ACTION ALERT: Trump’s Budget Bill:
It’s Big, It’s Bad, and It’s UGLY
Kevin Martin / Peace Action
(July 1, 2025) — You may have heard a fair bit about what President Trump calls the Big Beautiful Bill moving through Congress, which just today passed in the Senate. Vice President Vance had to vote to break a 50/50 tie in order to send it back to the House. The bill is incredibly unpopular, deservedly so, for many provisions, including gutting health care and food aid programs, giving tax breaks to the ultra-rich, and exploding the national debt.
What hasn’t gotten as much attention is the huge increase of $150 billion in the already bloated Pentagon budget, including increases for nuclear weapons and other related war spending. If the bill passes and Trump signs it into law, overall U.S. war spending will exceed a staggering $1 TRILLION ANNUALLY.
The bill is, unsurprisingly, a war profiteer’s dream. It contains huge increases for nuclear weapons programs, the chimera of a Golden Dome “missile defense,” and conventional systems of dubious utility, including “future warfare” weapons (more drones, robots, perhaps even weapons in space, oh my!). Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and their ilk will make a killing, literally.
Meanwhile, up to 80,000 staffers may be cut from the Veterans Administration, which is already severely challenged to provide adequate services to veterans of the disastrous Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars. Active duty military personnel will receive only small raises, so I don’t buy any of the “we support our veterans and the troops” rhetoric.
It is often said that budgets are moral documents. I agree with that, and I don’t like what this Big Bad Horrible Ugly bill says about our country. Let’s take a moral stand against this monstrosity. Call your US Representative today!
1) Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121
2) Ask to be connected to your representative’s office.
3) Once connected, give them this message (in as much of your own words as possible):
“Hello, my name is ____________ and I’m a voting constituent from (your city). I am calling today to urge my Representative to vote NO on the budget reconciliation bill that just passed in the Senate. This budget is a boondoggle of benefits for the war industry, pushing our bloated war spending to over $1 trillion per year, while making devastating cuts to health care and other crucial programs Americans rely on daily. Please urge my Representative to vote “NO” on this boondoggle budget reconciliation.”
Thank you in advance for all you do to create a more peaceful world.
Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with us!
Sincerely,
Kevin Martin
President, Peace Action
P.S. If you called the Senate last week in favor of the Iran War Powers Resolution, thank you! The measure failed, but by a close, almost entirely partisan vote, 53-47 (all Democrats and Independents but John Fetterman (D-PA) in favor, all Republicans but Rand Paul (R-KY) against).
Your calls do make a difference, and this Big Bad Awful Ugly Bill deserves to fail. After you make your calls, please forward this alert to family, friends and colleagues who want better priorities for our country, and encourage them to sign up for our alerts at peceaction.org
