Two Democrats in the House of Representatives have filed legislation to reduce funding for the Department of Defense in 2024.
Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI), who submitted the bill, are co-chairs of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus.
Called the “People Over Pentagon Act of 2023,” the proposal claims “many of the most urgent threats to the national security of the United States are not military in nature.”
It suggests further, “[I]n order to better protect the security of all people and address the national priorities of the United States, the budget of the Department of Defense should be reduced and the associated savings should be reallocated.”
Lee explained in a statement, “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.”
“We know that a large portion of these taxpayer dollars are used to pad the pockets of the military industrial complex, fund outdated technology, or are simply mismanaged,” she continued.
Lee added that the money taken from defense spending 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 other sponsor, Rep. Pocan, echoed his colleague’s sentiments.
“By cutting $100 billion from the defense budget, this bill prioritizes urgent needs like healthcare, education, and infrastructure over padding the pockets of defense contractors,” he asserted.
“More defense spending does not guarantee safety, but it does guarantee that the military-industrial complex will continue to get richer. We can no longer afford to put these corporate interests over the needs of the American people,” Pocan concluded in the press release.
Chuck DeVore, the chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, responded by suggesting that America’s military spending is currently stretched too thin. DeVore is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and previously served as a Reagan appointee in the Defense Department.
In a statement to The Dallas Express, DeVore noted, “America’s ongoing support to help Ukraine resist Russia’s invasion combined with the rapidly increasing threat from the People’s Republic of China to Taiwan, Japan, and other nations in the Indo-Pacific mean that it’s an inopportune time to cut the Defense Department’s budget by $100 billion.”
“That said, we are stretched too thin, both fiscally and militarily,” he continued. “Congress should look to saving money within the Defense Department wherever possible and reallocate resources towards bolstering our defense industrial base.”
“If war with China is to be prevented, we need to bolster stocks of the sorts of weapons that would be used in large amounts in a Pacific war,” he added, suggesting a shift in military spending from the Army to the Navy and Air Force instead.
Robert Weissman, the president of an advocacy group called Public Citizen, supported the proposal in a statement publicized by Lee.
“The United States is rushing toward a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget that enriches military contractors but entrenches massive fraud and waste, leaves the nation less secure and pulls money away from priority human needs,” Weissman argued.
“For a just and secure society, it’s time to reverse course, cut Pentagon spending and reallocate the savings to expanding health care, taking care of kids, addressing the climate crisis and more,” he concluded.