After Agency Slashings, Lawmakers Oppose Steep Pentagon Spending Hike Paid For By Human Needs Cuts
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The astronomical $150 billion Pentagon spending proposal from Senate Republicans comes at the direct expense of essential human needs programs, and must be rejected according to lawmakers and advocates. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA), four Members of Congress, and advocates denounced the Senate budget reconciliation proposal in advance of the Senate Budget Committee’s markup of the bill slated to begin Wednesday.
The Congressional leaders denounced the hypocrisy in President Trump and his billionaire co-conspirator Elon Musk’s efforts to “eliminate inefficiencies” by withholding funding for USAID, shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and threatening to dismantle the Department of Education, all while proposing a whopping $150 billion funding increase over two years for the only federal agency that has failed seven consecutive audits of its nearly $900 annual budget.
“While American families struggle with skyrocketing health care costs and grocery bills, Republicans are gearing up to fork over another $150 billion to the military-industrial complex,” said Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA). “This bloated Pentagon budget doesn’t make us safer. The doomsday that Americans fear in the 21st century isn’t being vaporized by a nuclear bomb – it’s the doomsday diagnosis of cancer, it’s medical debt, it’s housing payments or loan payments, it’s grocery bills and heating bills. Let’s finally put the people before the Pentagon.”
“As the new Co-Chair of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, I know how urgent it is to address the Pentagon’s bloated budget,” said Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN). “The Pentagon has failed its audit for the 7th time in a row. But Elon Musk and his lackeys at DOGE are not fit to rein in the wasteful spending. Musk holds over $3 billion in federal defense contracts through his company, SpaceX, which raises serious concerns about conflicts of interest. We know there’s no chance that DOGE will take any meaningful action to bring down the budget in a way that makes our country safer.”
“While the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has been on a rampage to root out ‘waste, fraud, and abuse,’ they’ve been ignoring the biggest money pit in the entire federal government: the Department of Defense. That alone eats up 14% of the budget and is the most unaccountable agency that exists,” said Representative Summer Lee (D-PA). “The people want a more efficient government, quality health care, housing costs that don’t skyrocket, and affordable eggs and groceries – not a bloated military budget that doesn’t make us any safer. Maybe DOGE should take a look at that.
“We don’t have clean drinking water in our country, but we always have the money for war. I’m sick of it. If our government has endless money to bomb people, they have money for clean air and water, guaranteeing healthcare as a human right, and making sure no child goes hungry. Our elected officials are choosing to spend money on endless war instead of the American people,” said Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
“In the three weeks since Inauguration Day, the new Administration has attacked critical funding for the Department of Education, USAID, the NIH, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — all while the Department of Defense maintains a budget of almost $900 billion and Elon Musk’s companies benefit as private contractors to the Pentagon,” said Representative Lateefah Simon (D-CA). “The Pentagon’s funding should not come at the expense of other federal agencies or supporting registered nurses, school teachers, or the husband who is waiting on the breakthrough in cancer research. We also defend and strengthen our nation when we support our communities.”
“In the reconciliation process, money for the Pentagon will come directly cutting spending on human needs. The money that will go to Lockheed Martin or Palantir will come directly from Medicaid and food stamps and other programs for the poor and vulnerable,” said Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman. “But with the plundering of the human needs budget made plain, the American people are not going to stand for – and will defeat – the Republicans’ Pentagon boondoggle proposal.”