{"id":21871,"date":"2022-03-29T10:30:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T17:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=21871"},"modified":"2022-03-29T10:30:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T17:30:41","slug":"we-do-not-need-a-massive-increase-sanders-criticizes-bidens-813-billion-military-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/29\/we-do-not-need-a-massive-increase-sanders-criticizes-bidens-813-billion-military-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We Do Not Need a Massive Increase’: Sanders Criticizes Biden’s $813 Billion Military Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sen.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a committee hearing on February 17, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chair of the Senate Budget Committee noted that the U.S. already spends more on its military than “the next 11 countries combined.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JAKE JOHNSON<\/a> March 28, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders on<\/strong> Monday criticized President Joe Biden’s request for an $813.3 billion military budget in the next fiscal year as excessive, noting that the United States already spends more<\/a> on national security than “the next 11 countries combined.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We do not need a massive increase in the defense budget,” Sanders (I-Vt.), the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement<\/a>. “Now that the president has done his job, it is up to Congress to review it, pass the proposals that make sense, and improve upon it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This shameful spending makes the U.S. less secure.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of a sprawling budget blueprint<\/a> that the White House unveiled on Monday, Biden’s military spending request for Fiscal Year 2023 represents a $31 billion increase over the current level<\/a> of $782 billion, which is already unprecedented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted in a statement that Biden’s proposed budget is “substantially more<\/a>\u2014adjusted for inflation\u2014than spending at the height of the Korean or Vietnam wars, and over $100 billion more than peak spending during the Cold War.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Pentagon’s FY 2023 budget will be a boon to defense contractors,” Hartung continued, “with a proposed $276 billion for weapons procurement and R&D combined, over $30 billion more than the department’s FY 2022 proposal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If approved by Congress, Biden’s latest budget would put the U.S. on track to spend more than $8 trillion on its military over the next decade. In addition to providing $773 billion for the Pentagon alone, the White House’s new proposal would also provide the Department of Energy with billions in funding to “modernize” the U.S. nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, Biden is asking Congress for just $44.9 billion<\/a> in total funding to fight the climate emergency in Fiscal Year 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement<\/a> Monday that “spending $813 billion on weaponry and military contractor pay-offs and calling it ‘defense spending’ is ill-advised and enormously wasteful.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The greatest threats to Americans in the 21st century are not external adversaries, but rather skyrocketing wealth inequality, impending climate chaos, public health crises, and corporate greed,” said Weissman. “The broken Washington consensus that sky-high Pentagon spending will somehow keep Americans safe works to prop up the military-industrial complex while siphoning resources away from real solutions to these problems and true, urgent human needs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Congress must resist the growing pressures to increase militarized spending at all costs,” he added, “and instead put that funding to work for everyday people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n