Tell the Congress:
$3/4 Trillion for the Pentagon is Unacceptable!
Massachusetts Peace Action
CAMBRIDGE, MA (November 15, 2021) — As the US Congress debates the financial impact of the Build Back Better Act the Senate is poised to vote on a $778 billion Pentagon budget — This is $38 billion more than last year and $24 billion higher than the amount requested by President Biden!
Senate leadership is also restricting the number of amendments that will be voted on. We want to ensure that:
- An amendment to end US support for the war in Yemen is included
- An amendment to repeal the Iraq War authorization passes and
- An amendment to cut the bloated Pentagon budget gets a vote
- The US Innovation and Competition Act (an Anti-China Bill) is not included in the NDAA
ACTION: Send a message to Congress now. Let them know that this level of military spending is unacceptable!
We want all our members of Congress to publicly oppose this reckless spending, much of which will end up in the hands of weapons manufacturers!
ACTION ALERT:
Senate Is Set to Consider the FY22 NDAA
Senator Bernie Sanders released a statement saying he will vote NO on the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) saying “Isn’t it strange how even as we end the longest war in our nation’s history concerns about the deficit and national debt seem to melt away under the influence of the powerful Military Industrial Complex?”
You can read the statement below and view his tweet thread here.
We’re using this to ask people to call their Senators and tell them to vote NO on social media.
Now would be the time to urge members and your community to Call their Senators urging them to vote NO on the NDAA!
At CODEPINK, we’ll continue to push our action asking members to call and email their Senators to vote NO on the NDAA, which will likely hand the Pentagon $778 billion for 2022. I’m also sending along the sample language people can use to send to their own lists in case that’s helpful.
As a friendly reminder, here’s how the Senate vote breakdown on the 10% cut amendment played out last year.
As we hear more, I’ll send more updates on this thread!
Statement on $778 Billion Defense Spending Bill
Hon. Bernie Sanders / Vermont Biz Magazine
VERMONT, NH (November 16, 2021) — Many of my colleagues tell the American people, day after day, how deeply concerned they are about the deficit and the national debt. They tell us that we just don’t have enough money to expand Medicare, guarantee paid family and medical leave, and address the climate crisis to the degree that we should if we want to protect the well-being of future generations.
Yet, tomorrow, the US Senate will be voting on an annual defense budget that costs $778 billion — $37 billion more than President Trump’s last defense budget and $25 billion more than what President Biden requested. All this for an agency — the Department of Defense — that continues to have massive fraud and cost overruns year after year and is the only major government agency not to successfully complete an independent audit.
Isn’t it strange how even as we end the longest war in our nation’s history concerns about the deficit and national debt seem to melt away under the influence of the powerful Military Industrial Complex?
Further, it is likely that the Senate leadership will attach to the National Defense Authorization Act the so-called “competitiveness bill,” which includes $52 billion in corporate welfare — with no strings attached — for a handful of extremely profitable microchip companies. This bill also contains a $10 billion handout to Jeff Bezos for space exploration.
Combining these two pieces of legislation would push the price tag of the defense bill to over $1 trillion — with very little scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the Senate has spent month after month discussing the Build Back Better Act and whether we can afford to protect the children, the elderly, the sick, the poor and the future of our planet.
As a nation, we need to get our priorities right. I will vote ‘NO’ on the National Defense Authorization Act.
