Lawmakers Are Turning Against Astronomical Pentagon Spending
Editorial Board Alert
President Donald Trump’s demand for an eye-popping $600 billion annual increase in Pentagon spending would bring the total annual budget to an astronomical $1.5 trillion for the first time ever. The administration aims for two or three separate spending bills to reach this total.
- The first legislative step will be the passage of the FY 27 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), expected to move quickly in July in both chambers. The legislation drafted by Republicans proposes a $250 billion increase over the FY 26 Pentagon base budget, bringing the total to nearly $1.15 trillion.
- The administration hopes to add $350 billion more to the Pentagon budget through a partisan budget reconciliation bill.
- And it is seeking an additional $67 billion through a supplemental appropriations bill to offset the costs of the illegal and unconstitutional Iran war.
Trump’s Pentagon budget grab is not the routine but lamentable year-over-year increase. It’s almost doubling the Pentagon’s budget. This is budget depravity, a gift far beyond the wildest imagination of the military-industrial complex, and a monumental theft from domestic and human needs priorities.
We urge you to editorialize against Trump’s astronomical Pentagon budget proposal, starting with urging members of Congress to vote against the budget increase in the NDAA.
Even as millions of Americans all across the country are struggling to pay for health insurance and prescription medications, housing and education, gas and electricity, water and groceries, Trump and Republicans in Congress keep insisting that the nation cannot afford basic investments in human needs. Yet at the same time, they are demanding astronomical sums for Pentagon spending, military contractors, and an ill-conceived war in Iran that is driving up gas prices.
Trump kicked off his Pentagon spending spree in 2025 by slashing health care and SNAP food assistance programs by $1 trillion over the next ten years – and increasing Pentagon funding by an immediate $150 billion. A year after Republicans handed that money over via reconciliation, the Pentagon has yet to obligate more than 80% of it. Now, Trump’s proposed 2027 federal budget comes with even more cuts to programs that invest in human needs. In April, Trump said, “We’re fighting wars… It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.” When asked about rising gas prices resulting from his ill-conceived war in Iran, Trump responded that he does not “think about Americans’ financial situation.”
Momentum is building in Congress to block Trump’s Pentagon spending plans. Both Armed Services committees have a long tradition of rubber-stamping ever-higher Pentagon budgets, yet this time is different. In early June, 12 House Democrats and nine senators from both parties broke with tradition and voted in their respective committees to completely reject Trump’s Pentagon budget.
In addition, an amendment to cut Trump’s Pentagon budget by $150 billion received 25 votes in the House Armed Services Committee. Nearly all the Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee backed a parallel amendment introduced by U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). And most recently, 27 House Democratic appropriators voted against Trump’s defense appropriations bill. These departures from tradition signal how galling a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request truly is, especially now.
The U.S. already spends more on its military than the next several countries combined. The Pentagon has never passed an audit, cannot account for much of the money it receives, and has repeatedly proved unable to spend the money it already has.
Polls show that most voters now see this clearly, with 3 out of 5 voters opposing Trump’s Pentagon spending proposal.
The upcoming votes on the NDAA are an opportunity for editorial writers to ask a straightforward question: If Congress can find hundreds of billions of additional dollars every year for the Pentagon, why can’t lawmakers find the resources to keep hospitals open, strengthen public education, and lower costs for working families?
The money that Trump wants to burn on war should instead be spent on the needs of the American people, including restoring funding for health care, food, housing, and climate action. By way of context, the $600 billion in extra funding Trump wants for the Pentagon would be enough to pay for ALL of the following:
- Restoring the cruel Medicaid and SNAP cuts included in the Republican reconciliation bill;
- Restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies;
- Providing universal day care and child care;
- Expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing, vision, and home health care;
- Quadrupling the budget of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
- Making massive investments to address the climate catastrophe;
- Ending homelessness in America;
- Making major investments in affordable housing; and
- Making college free for anyone from a low-income household.
Please urge your representatives and senators to reject Trump’s outrageous and unjustifiable record-breaking Pentagon budget.