Because of Republican brinkmanship over the debt ceiling, the federal government very nearly ran out of money — an outcome that would have been an economic catastrophe both here at home and around the world.

One thing the GOP got for ransoming the full faith and credit of the United States is a two-year freeze on almost all government spending at current levels. (Spending won’t even be adjusted to keep pace with inflation).

Did you catch that “almost all”?

The Pentagon, bless its little five-sided heart, will get an extra $28 billion next year.

That’s on top of the $858 billion it was already going to get, for a total of $886 billion in military spending next year.

By the way, that $28 billion increase alone is double the entire budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Never mind that climate disruption threatens not only national security but human civilization as we know it.

Of course, some ~~puppets of the military-industrial complex~~ members of Congress wanted far more than another $28 billion for the Pentagon.

So this was the deal:

The Pentagon would get an increase. But it would be “only” $28 billion. And it would be a ONE-TIME thing. Pretty much everything else — nutrition services, child care, environmental enforcement, railway safety, Native American health services, and countless other essential human needs — would be frozen (not even adjusted for inflation).

I know, some deal. But it is what it is.

However, with the ink not yet dried on that agreement, some jingoistic members of Congress — Republicans AND Democrats — are already trying to renege on the deal and force through a scheme to funnel still more taxpayer money to the Pentagon.

“Russia,” they say.

“China,” they say.

Except:

We already spend more on our military than the next nine countries combined spend on theirs — including Russia and China.

In fact, we spend roughly 10 times what Russia does.

The Pentagon itself, in a study it tried to suppress, identified more than $100 billion in waste.

In its most recent audit, which it failed — it has never NOT failed an audit — the Pentagon could account for only 39% of its $3.5 trillion in assets.

These reactionary members of Congress — many of whom have recently done a lot of whining about “out of control government spending” — are trying to renege on the debt ceiling deal they just made to give still more money to an overfunded, wasteful, can’t-pass-an-audit Pentagon rather than to address the pressing needs of everyday Americans.

This is a gambit by the military-industrial complex that we can and must defeat.

Click now to tell Congress: Do not let the most jingoistic senators and representatives renege on the debt ceiling deal just to funnel even more taxpayer money to their puppet masters in the military-industrial complex.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

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