From Melissa Garriga, Media Contact for CodePink
Budgets like the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) are moral documents. What this $858 billion “defense” budget (includes $50 billion for nuclear weapons; $25 billion for missile defense) is saying to every person in this country is that the people in power do not care about us. Bought by the war industry, they ONLY care about their own profits. They would rather give almost a trillion dollars to death, destruction, and war profiteers than meet the needs of the people.
The NDAA is NOT about national defense. It is about sustaining a war economy that only benefits the corrupt and immoral while leaving:
- 550,000+ unhoused people in the U.S.
- 1 in 10 adults in “significant” medical debt
- $195 billion in medical debt held by individuals
- 16.9 % child poverty rate
- 63% of people in the US living paycheck to paycheck
- 65% of our discretionary dollars go to the militarized budget
While constituents live paycheck to paycheck and drown in debt, Congress will award the Pentagon $858 billion, over half of which will go to private companies who profit from the war economy.
War only seems like common sense to the people who get rich from legislating it. Members of Congress invest in weapons companies, and their campaigns are funded by those companies, too! That’s why they vote for arms deals, support for overseas wars, and massive Pentagon budgets.
If common sense were to prevail, President Biden would veto this budget and instruct Congress to use these resources to address the climate crisis, the world’s common enemy. They would invest in infrastructure and education, free healthcare so our illnesses can’t be turned around for profit. They would provide student and medical debt relief, and everyone has a roof over their head.
Elected officials, who trade war stocks, are telling us that an arms sale or buying another F-35 fighter jet is in our best interest. The people know what we want, and it’s not endless war.
Melissa Garriga is the Media Relations Manager at CODEPINK. Learn more about her here.
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
This press release was sent out on December 15, 2022.