A New Bill Would Redirect $100 Billion from the Military Budget to Pro-Worker Programs
Every year the US military budget grows ever larger, sucking up resources that we could use to improve the lives of workers. A new bill seeks to do just that, immediately cutting $100 billion from the military budget and putting it in social programs.
US Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol on December 8, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Earlier this week, Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) — co-chairs of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus — introduced legislation to significantly draw down US military spending. The People Over Pentagon Act would cut the Department of Defense budget by $100 billion and reinvest the money in nonmilitary federal programs.
The proposed reduction, which would lower the military budget to a still-whopping $682 billion, will be slandered by the political establishment as haphazard and extreme. It is neither.
First, the bill is considered in its cuts, taking guidance from a Congressional Budget Office report from October 2021 that presents several options for shrinking military spending by $1 trillion over a decade (the report was prepared at the request of the Senate Budget Committee chairman, Bernie Sanders). Second, a $100 billion decrease is considerably more modest than other sensible proposals for zapping Pentagon largesse — Rep. Lee herself released a framework in 2020 for slashing the military budget by $350 billion.
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