Last week, at the end of two years of Democratic control of the White House and both houses of Congress, Congress passed the largest Pentagon budget in U.S. history. The bill now waits for President Joe Biden’s signature.
This behemoth is 10% bigger than last year’s budget, which was 5% bigger than the year before. In fact, it’s $45 billion more than the Pentagon itself requested. Meanwhile, domestic priorities like childhood hunger programs, public education, expanded Social Security and Medicare, and affordable housing continue to operate on peanuts compared to military spending.
Let’s not sugarcoat it: This bill is a disgrace. It represents the total victory of the defense lobbyists over the American people—and both major parties are in on it.
So what can be done about it? How can we ever reverse these upside-down priorities and put the health and welfare of people over guns and bombs, and war?
The first essential step is that the people must be told what’s happening and why. Readers and viewers need to hear the facts about how the U.S. defense budget is an unprecedented monstrosity that dwarfs the amount any other country in the world spends. And this monstrous military spending crowds out every other priority in the federal budget.
We know the corporate media will never tell this story. They’re getting paid off with huge advertising budgets funded by weapons-makers gorging at the Pentagon’s trough. It’s up to us—citizens like you supporting progressive journalism like Common Dreams—to ensure that this immoral imbalance in our budget does not go unchallenged.
