President Biden’s latest budget proposal includes a record-shattering $813 billion for the military — the highest of any president ever. This is an increase of $31 billion from the last military budget. With this budget, Biden is only further confirming what many working people already know: that the Democratic Party, just like the Republicans, do not represent our interests.
Whenever it comes to funding for programs that would benefit ordinary people — education, health care, the environment, childcare, food programs, Covid response, raising the minimum wage, cancelling student debt, anything — we always hear the same excuse about not having enough money. But when it comes to funding military and weapons contractors — when it comes to funding war and destruction — somehow every administration is able to find limitless funds.
Meanwhile, the U.S. already has over 750 military bases in over 80 countries worldwide — this is three times as many as every other country combined. And the U.S. spends more on the military than the next ten countries combined — including spending more than three times what China and Russia combined spend on their militaries.
Biden’s military budget is a slap in the face to working people, who’ve struggled during the past two years of this pandemic and are now being squeezed even harder with skyrocketing prices. We will be the ones to pay for this enormous military budget through further cuts in the dwindling social services that still remain.
This budget prioritizes war, destruction and death, and only further ramps up the threat of escalating conflicts around the world. And it is another reminder that this system of capitalism — based on the accumulation of profit and a relentless competition for global domination — poses the greatest risk to humanity.
