Health care is the fastest-growing type of federal spending, having risen from 7 percent of the federal budget in 1976 to more than a quarter in fiscal year 2015 as health care costs have risen in the industrialized world.
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.
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.
The new law slashes vital services to pay for tax cuts for the rich and massive hikes in military and deportation funding.
The GOP’s extreme increases in militarized spending - at the expense of working people and the planet - will make us all less secure.