In These Times
Lindsay Koshgarian
07/16/2024
If you looked at the U.S. military budget without knowing otherwise, you’d probably guess we were in the midst of World War III.
Our military spending is now the highest it’s been at any point since World War II — and Congress keeps adding more. The GOP-led House of Representatives just passed legislation that will increase military spending to $895 billion, while the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a bill that would total $923 billion.
Those totals don’t even include the military aid to Ukraine and Israel that was included in the $95 billion war package Congress passed this spring. We’re teetering closer and closer to a $1 trillion military budget.
Adjusting for inflation, the last time the U.S. national security budget topped $1 trillion was in 1945, the final year of World War II.
There’s nothing happening in the world today that can justify this level of military spending. Even the war in Ukraine and the decimation of Gaza (which is being carried out with U.S.-supplied weapons) account for just a small fraction of overall spending.
So what’s all this money for?
