House Republican Proposal for Half-Trillion-Dollar Pentagon Bump a Grave Threat
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) today endorsed President Donald Trump’s proposed $500 billion increase to the Pentagon budget. Rogers has called for a $450 billion increase in Pentagon funding to be included in a future budget reconciliation bill as a step towards Trump’s goal. Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“Trump’s call for a $500 billion increase in Pentagon spending is a terrible idea that would starve the American people of resources needed to address critical issues across the U.S. American voters are fed up with inflation, health care costs, housing prices, and unemployment. But instead of addressing these needs, Rep. Mike Rogers wants to burn half a trillion tax dollars on militarism and war. Congress must reject this attempt to put an already wasteful Pentagon on steroids.
“The Pentagon has repeatedly failed audits and has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars on fraudulent defense contractors who abuse the system and steal from taxpayers. Trump has added to this wasteful legacy by spending vast sums of money on national guard deployments across the U.S., military intervention in Venezuela, and by pushing a ‘Golden Dome’ boondoggle. Congress must stop pouring more money into a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget beset with fraud and waste, at the expense of priority human needs.”