Sanders Says He’s Voting Against NDAA: “The Pentagon Doesn’t Need $886B”

Because the Senate prepares to vote on a record-breaking $886 billion finances for protection, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has introduced his intention to vote in opposition to the invoice, saying that it’s “lengthy overdue” for the U.S. to shift its priorities away from piling ever-increasing quantities of cash on the Pentagon and protection contractors.

“The US Senate is now debating an $886 billion protection authorization invoice. Until there are main modifications to the invoice, I intend to vote in opposition to it,” Sanders wrote in a scathing op-ed revealed Monday in The Guardian, headlined “The Pentagon doesn’t want $886 billion.”

Earlier this month, the Home handed this yr’s Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA), which piles $28 billion on high of final yr’s already record-high protection finances. The invoice has been widely denounced by progressive advocates, who say that it’s irresponsible to proceed rising the Pentagon’s already sky-high finances whereas the general public security internet is shrinking and the nation is dealing with a number of overlapping crises.

The senator highlights urgent points that U.S. politicians aren’t working to repair: the worsening local weather disaster, the “damaged” well being care system, the “teetering” schooling system, and rising housing shortages. Whereas these issues are largely being ignored by the political elite, Congress and the White Home have authorized an limitless movement of money to the Pentagon, he stated.

He went on to level out that the U.S. spends extra on the army than the next 10 countries combined, even if the Pentagon has a observe file of dropping observe of trillions of {dollars}; final yr, when the Pentagon failed its annual audit but once more, officers discovered that the division couldn’t account for over 60 % of its property, which totalled $3.5 trillion on the time.

“The Pentagon can’t preserve observe of the {dollars} it already has, resulting in huge waste, fraud and abuse within the sprawling military-industrial complicated,” Sanders wrote. “A critical effort to handle this waste ought to be undertaken earlier than Congress throws more cash on the Pentagon.”

In the meantime, an enormous quantity of Pentagon funding is thrown at protection contractors every year — a observe that Sanders has denounced as “company welfare by a unique identify.” Certainly, former officers and the Division of Protection’s top inspector have discovered that non-public contractors gouge costs as a way to reap billions in earnings from the federal government. These earnings are then handed on to executives and shareholders.

“Virtually half of the Pentagon finances goes to personal contractors, a few of whom are exploiting their monopoly positions and the belief granted them by america to line their pockets,” Sanders wrote within the op-ed. “The truth that a share of the earnings from these profitable contracts will movement again to the congressional backers of upper protection budgets within the type of marketing campaign contributions — America’s distinctive system of legalized bribery — makes the entire state of affairs much more unconscionable.”

“As a nation, the time is lengthy overdue for basic modifications to our nationwide priorities. Reducing army spending is an effective first step,” the senator concluded.

Sanders has made an annual custom of voting in opposition to the yearly protection invoice, final yr calling for the federal government to fund Medicare for All as a substitute. Final week, the senator filed amendments to the NDAA that might lower the finances by 10 %, trimming it by $88.6 billion. The amendments would additionally require the Pentagon to return a portion of its finances if it continues to fail audits and to submit a report on protection contractor “fraud” to Congress.