Senate Blocks Trump’s Pentagon Budget as Americans Fed Up With War at Expense of Basic Needs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Democrats in the U.S. Senate have defeated a motion to advance the $1.15 TRILLION National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense authorization bill that typically passes with bipartisan support.
In response, Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:
“The failure of Trump and Republicans’ effort to ram through a $250 billion increase in Pentagon spending is both a repudiation of throwing more money at the waste-and-fraud-ridden Pentagon while Republican cuts have forced millions to lose health coverage and food assistance, and a forceful rejection of the Trump’s Iran war.
“The American people are fed up with spending more on bombs and less on basic needs. And they are furious with a pointless, deadly, illegal, unconstitutional and protracted war that is costing lives and driving up gas prices.
“Elected officials are beginning to listen. Today’s defeat of the procedural motion on the National Defense Authorization Act – legislation that normally sails through Congress on a bipartisan basis – is a sign that the Pentagon budget will no longer get a rubber stamp.”