Our country is facing so many severe challenges:

• The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic fallout, which have been made far worse by deliberate, politically-motivated inaction and disunity.

• Climate disruption, which is causing more frequent and more devastating heat waves, fires, floods, and hurricanes all across America (and the world) and which threatens the very survival of our civilization.

• The systemic racism that infects every element of our society.

• Ludicrous wealth inequality, which sees billionaires and Big Business making more and more money while paying less and less taxes.

• Health care and prescription medicine costs so out of whack that millions of us stay sick, get sicker, and even die preventable deaths for the utterly insane reason that known treatments are financially out of reach.

• The Republican Party’s descent toward outright neo-fascism, which sees it pushing laws in nearly every state in the country to undermine the foundations of democracy itself.

Not one of those challenges can be overcome with more missiles, tanks, fighter jets, nuclear submarines, and atomic bombs.

Yet the Biden administration asked Congress to give the Pentagon $11 billion *more* than it got in Donald Trump’s final year in office.

Then the Armed Services Committees in both the House and Senate — most members of which are in the pocket of the military-industrial complex — added almost $24 billion *beyond* what the Biden administration even asked for.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has at last ended its military occupation of Afghanistan — an overdue move that should *reduce* the Pentagon’s budget, not increase it.

The U.S. House of Representatives is about to vote on the military budget (the annual National Defense Authorization Act).

Public Citizen is firmly behind two amendments:

1. Deny the almost $24 billion the committees added over and above what the Biden administration asked for in the first place.

2. Cut the overall Pentagon budget by 10% (exempting personnel and the Defense Health Agency).

Tell Congress:

Amend the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 to (1) deny the $23.9 billion the House and Senate Armed Services Committees added beyond what the Biden administration asked for and (2) cut the overall Pentagon budget by 10% (exempting personnel and the Defense Health Agency).

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For peace and progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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