Imagine
this scenario:
A
month before the vote on the federal budget, progressives in Congress
declared, “We’ve studied President Biden’s proposed
$753 billion military budget, an increase of $13 billion from Trump’s
already inflated budget, and we can’t, in good conscience,
support this.”
Now
that would be a show stopper, particularly if they added, “So
we have decided to stand united, arm in arm, as a block of NO votes
on any federal budget resolution that fails to reduce military
spending by 10-30 percent. We stand united against a federal budget
resolution that includes upwards of $30 billion for new nuclear
weapons slated to ultimately cost nearly $2 trillion. We stand united
in demanding the $50 billion earmarked to maintain all 800 overseas
bases, including the new one under construction in Henoko, Okinawa,
be reduced by a third because it’s time we scaled back on plans
for global domination.”
“Ditto,”
they say, “for the billions the President wants for the
arms-escalating US Space Force, one of Trump’s worst ideas,
right up there with hydroxychloroquine to cure COVID-19, and, no, we
don’t want to escalate our troop deployments for a military
confrontation with China in the South China Sea. It’s time to
‘right-size’ the military budget and demilitarize our
foreign policy.”
Progressives
uniting as a block to resist out-of-control military spending would
be a no-nonsense exercise of raw power reminiscent of how the
right-wing Freedom Caucus challenged the traditional Republicans in
the House in 2015. Without progressives on board, President Biden may
not be able to secure enough votes to pass a federal budget that
would then green light the reconciliation process needed for his
broad domestic agenda.
For
years, progressives in Congress have complained about the bloated
military budget. In 2020, 93 members in the House and 23 in the
Senate voted
to
cut the Pentagon budget by 10% and invest those funds instead in
critical human needs. A House
Spending Reduction Caucus,
co-chaired by Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan, emerged
with 22 members on board.
Meet
the members of the House Defense Spending Reduction Caucus:
Barbara
Lee (CA-13); Mark Pocan (WI-2); Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12); Ilhan
Omar (MN-5); Raùl Grijalva (AZ-3); Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11);
Jan Schakowsky(IL-9); Pramila Jayapal (WA-7); Jared Huffman (CA-2);
Alan Lowenthal (CA-47); James P. McGovern (MA-2); Peter Welch (VT-at
large); Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14); Frank Pallone, Jr (NJ-6).;
Rashida Tlaib (MI-13); Ro Khanna (CA-17); Lori Trahan (MA-3); Steve
Cohen (TN-9); Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), Anna Eshoo (CA-18).
We
also have the Progressive Caucus, the largest Caucus in Congress with
almost 100 members in the House and Senate. Caucus Chair Pramila
Jayapal is all for cutting military spending. “We’re in
the midst of a crisis that has left millions of families unable to
afford food, rent, and bills. But at the same time, we’re
dumping billions of dollars into a bloated Pentagon budget,”
she
said.
“Don’t increase defense spending. Cut it—and invest
that money into our communities.”
Now
is the time for these congresspeople to turn their talk into action.
Consider
the context. President Biden urgently wants to move forward on his
American
Families Plan
rolled
out in his recent State of the Union address. The plan would tax the
rich to invest $1.8 trillion over the next ten years in universal
preschool, two years of tuition-free community college, expanded
healthcare coverage and paid family medical leave.
President
Biden, in the spirit of FDR, also wants to put America back to work
in a $2-trillion infrastructure
program that
will begin to fix our decades-old broken bridges, crumbling sewer
systems and rusting water pipes. This could be his legacy, a light
Green New Deal to transition workers out of the dying fossil fuel
industry.
But
Biden won’t get his infrastructure program and American
Families Plan with higher taxes on the rich, almost 40% on income for
corporations and those earning $400,000 or more a year, without
Congress first passing a budget resolution that includes a top line
for military and non-military spending. Both the budget resolution
and reconciliation bill that would follow are filibuster-proof and
only require a simple majority in the House and Senate to pass.
Easy.
Maybe
not.
To
flex their muscles, Republicans may refuse to vote for a budget
resolution crafted by the Democratic Party that would open the door
to big spending on public goods, such as pre-kindergarten and
expanded health care coverage. That means Biden would need every
Democrat in the House and Senate on board to approve his budget
resolution for military and non-military spending.
So
how’s it looking?
In
the Senate, Democrat Joe Manchin from West VA, a state that went for
Trump over Biden more than two-to-one, wants to scale back Biden’s
infrastructure proposal, but hasn’t sworn to vote down a budget
resolution. As for Senator Bernie Sanders, the much-loved
progressive, ordinarily, he might balk at a record high military
budget, but if the budget resolution ushers in a reconciliation bill
that lowers the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 or 55, the Chair of
the Senate Budget Committee may hold his fire.
That
leaves anti-war activists wondering if Senator Elizabeth Warren, a
critic of the Pentagon budget and "nuclear modernization,"
would consider stepping up as the lone holdout in the Senate,
refusing to vote for a budget that includes billions for new nuclear
weapons. Perhaps with a push from outraged constituents in
Massachusetts, Warren could be convinced to take this bold stand.
Another potential holdout could be California Senator Dianne
Feinstein, who co-chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
Energy and Water Development, the committee that oversees the
budgeting for nuclear weapons. In 2014, Feinstein described the US
nuclear arsenal program as “unnecessarily
and unsustainably large.”
Over
in the House, Biden needs at least 218 of the 222 Democrats to vote
for the budget resolution expected to hit the floor in June or July,
but what if he couldn’t get to 218? What if at least five
members of the House voted no—or even just threatened to vote
no—because the top line for military spending was too high and
the budget included new “money pit” nuclear land-based
missiles to replace 450 Minute Man missiles.
The
polls
show
most
Democrats oppose “nuclear modernization”—a
euphemism for a plan that is anything but modern given that 50
countries have signed on to the Treaty
on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
making
nuclear weapons illegal and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT) requires the US to pursue nuclear disarmament to avoid a
catastrophic accident or intentional atomic holocaust.
Now
is the time for progressive congressional luminaries such as the
Squad’s AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Presley to
unite with Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, as
well as Barbara Lee, Mark Pocan and others in the House
Spending Reduction Caucus
to
put their feet down and stand as a block against a bloated military
budget.
Will
they have the courage to unite behind such a cause? Would they be
willing to play hardball and gum up the works on the way to Biden’s
progressive domestic agenda?
Odds
improve if constituents barrage them with phone calls, emails, and
visible protests. Tell them that in the time of a pandemic, it makes
no sense to approve a military budget that is 90 times the budget of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Tell them that
that the billions saved from “right sizing” the Pentagon
could provide critical funds for addressing the climate crisis. Tell
them that just as we support putting an end to our endless wars, so,
too, we support putting an end to our endless cycle of exponential
military spending.
Call
your representative, especially If you live in a congressional
district represented by one of the members of the Progressive
Caucus
or
the House
Spending Reduction Caucus.
Don’t wait for marching orders from someone else. No time to
wait. In the quiet of the COVID hour, our Congress toils away on
appropriations bills and a budget resolution. The showdown is coming
soon.
Get
organized. Ask for meetings with your representatives or their
foreign policy staffers. Be fierce; be relentless. Channel the grit
of a Pentagon lobbyist.
This
is the moment to demand a substantial cut in military spending that
defunds new nuclear weapons.
This
commentary was originally published by CODEPINK
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