Budget Matters Blog


Trump wants $1.5 Trillion for War. Here are eleven necessary programs that cost $1.5 Trillion.

What this country needs is clear: not more money for an immoral, unaccountable war fund, but more money to actually improve lives for people everywhere.


From ICE Brutality to the Invasion of Venezuela, People Say No to Trump’s Militarism

Across the country, communities are calling out the administration’s lawlessness - both in its brutal immigration enforcement and its reckless intervention in another country.


The Cost of Just One Aircraft in the Venezuela Invasion: $91,330 per hour

The MAGA regime has cut critical services for families while spending untold millions on imperialist wars.


The Clock Is Ticking: Invest in the Planet, Not the Pentagon

At the 10 year anniversary of the Paris Agreement, U.S. climate commitments are being swallowed up by military spending.


Ten Examples of MAGA’s Militarized Excess in 2025

As the first year of Trump’s second term comes to a close, here are ten examples of MAGA’S excessive, wasteful, inhumane, and unstrategic militarized spending in 2025. 


10 Years Since the Paris Agreement: $79 Billion to Finance Foreign Arms Sales VS. $2 Billion for Green Climate Fund

The Paris Agreement, adopted on December 12, 2015, was supposed to catalyze global investment in climate finance to assist the world’s most vulnerable and historically exploited countries combat the worsening climate crisis. Instead, over the past decade, Congress has approved roughly 40 times more taxpayer dollars to subsidize weapons companies than support...


Don't Give the Pentagon $1 Trillion

The annual military spending bill paves the way for the first $1-trillion war budget since World War II, by authorizing more than $900 billion for the Pentagon on top of the $156 billion approved by Congress earlier this year.


7 Progressive Policy Wins for Human Needs Over Militarism

This Election Day, progressive ideas swept the polls this month on Election Day. Across multiple elections at the state and local government levels, voters chose pro-people and planet agendas over militarism, fossil fuels, and billionaire corporate interests. 


Senate Chooses $32 Billion For Pentagon Over Healthcare

In the midst of the shutdown, Senators were still busy. They approved a $32 billion increase for the Pentagon on a bipartisan basis, approving the increase by a vote of 77-20 as part of a larger bill, the National Defense Authorization Act.


MAGA Priorities: Golden Dome Over Hungry Families

Once again, the MAGA regime is prioritizing billionaire Pentagon contractors over struggling families.   President Trump and the MAGA regime are weaponizing hunger against millions of Americans by refusing to fund SNAP during the Republican-led government shutdown, resulting in the first ever lapse of food stamp benefits beginning on November 1. ...