By Sharon Zhang, Truthout
While the defense budget continues its decades-long upward spiral, Democrats in the House are waging a push to do something unprecedented: take billions from the defense budget and redirect the money to social spending.
On Monday, Representatives Barbara Lee (D-California) and Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) introduced a bill that would cut $100 billion from the defense budget — which, for this year, was a towering $782 billion. This would likely be the largest year-over-year budget cut that the Pentagon has ever seen.
The bill would direct the Department of Defense budget for fiscal year 2023 to be calculated by subtracting $100 billion from the amount appropriated for the defense budget for 2022. While this would still be a massive budget of around $680 billion, it would be a major first step toward progressives’ longtime goal of slashing the defense budget to an amount comparable to that of other countries — or nixing it altogether.
Recent Posts
Top Pentagon Official Admits Boat Strike May Have Killed Victims of Human Trafficking
Take Action Now If this boat was running drugs, why was it loaded with so many people?By Nick Turse, The Intercept Nine months into the Trump…
The New Documentary “An Ordinary Insanity”
Take Action Now Only when such sanity becomes ordinary will we have a chance of surviving the nuclear era.By Robert Ellsberg This film presents a…
Nuclear Powers Spend Record Billions on Weapons While Hunger and Climate Needs Go Unmet
Take Action Now The United States accounted for more than half of global nuclear weapons spending in 2025 as watchdogs warn of a growing arms race,…
Daniel Ellsberg vs. “Ordinary Insanity”
Take Action Now A new documentary issues an urgent warning about our dangerous nuclear delusions.By Norman Solomon, The Nation A few days before…