Budget Matters Blog


Immigration Policy Doesn't Have to Be This Way

For 20 years, the Department of Homeland Security has made life a nightmare for millions — but Dreamers like me have seen that there’s another way.


One of the Highest Military Budgets in History

Current military spending is higher than the height of military spending during the Reagan years at the height of the Cold War. Looking further back, the Biden request is higher than the height of the Vietnam or Korean wars, too. 


A Quarter of Biden’s Budget Will Go to Pentagon Contractors

While more than half of the federal discretionary budget under the president’s proposal would go to the military, fully two-thirds would go to a combination of the military, veterans’ programs, and heavily militarized homeland security programs. 


Seven Things We Could Do If We Cut the Pentagon by $100 Billion

What would be possible if we had an extra $100 billion to spend on urgent human needs? 


Senators Failed to Add Anti-Immigrant Border Policy to Budget Deal

Yesterday, two anti-immigrant amendments that would have extended the legacy of the draconian Trump-era immigration policy, Title 42, each took the Senate floor for a vote. Both failed. 


Pentagon Fails Audit, Asks for More Money (Again)

Can you imagine the audacity to fail a multi-trillion dollar audit of public funds, and then ask for even more of those taxpayer dollars?


Defueling Red Hill Is Not Enough: It’s Time to Demilitarize the Asia-Pacific

It’s time for progressives to add our voices and demand demilitarization so that people in Hawai’i, Guam, Okinawa and elsewhere can live free from the environmental and human degradations imposed by the U.S. military.


What does national security mean without climate security?

This country’s spending on the Pentagon and nuclear weapons is done in the name of “national security.” Not to mention the billions more for “homeland security,” largely in the form of immigration enforcement, deportations, and border militarization.

Meanwhile, thousands of people in Florida and Puerto Rico are without basic security after Hurricane Ian, having lost power, homes and loved ones to the latest in the string of extreme weather events that have grown more frequent and more devastating due to climate change.


Relieving All Student Debt Would Cost as Much as the F35 Jet Fighter

Total student loan debt in the United States amounts to $1.7 trillion — that's already how much the Pentagon is set to spend on its most expensive weapon system, the F-35 jet fighter.


Police Violence is Gun Violence Too

If we really want to curb gun violence in this country, our nation’s police budgets are a good place to start.