U.S. munitions running low after extensive military airstrikes on Iran

The American Enterprise Institute warns that the U.S. weapons stocks are being depleted as American forces engage in military action against Iran.

AEI’s John G. Ferrari and Dillon Prochnicki write that “with every salvo, one uncomfortable reality becomes clearer: The United States does not look like it can sustain protracted, high-intensity conflict with a near-peer adversary.”

According to the analysis, the U.S. entered the conflict with weapons inventories already drained from many years of “high operational tempo and insufficient industrial replenishment,” while China and Russia are watching U.S. production rates, consumption rates, congressional politics and the flexibility of the U.S. defense industrial base to see if America can sustain a prolonged conflict.

This is on top of continuing deterrence in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.

“At present, we cannot. War has a way of exposing illusions. One illusion now shattered is the notion that America can rely on small inventories of exquisite, ultra-expensive weapons to carry the day,” the AEI scholars write.

“The question is no longer whether the United States can hit its targets. It is whether it can keep hitting them.”

They suggest the Pentagon rebalance its portfolio and that the U.S. “needs more weapons that are cheaper per unit, easier to produce at scale, designed with surge manufacturing in mind, and built with supply-chain resilience.”

This would mean, they say, expanding production of lower-cost precision munitions, loitering drones and modular missile systems that can be manufactured in higher volumes.

“It means diversifying suppliers rather than relying on the same small set of primes. It means embracing open architectures and designs that allow multiple producers to compete and increase their output,” they said before stressing that the administration should be thinking about planning for long wars.

On the funding side, they said the proposed $450 billion reconciliation package making its way through Congress is a “strategic necessity, not just another political talking point” to build up depleted munitions stocks.

Federal Reserve Board urged to stop debanking

Americans for Tax Reform wants the Federal Reserve Board to move forward with plans to codify a ban on using reputational risk as a criterion for banks to cancel or refuse services to customers.

The anti-tax group expressed its support for the move in a comment letter for proposed rulemaking by the board.

Reputation risk has been roundly criticized as the chief reason for debanking — when financial institutions suddenly shut down account access or cease a commercial relationship with their customers, usually without providing justification.

Reputation risk has been documented as a key tool for regulators to target industries and individuals ranging from crypto, oil and gas, to firearms businesses, and even charities and political organizations.

Americans for Tax Reform noted that the weaponization of reputation risk goes back to the 1990s, but it was not until the Obama administration that debanking grew.

“Under Operation Choke Point, regulators used thinly veiled threats and informal guidance to pressure banks to cease commercial relations with industries that were politically disfavored. A similar abuse of agency power occurred under the Biden administration through its crackdown on the crypto industry,” the organization said in a statement.

 “The common denominator underlying these abusive exercises of government power is the reference to reputation risk that regulators frequently cited as justification for compelling banks to penalize otherwise compliant, law-abiding customers.”  

No more fun on digital highway signs

Highway drivers should not expect to see any more humorous or pop-culture references on roadway signs.

New Jersey, Utah and Arizona put the kibosh on the practice, according to the Sutherland Institute.

New guidance for digital message signs first appeared in the 2023 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways. States have started to fall in line, but the guidance has also raised First Amendment concerns.

The manual stated that the signs “should not be used to display a traffic safety campaign message if doing so could adversely affect respect for the sign. Messages with obscure or secondary meanings, such as those with popular culture references, unconventional sign legend syntax, or that are intended to be humorous, should not be used as they might be misunderstood or understood only by a limited segment of road users and require greater time to process and understand.”

The Sutherland Institute wrote, “After Arizona officials expressed concern with the new language, a spokesperson for the agency pointed out that the manual language was just ‘guidance,’ not an explicit ban.”

The stories from the states wanting to loosen up the language on their CMS, or changeable message signs, “illustrate a serious issue with constitutional and practical significance: the practice of federal agencies providing guidance to states and others whom the agencies regulate,” the think tank said.

Trump prodded to reinstate the Protect Life Rule

Americans United for Life has teamed up with Sen. Todd Young of Indiana and other GOP senators to urge President Trump to reinstate the Protect Life Rule.

The rule blocked Title X reproductive health funds from going to clinics that performed, referred or promoted abortions and was finalized in 2019 during the first Trump administration.

President Joseph R. Biden immediately rescinded this rule early in his administration. Mr. Trump, after more than a year back in the Oval Office, has not yet reinstated the policy.

John Mize, CEO of Americans United for Life, said, “Americans United for Life supported the Protect Life Rule under the first Trump Administration and continues to support it now as a necessary protection for Title X dollars. Reinstating a policy his Administration has already historically championed is within reach and would be a major win for life. We urge President Trump to immediately restore this protective rule.”