They actually flattened their long-term defense budgets about a year ago. They cannot out-spend us, that in part is how they lost the empire that Putin is now trying to reclaim.

Even focusing on certain emphasis areas, likely asymmetric, they still can't outspend us even in their focus areas (unless we let them). They spend about $70B (peak)... we spend more than ten times that.

Their superpower is aggression and intimidation. Only works until somebody calls the bluff.