clawing some back from the military-industrial complex

A bill in Congress would set the Pentagon’s budget at $886 billion for the coming year. And the House of Representatives could vote on the bill later this week. $886 billion is $28 billion more than the Pentagon got this year. Meanwhile, almost all other federal spending is frozen for the next two years as a result of the Republican Party’s insane brinkmanship over the debt ceiling. 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. The Pentagon — a.k.a. the Department of Defense — will get more money than the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, State, and Transportation combined. Yeah, but what about China? Or Russia? Or Ukraine? - We already spend more on our military than the next nine countries combined spend on theirs — including China and Russia. - 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. - And aid to Ukraine has come from supplemental funding packages, not the Pentagon’s massively bloated base budget. Our nation’s choice to spend so much on the military is equally a choice not to provide health care, invest in early education, address climate chaos, and more. Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan have introduced an amendment to the Pentagon spending bill that would cut $100 billion from weapons and waste and instead redirect that money to priority human needs. [Tell Congress:]( [Pass the Lee/Pocan amendment to cut $100 billion from the Pentagon’s massively bloated budget.]( [Click now to add your name.]( Thanks for taking action. For progress, - Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen Public Citizen | 1600 20th Street NW | Washington DC 20009 | [Unsubscribe](