Tonight President Trump will address Congress, and who knows what he’ll say. But it’s easy to get too swept up in what he says. Instead, watch what he does.  

If some theoretical well-meaning person or effort were looking for ways to save taxpayer dollars, Pentagon contracts would be the place to start. Musk has set his team of DOGE destroyers on agencies from USAID to the Department of Education - both of which are puny compared to Pentagon contracts. 

In recent days, President Trump has promised that Musk would soon turn to the Pentagon. But if saving money were really the goal, the Pentagon’s contracts, worth $414 billion in FY 2022, would have been the most logical place to start. 

With big publicity around efforts to cut government spending, we’ll find out whether the incoming administration and Congress are willing to hold the Pentagon accountable. 

While the larger budgets makes some important strides forward, this discretionary proposal won’t provide security we need, in terms of costs of living, quality of life, climate change, or securing peace.

The $118 billion bill that Senate leaders put forward this week is a deal that never should have been made. 

There is an entity whose job it is to prevent this sort of abuse: Congress. With each failure at the Pentagon, Congress is failing, too.

An extra $105 billion in mostly military spending is no small matter, especially on top of the $886 billion military budget that has been working its way through Congress this year. So, how did this thing get so big?

The budget deal struck by the White House and House Republicans begins what could be a long-term shift in federal spending from domestic programs toward the Pentagon. 

Our tax dollars should make life better, not go to waste. But the average taxpayer had to shell out over $1,000 for military contractors alone last year.