Washington, D.C. – Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) released the following statement regarding President Biden’s annual budget proposal and the need to cut the bloated Pentagon budget:
“I applaud President Biden for recognizing that after more than a decade of chronic underinvestment, the federal government can and should serve as a force for good in the lives of everyday Americans. By raising spending on domestic needs by 15 percent in his budget proposal — a $100 billion annual increase — President Biden is sending a powerful message: in the world’s wealthiest country, all Americans deserve robust education, job training, environmental protection, health care, housing, research, transportation, nutrition support, and so much more.
“However, this proposal also recommends increasing the level of an already-out-of-control Pentagon budget, which has exploded over the past four years. By boosting Trump’s $740 billion Pentagon budget by 1.6 percent to $753 billion a year, this proposal would fund a military larger than those of the next 10 countries combined. At a time of such dire challenges—including a global pandemic, a mass unemployment crisis, a climate catastrophe, and millions more being pushed into poverty—a military budget rife with waste, fraud and abuse must finally be reined in so we can invest these resources in our communities to address genuine human needs. While I welcome the proposed end to the overseas contingency operations slush fund, a longstanding Progressive Caucus priority, Congress must continue to identify and eliminate additional military bloat, such as the production of needless and dangerous nuclear weapons, which we should be working to rapidly reduce — not expand. If our national security was preserved during eight years of the Obama-Biden administration, there should be no reason not to return to those levels of military spending under the new Biden-Harris administration.”
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