Budget Matters Blog

Category: Military & Security


U.S. Military Contracts Totaled $3.4 Trillion Over Ten Years

Source: Chart by National Priorities Project, data from USAspending.gov.  As Democrats negotiate the Build Back Better bill from $3.5 trillion (over ten years) down to $1.75 trillion over ten years, priorities like paid leave, free community college, and Medicare expansion for affordable prescriptions, dental, and vision care are all on...

Three Ways to Cut $1 Trillion from the Pentagon (According to the Congressional Budget Office)

Today the Congressional Budget Office released a new report, “Illustrative Options for National Defense Under a Smaller Defense Budget,” that outlines three different options for cutting funding for the Department of Defense by $1 trillion, or 14 percent, over the next ten years. 


Immigration Cruelty Goes Beyond the Border

Migrants are hit long before they migrate, before they reach the border, and often long after they cross it.


Cut the Pentagon Budget by Ten Percent for FY 2022

This week the House of Representatives is voting on the National Defense Authorization Act, the piece of legislation that sets the nation's military policy, and military budget. And, based on actions taken so far by the House Armed Services Committee, the House is positioned to approve nearly $780 billion in military spending. 

That's unless an effort to pass an amendment co-sponsored by Representative Barbara Lee and Representative Mark Pocan to cut the Pentagon budget by ten percent passes. 


NPP Trade-Offs Tool Shows Us Exactly What Resources We Could Invest in When We Divest from ICE & CBP

Congress has the resources to invest in our community.


9/11 at 20: Two Decades of Missed Opportunities

For just a fraction of what we’ve spent on militarization these last 20 years, we could start to make life much better.


A Just Transition For Defense Industries? Lessons from Fossil Fuel Transitions

Plans for a Just Transition away from defense industries do not need to be pulled out of thin air. The ongoing efforts to transition economies, workers, and communities out of the harmful fossil fuel economy provides insights into what works and what doesn’t. 


We've spent billions on war. Now, let's spend to bring Afghans to safety.

In 2020, the Pentagon budgeted $18.6 billion for its Afghanistan operations. That level of investment could pay up-front refugee relocation costs of $15,148 for 1.2 million people.


Rural Towns Deserve Better Than Prison Jobs

Rural prison towns need jobs. There are better ones than guarding people in cages.


To Save the Planet, We Need to Demilitarize the Police

Even with climate disasters all around us, nonviolent environmental demonstrations face fierce police repression. Why?