Follow us on social

Shutterstock_1684106488-scaled

Groups call on Congress to rein in military budget

They say adding $25 billion more than what Biden requested for the Pentagon ‘sends exactly the wrong message.’

Reporting | Military Industrial Complex

Nearly 50 national, state and local organizations across the country — including Public Citizen, Sunrise Movement, and MoveOn — banded together today to urge Congress against giving the Pentagon any more money beyond the president’s request and to go a step further by reducing the authorized amount by 10 percent. 

These two proposals were codified in separate amendments to the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act. The first, led by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), would overturn the $25 billion increase over what President Biden had requested for the Pentagon that the House Armed Services Committee added in during the NDAA’s markup process. 

The second, led by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), would cut the Pentagon’s approved topline by 10 percent, whether Lee’s amendment is ultimately approved or not. 

“Pouring billions more into the military, far beyond even the level requested by President Biden, sends exactly the wrong message at this moment in history,” states the letter, of which the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is also a signatory. “We are struggling to end a deadly pandemic, deal with the looming climate crisis, confront racial injustice, and secure badly-needed relief for working people all over the country. These are problems that no amount of military spending could ever solve.” 

The push comes as President Biden on Tuesday in his speech to the United Nations downplayed the military’s role in ongoing and future security threats. “U.S. military power must be our tool of last resort. Not our first,” he said, adding, “Many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed through the force of arms. Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19 or its future variants.” 

Indeed, polling shows that Americans support reducing military spending. A poll conducted last year by Data for Progress found that 59 percent of those surveyed said they at least somewhat supported Pocan’s proposal, with the caveat that the eliminated portion of the defense budget would not impact military personnel and would instead be directed toward fighting COVID-19, education, health care, and housing. Meanwhile, a poll from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in December found that just 23 percent of Americans want to increase the Pentagon budget. 

Rep. Lee’s and Rep. Pocan’s amendments will receive a vote later this week. 


Photo: mrsashko via shutterstock.com
Reporting | Military Industrial Complex
Havana, Cuba
Top Image Credit: Havana, Cuba, 2019. (CLWphoto/Shutterstock)

Trump lifted sanctions on Syria. Now do Cuba.

North America

President Trump’s new National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) on Cuba, announced on June 30, reaffirms the policy of sanctions and hostility he articulated at the start of his first term in office. In fact, the new NSPM is almost identical to the old one.

The policy’s stated purpose is to “improve human rights, encourage the rule of law, foster free markets and free enterprise, and promote democracy” by restricting financial flows to the Cuban government. It reaffirms Trump’s support for the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, which explicitly requires regime change — that Cuba become a multiparty democracy with a free market economy (among other conditions) before the U.S. embargo will be lifted.

keep readingShow less
SPD Germany Ukraine
Top Photo: Lars Klingbeil (l-r, SPD), Federal Minister of Finance, Vice-Chancellor and SPD Federal Chairman, and Bärbel Bas (SPD), Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and SPD Party Chairwoman, bid farewell to the members of the previous Federal Cabinet Olaf Scholz (SPD), former Federal Chancellor, Nancy Faeser, Saskia Esken, SPD Federal Chairwoman, Karl Lauterbach, Svenja Schulze and Hubertus Heil at the SPD Federal Party Conference. At the party conference, the SPD intends to elect a new executive committee and initiate a program process. Kay Nietfeld/dpa via Reuters Connect

Does Germany’s ruling coalition have a peace problem?

Europe

Surfacing a long-dormant intra-party conflict, the Friedenskreise (peace circles) within the Social Democratic Party of Germany has published a “Manifesto on Securing Peace in Europe” in a stark challenge to the rearmament line taken by the SPD leaders governing in coalition with the conservative CDU-CSU under Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Although the Manifesto clearly does not have broad support in the SPD, the party’s leader, Deputy Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, won only 64% support from the June 28-29 party conference for his performance so far, a much weaker endorsement than anticipated. The views of the party’s peace camp may be part of the explanation.

keep readingShow less
Trump and Putin on phone
Top photo credit: Donald Trump (White House photo) and Vladimir Putin (Office of the Russian Federation President)
US-Russia talks: The rubber finally hits the road

Good, bad and ugly: Impact of US Iran strikes on Russia war talks

Europe

To a considerable degree, President Donald Trump won the presidency in 2024 because voters embraced his message of keeping America out of protracted conflicts and his promise to end the war in Ukraine.

The administration has made substantial operational headway, particularly in reopening stable channels for dialogue with Russia, but it has proven difficult to arrive at a framework for a negotiated settlement that enjoys buy-in from all the stakeholders — Ukraine, Russia, and Europe.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.