Progressives propose bill to slash defense budget by $100 billion

A pair of progressive lawmakers on Wednesday proposed a bill to slash the Defense Department’s budget by $100 billion and reallocate the dollars elsewhere. 

Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), co-chairs of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, reintroduced their “People Over Pentagon Act.” If passed, the legislation would rein in defense spending and refocus funds on priorities like infrastructure, health care and education.

“Year after year, this country pours billions into our already-astronomical defense budget without stopping to question whether the additional funding is actually making us safer,” Lee said in a release.

“Cutting just $100 billion could do so much good: it could power every household in the US with solar energy; hire one million elementary school teachers amid a worsening teacher shortage; provide free tuition for 2 out of 3 public college students; or cover medical care for 7 million veterans,” the congresswoman added.  

The lawmakers argued that the current defense budget props up the military industrial complex at the expense of the American taxpayer. 

Biden signed a massive $858 billion defense authorization bill for fiscal 2023, allocating $817 billion to the Department of Defense. The high increase from last year’s DOD budget — which was $768 billion — has prompted some Democrats to sound alarms about excessive spending.

“More defense spending does not guarantee safety, but it does guarantee that the military-industrial complex will continue to get richer,” Pocan said. “We can no longer afford to put these corporate interests over the needs of the American people.”