{"id":24473,"date":"2022-12-17T12:16:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T20:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=24473"},"modified":"2022-12-17T12:16:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T20:16:36","slug":"a-moral-and-political-disgrace-just-11-senators-vote-no-on-858-billion-military-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/12\/17\/a-moral-and-political-disgrace-just-11-senators-vote-no-on-858-billion-military-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A Moral and Political Disgrace’: Just 11 Senators Vote No on $858 Billion Military Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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F-18 jet fighters are seen on the flight deck of USS Gerald R. Ford on November 17, 2022. (Photo: Finnbarr Webster\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At a time when we spend more than the next 11 nations combined on defense, we should invest in healthcare, jobs, housing, and education\u2014not more weapons of destruction,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JAKE JOHNSON<\/a> December 16, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an overwhelming bipartisan<\/strong> vote late Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed legislation authorizing $858 billion in military spending for Fiscal Year 2023, a sum that drew dissent from just a handful of lawmakers and outrage from watchdogs who said the money should be spent on fighting the climate emergency, poverty, and other pressing crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $858 billion budget amounts to a roughly 10% increase from the previous year and $45 billion more than the historic sum President Joe Biden requested, and it was approved even after the Pentagon failed yet another audit<\/a>, unable to account for more than 60% of its assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This spending level is a testament to the corporate capture and corruption of the Pentagon budgeting process.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the newly authorized money, as analyst Stephen Semler has shown<\/a>, is likely to wind up in the pockets of military contractors. The NDAA passed by a vote of 83 to 11<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This absurdly inflated Pentagon budget is a huge payout to military contractor corporations at the direct expense of the American people,” Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen, said<\/a> in a statement, calling the military policy legislation “a moral and political disgrace.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The money wasted on the Pentagon… siphons funding away from reducing child poverty, expanding healthcare, addressing the climate crisis, and countless other priorities,” Weissman continued. “This spending level is a testament to the corporate capture and corruption of the Pentagon budgeting process. It leaves the nation less secure and more unjust. It is an utter, total disgrace.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of just 11 senators to vote against the NDAA, lamented that the bill provides the military with “many billions more than Congress has invested in addressing many of the biggest security concerns facing the American people\u2014such as climate change, the opioid epidemic, poverty, hunger, and disease.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Instead, it doubles down on the failed approach of pouring money into a bloated, inefficient, and sometimes counterproductive national security machine underwritten by an army of lobbyists and gold-plated contractors that fails to deliver on the needs of the American people,” Markey added. “I simply cannot support it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Markey noted that he proposed an NDAA amendment that would have sliced just 1% off the $858 billion topline and allocated the savings to global climate funding, but his proposal was not granted a floor vote\u2014unlike Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) proposed giveaway to the fossil fuel industry, which was voted down<\/a> Thursday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining Markey in voting against the NDAA were Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At a time when we spend more than the next 11 nations combined on defense, we should invest in healthcare, jobs, housing, and education\u2014not more weapons of destruction,” Sanders tweeted<\/a> late Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking: Senate passed an $858 billion military budget.

We\u2019re sprinting towards $1 TRILLION.

Meanwhile:

1.2 billion people worldwide will be climate refugees by 2050

100 million Americans have medical debt

500,000 Americans are homeless

It doesn\u2019t have to be this way.<\/p>— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) December 16, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>