President Joe Biden faced huge opposition after requesting a $715 billion budget for the Pentagon next year – an increase over former President Donald Trump's budget this year.
Biden's request for a $753-billion 2022 defense budget – with a whopping $715 billion going straight to the Pentagon – was made public on Friday and immediately drew criticism for being an even higher number than Trump's $740-billion defense budget (with $704 billion for the Pentagon).
Much of the opposition against Biden's request came from figures within his own Democratic Party, who warned that such a high budget would be "unacceptable" and a "grave mistake" as the world currently struggles to battle with Covid-19.
President Biden wants $715 billion for the Dept. of Defense, a 1.5% increase over last year. The already inflated Pentagon budget did nothing to protect us from a global pandemic, an economic recession, or the climate crisis. Increasing that budget now would be a grave mistake.
With so many struggling, the last thing we need to do is increase investment in wasteful Pentagon spending.
The Biden admin's budget adds $12 billion for weapons of war –– just think how this could be used to fight inequality in our communities. Let's put the people first.
"In the middle of a pandemic that has only exacerbated inequality, we must go further to put the needs of the American people over the profits of defense contractors,"declared Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, while California Rep. Ro Khanna called the news "disappointing."
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called for an investigation into "the waste and fraud that currently exists at the Pentagon," pointing out that the United States "already spends more on the military than the next 12 nations combined," while former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who has served in a number of presidential administrations, tweeted, "The last thing we need is a bigger military budget."
The Pentagon already spends:
$740,000,000,000 every year
$2,000,000,000 every day
$1,000,000 every minute
The last thing we need is a bigger military budget.
There is no justification for proposing one of the biggest Pentagon budgets since World War II, higher than spending during the Korean or Vietnam Wars or the peak of the Reagan buildup, other than politics. Biden is afraid of looking weak. https://t.co/LdMGWnUhq9 via @politico
Others claimed the budget request was evidence that the "military-industrial complex STILL controls both corrupt political parties," and noted that Biden's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is a member of defense contractor Raytheon's Board of Directors.
BREAKING: @JoeBiden is requesting $715 billion for the Pentagon budget for 2022, up from this year’s budget of $704 billion approved under Trump. The military-industrial complex STILL controls both corrupt political parties.
I'm really surprised that after Biden chose a member of the Board of Directors of Raytheon to be his Secretary of Defense, the Pentagon is seeking a record military budget of $753 billion, more than Trump spent in any of his 4 years. Go figure.
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