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Posted by Joshua Scheer
I was about to share this Common Dreams piece on the astounding fact that the Pentagon doesn’t even know what to do with the extra money it’s demanding—at the very same moment vital social programs are being cut—and it’s hard not to see the bigger picture: no wonder we remain trapped in a system that prioritizes endless killing, maiming, and surveillance over meeting basic human needs.
In a revealing report highlighted by Common Dreams, the Pentagon is said to be scrambling to figure out what to do with the additional $500 billion that President Donald Trump is proposing to add to next year’s military budget. According to reporting from The Washington Post, White House aides and defense officials are facing “logistical challenges” simply because the sum is so enormous. If approved, the increase would push annual U.S. military spending to an unprecedented $1.5 trillion.
The proposal comes on the heels of steep Republican-backed cuts to federal nutrition assistance and Medicaid—an austerity agenda for working people paired with a blank check for the war machine. By comparison, a Democratic proposal to expand Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing would cost $350 billion over a decade—less than the single-year increase Trump is demanding for the Pentagon.
The fiscal implications are staggering. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that a $1.5 trillion annual military budget would add $5.8 trillion to the national debt over ten years.
Progressives blasted the proposal as both reckless and immoral. Rep. Pramila Jayapal called it “ridiculous,” arguing that the money could instead fund 3 million new homes or expand Medicare benefits. “Not another cent for private defense contractors and forever wars,” she wrote.
Not only that but as Rep Mark Pocan pointed out that the “The Pentagon failed its EIGHTH audit in a row. It is the only agency that has never passed an audit. Now Trump wants to increase the budget by roughly 50% to $1.5 TRILLION. We need to take on our out-of-control military spending with zero accountability.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon—fresh off that eighth consecutive failed audit—is reportedly weighing how to replenish expensive munitions and fund next-generation weapons systems, including the B-21 bomber and Columbia-class submarines, each carrying multibillion-dollar price tags. Roughly half of the Pentagon’s budget already flows to private contractors.
Critics warn the timing is especially alarming as Trump edges the United States closer to potential war with Iran. The New York Times reported that Trump has told advisers he may consider a much larger military strike if diplomatic pressure fails to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program—raising fears of another costly Middle East conflict.
Robert Weissman of Public Citizen condemned the proposal as a diversion of resources away from urgent domestic needs, pointing to inflation, housing costs, and healthcare affordability as real crises facing American families. This was from their report on the passing of the budget in September
Throwing a trillion dollars at the Pentagon – an agency replete with waste and fraud – at the same time the Republican Congress and the Trump regime are slashing spending on health care, education, housing, food assistance and foreign aid is a disgraceful and unconscionable misuse of taxpayer money.
On top of the age-old dangerous and wasteful spending, the bill pours billions into new boondoggles like Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ space interceptor vanity project and supercharges the dangerous development of killer robots for the battlefield.
Making it still worse is the administration’s in-your-face, authoritarian misuse of Pentagon dollars – from the deployment of the National Guard on the streets of Washington, D.C., to the illegal and murderous attack on a Venezuelan boat.” Public Citizen
The broader picture is hard to ignore: a Pentagon that cannot pass an audit, cannot clearly articulate how it would spend half a trillion additional dollars, and yet is poised to receive one of the largest funding increases in modern U.S. history. For critics, the episode underscores a familiar Washington pattern—endless money for war, austerity for everyone else.
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