The Trump administration proposed the largest increase to war spending in modern history. If Congress falls in line, the Pentagon budget will reach $1.5 trillion in 2027.
To put that into perspective, if every dollar of this budget were represented by a minute, it would amount to more than one million days, or about 2,740 years. Another way to think about it: there are around 1.6 trillion square feet of land on Earth. The number is so enormous and preposterous that it's hard to even conceptualize.
And the weapons and tech billionaires who will be the only people on Earth to benefit from it are banking on you feeling too insignificant to try to stop it. More than 50% of this budget will go straight to private companies, and 100% of it will be used to wage war on people abroad—but also to surveil and wage war on people right here at home.
They cut SNAP and Medicaid, then turn around and line their pockets with money stolen from our paychecks. Proposing a $1.5 trillion war budget is like spitting in our faces.
This Pentagon budget is the biggest threat to our lives, the planet, and everything we care about. Click here to share where you'd want to spend $1.5 trillion instead!
News & Analysis
There is something very interesting happening in the Pentagon budget debate right now. A lot of members of Congress are actually trying to resist it. In my years of working on this issue, I've never seen anything quite like it.
In multiple committee hearings, handfuls of Democrats have voted "no" or pushed for large cuts to the budget. In the Senate, Ed Markey introduced a bill that would slash the Pentagon budget in half.
Republicans are also saying how irresponsible a war budget of that size would be. More and more, our voices are being heard. Even smaller budget requests for wars, like Trump's most recent appeal for an additional $80 billion to fight Iran, are hitting roadblocks in Congress after his initial $200 billion request a few months ago was completely ignored.
I don't often write to you and say there's a lot of momentum for our cause in the halls of Congress. But right now, there is. And we need to keep pushing throughout the summer, or else we might miss a critical window to stop the largest war budget in the history of the world.
You can write to your senators here to tell them to support slashing the budget!
Personal Note from Danaka
I got involved in anti-war organizing largely because of the Pentagon budget. I was a kid when my only working parent died, and we were promptly removed from the health insurance her job provided. I was so confused about how that was allowed to happen, how access to doctors and medicine could disappear the instant the breadwinner in a family passed away.
I quickly learned how many people in this country slip through the cracks and go years without seeing a doctor or having health insurance. When I looked into where our government was spending money, if not on our health, I found a $600 billion war budget. Around the same time, I saw homeless veterans all around the Bay Area.
The proposed Pentagon budget is nearly triple what it was the year I began asking these questions, and last year, massive cuts were made to one of the only working parts of our healthcare system: Medicaid.
A $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget maybe should make me feel frozen or hopeless because of its sheer size and how insurmountable it may seem. But to be honest, it only makes me feel more determined to defund the Pentagon completely.
I hope it makes you feel the same, because we need all hands on deck this summer if we are serious about stopping it. And I really believe we can.
Towards Peace,
Campaign Resources
I made a video explaining how much we really spend on the military budget (and how it goes beyond just the traditional "Pentagon budget" you hear about).
👉 Watch and share the video below!
We launched a poll to see what people would want to spend $1.5 trillion on instead of war and militarism!
👉 You can view and fill out the poll here!
There are also flyers you can use to spread the word about the massive war budget and encourage others to take the poll as well!
