WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden lauded the sacrifice of generations of U.S. troops who died fighting for their country as he marked Memorial Day with the traditional wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Biden was joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff, as well as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and other Biden cabinet members, for the 155th National Memorial Day Observance.
Monday’s federal holiday honoring America’s fallen service members came a day after Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached final agreement on a deal that would raise America’s debt limit and that now awaits approval by Congress.
“ The Bidens hosted a breakfast Monday at the White House for members of veterans organizations, military service and military family organizations, surviving families of fallen U.S. troops, senior Department of Defense officials, and other administration officials. ”
As it stands, the agreement would keep nondefense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year. The measure would allow for 3% defense growth in fiscal 2024, to $886 billion, and then another 1% in fiscal 2025, to $895 billion.
Biden has taken pride that his Democratic administration has overseen a time of relative peace for the U.S. military after two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It’s been nearly 21 months since Biden ended the United States’ longest war in Afghanistan, making good on a campaign promise to end a 20-year-old “forever war” that cost the lives of more than 2400 U.S. service members.
The war in Afghanistan, however, ended in deadly and chaotic fashion on Biden’s watch in August 2021 with critics blasting the administration’s handling of the evacuation of some 120,000 American citizens, Afghans and others as poorly planned and badly executed.
The Biden administration last month released a review of the last days of the war, largely blaming his Republican predecessor, President Donald Trump, and asserting that Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s decisions.
From the archives (April 2023): National Security Council review of Afghanistan withdrawal puts blame on Trump decisions and truncated transition after 2020 election
Also (August 2021): ‘It was time to end this war’: Biden defends Afghanistan withdrawal and vows U.S. ‘will never rest’ against enemies
The U.S. now finds itself leading a coalition of allies pouring tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid into Ukraine as it tries to repel the Russian invasion, which appears to have no end in sight.
While making clear that he has no desire for U.S. troops to enter the conflict, Biden has maintained that he sees the Russian effort to grab territory as an affront to international norms and has vowed to help Kyiv win, sending artillery, tanks and drones and recently agreeing to allow allies to train Ukrainian military on American F-16 jets.
Before Monday’s ceremony at the Arlington, Va., cemetery, the Bidens hosted a breakfast at the White House for members of veterans organizations, military service and military family organizations, surviving families of fallen U.S. troops, senior Department of Defense officials and other administration officials.
The president’s elder son, Joseph Robinette Biden III, known by the nickname Beau, died of brain cancer eight years ago Tuesday. President Biden has publicly suggested a link between that cancer, glioblastoma, and the military burn pits near which Beau Biden, as an Army National Guard major, may have camped during overseas tours.
Beau Biden, a two-term Delaware attorney general, served in Iraq and in Kosovo.
The president and the first lady were scheduled to return to their home in Wilmington, Del., later Monday to spend the rest of the federal holiday.
MarketWatch contributed.
What to know about Memorial Day:
Is the U.S. stock market closed on Memorial Day?
Memorial Day weekend: Is the post office delivering mail on Monday? Are banks open?
