In fiscal year 2015, Pentagon and related spending will total $598 billion, accounting for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending. That's roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.
US military bases are wasteful, harmful, and expensive - and resistance to them is justified. On February 23, 2025, people gathered for an international day of action to call for the closure of military bases around the world.
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.
Senate Republicans are aiming to cut federal spending on social services while increasing the budget by at least $346 billion over the next four years ($86.5 billion annually) to fund the Pentagon and a disastrous and cruel mass deportation plan. Policymakers must step up to help struggling families, not tear families apart while enriching corporations and billionaires at the expense of working people.
We have the means to solve homelessness, poverty, substance use, and more – but it will require spending priorities that line up with those needs instead of giving more to weapons contractors and demonizing immigrant communities.
