Budget Matters Blog

Category: Military & Security


Palestinian Lives Matter

We can’t say we support justice and human rights in this country while supporting violence and expulsion abroad.


The Pentagon Increase Is the Size of the Entire CDC Budget

President Biden proposed a Pentagon budget increase larger than the entire discretionary budget of the CDC.


Humanizing the People Police Kill

The standard, often unreliable reporting on police killings dehumanizes victims — a fact my own family knows too well.


Does Biden Put His Money Where His Mouth Is On Climate?

Last week the White House convened a virtual Leaders Summit on Climate with forty leaders from the world's largest economies presenting their plans to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Now that the dust has settled, what should we make of the new commitments announced at the summit? 


COVID Shrank the Global Economy, but U.S. Military Spending is Still More Than Next 11 Countries Combined

The world spent almost $2 trillion on militaries in 2020, according to the latest data on global military expenditures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). That's a military spending increase of 2.6 per cent in real terms since 2019, even as global gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 4.4...


Biden's Pentagon is Still Trump's Pentagon

With his Pentagon budget proposal last week, President Biden made clear his intention to continue in the footsteps of President Trump. The proposal called for an increase in Pentagon and war spending from $740 billion fiscal year 2021 to $753 billion in fiscal year 2022. 


Stop Calling it a "Border Crisis"

People escaping violence have a right to seek safety. If they can’t, that’s the real crisis.


Biden's 2022 budget raises military spending past $750 billion

Today, President Joe Biden unveiled his administration's FY 2022 “skinny budget” request. While not a full breakdown, the “skinny budget” offers a critical glimpse at topline discretionary budget spending and speaks volumes about the administration's priorities. At $753 billion, Biden's requested Pentagon budget increase continues the dangerous and short-sighted path...


Will President Biden Continue Astronomical Pentagon Spending?

Progressives have called for an immediate ten percent Pentagon spending reduction, to be followed by greater reductions. That would take spending closer to where it was under President Obama. We'll soon find out whether President Biden will stick with the Trump increases, build on them, or begin to tear them down.


The Day I Became Anti-War

A personal recollection on the day that launched the Iraq War — and its lessons for us 18 years later.