Many progressives have been pleasantly surprised by President Joe Biden’s sweeping proposals to repair the United States’ failing infrastructure, expand health care coverage and address the climate crisis. Some have suggested that one way to pay for such things would be to cut the military budget, especially since Biden has announced that he is ending U.S. involvement in the Afghan war.
“We’re dumping billions of dollars into a bloated Pentagon budget. Don’t increase defense spending. Cut it — and invest that money into our communities.”
But hopes for a “peace dividend” were dashed when Biden came out in April with a proposed military budget of $753 billion — a $13 billion increase to Trump’s already gargantuan sum and one that includes more than $30 billion for new nuclear weapons.
Congressional progressives have long complained about runaway military spending. In 2020, 93 members in the House and 23 in the Senate voted to cut the Pentagon budget by 10% and invest those funds in critical human needs. A House Spending Reduction Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), emerged with 22 members on board, including all four members of the “Squad” but also more moderate or mainstream Democrats.
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, one of the largest caucuses in Congress with almost 100 members, also want reductions in the military budget.
“We’re in the midst of a crisis that has left millions of families unable to afford food, rent and bills,” Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told The Nation magazine. “But at the same time, we’re dumping billions of dollars into a bloated Pentagon budget. Don’t increase defense spending. Cut it — and invest that money into our communities.”
Biden’s military and non-military budget resolution, a package deal, is expected to hit the floor in June or July. If Republicans refuse to support it, the president would need every Democrat in the Senate and almost all Democrats in the House to win approval.
In the House, Biden needs at least 212 of the 218 Democratic seats (allowing for current vacancies in both parties. But what if at least seven members of the House voted no — or even just threatened to put their foot down — because the budget calls for increased military spending and a plan to “modernize” U.S. nuclear weapons and maintain 800 overseas bases?
Now is the time for congressional progressives like the Squad — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Presley (D-Mass.) — to unite with Jayapal, Lee, Pocan and others in the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, to stand as a block against a bloated military budget.
During a pandemic, it makes no sense to approve a military budget that is 95 times the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The billions saved from “right-sizing” the Pentagon could also provide critical funds for addressing the climate crisis.
And it would be applauded by the Democrats’ base. Polls show that 70% of Democrats favor not just cutting nuclear weapons, but actually eliminating them. This is in line with the newly passed U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as well as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires nuclear states to pursue disarmament to avoid a catastrophic accident or intentional nuclear holocaust.
Will progressives in Congress play hardball to threaten Biden’s entire budget by insisting he reduce military spending and scrap plans for a new nuclear arsenal? Will they have the courage to unite behind such a noble cause as saving the planet from an existential nuclear threat?
Odds will improve if their constituents flood them with messages insisting that now is the time to finally put an end to the cycle of exponential military spending and invest, instead, in the needs of the people.
This column was produced for The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.