the bombing and claiming the strike was an “unfortunate" attack that "could serve as an opportunity for peace.”

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.