No... but happy April Fools’ Day.
We’re used to hearing ad nauseam that the U.S. can’t afford universal healthcare, clean energy, free college, thriving K-12 education, child care, affordable housing, basic COVID measures, and on and on. But with all the money pouring into war, the military, and an increasingly militarized southern border, you’d have to be a fool to believe it.
The month of March brought two staggering new numbers in military spending: $782 billion, and $813 billion. The first is the war and military budget for fiscal year 2022 (now halfway over) that Congress just passed. The second ($813 billion) is the war and military budget just proposed just weeks later by President Biden for fiscal year 2023, which begins on October 1.
Here’s a pop quiz. Are both of these military budgets:
- Higher than military spending at the peak of the Vietnam war
-
More than the next 11 countries’ military budgets combined
- More than all federal spending for K-12 education, affordable housing, public health, and scientific and medical research combined
- All of the above
No fooling, it’s d) All of the above.
Both numbers are being justified on the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but U.S. military spending was already 12 times that of Russia. If higher military spending could solve the problem with Putin, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
There are no two ways about it, this military budget is a boon for military contractors, who stand ready to “benefit from” (their words) the Ukraine invasion. Certain members of Congress who’ve never seen a military budget that was too high think the budgets don’t go far enough.
But we’re no fools. This kind of spending does nothing for the rest of us, in the U.S. or around the world.
In peace,
Lindsay, Ashik, & Lorah
