Statement: There Is No Justification for a $23.9 Billion Increase in Defense Spending
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House Armed Services Committee today approved a $23.9 billion increase in defense spending. Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“The Pentagon literally has more money than it can account for. Today, members of the House Armed Services Committee force-fed the Pentagon even more money, including to maintain ships that the Navy itself wants to retire. There is simply no remotely plausible justification for providing nearly $25 billion in additional funding to the Pentagon, over and above the nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars already in baseline bill. This is institutional insanity and disgusting water-carrying for the military-industrial complex, both.
“As an illustration of how wrongheaded this move is, $25 billion is the amount required to manufacture sufficient coronavirus vaccines to end the global pandemic. In what universe is an extra $25 billion for the Pentagon a smarter expenditure than investing to end the global pandemic?
“There will be an opportunity to claw back this outrageous increase in Pentagon funding when the defense authorization bill moves to the House floor. Public Citizen looks forward to working with Members of Congress to do exactly that.”