U.S. CONGRESS: MORE MONEY FOR THE WAR MACHINE

The Trends Journal has long noted that there is only one thing that brings both parties together in Congress and that is support for the military industrial complex.

Politico reported last week that there is a growing push on Capitol Hill to increase President Joe Biden’s 4 percent defense spending increase to make up for surging inflation and while there are increased global risks in Ukraine and Taiwan. 

“I just think we have everything on our side on this thing,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., the top Senate Armed Services Republican, said, according to the magazine. “We ought to be able to get the adequate increases that we want.”

The Department of Defense’s proposed budget reached $778 billion in 2022, which is a 14 percent increase in military spending compared to 2017, according to ExecutiveGov. China’s current military budget stands at $229 billion.

President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2022 request of $715 billion was eventually increased by Congress to $728.5 billion. Biden’s fiscal year 2023 request is for $813 billion, Politico reported. 

The report said $773 billion for the Pentagon, as well as tens of billions for nuclear weapons programs overseen by the Energy Department. (See “LANDMINE MURDERS IN IRAQ= WASHINGTON’S LOVE OF WAR, EXPERTS SAY,” “WAR CRIME GANG GETS RICHER,” “AMERICA: MILITARY SPENDING HEADED TO RECORD LEVELS” and “MILITARY SPENDING INCREASES AS ECONOMIES DECLINE.”)

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command Adm. Charles Richard, and Commander of U.S. European Command Gen. Tod Wolters told Congress that the Pentagon should continue developing its nuclear weapon arsenal to keep up with the security threats from Russia and China, ArmsControl.org reported. 

“My position on [the nuclear SLCM] has not changed,” Milley told the House Armed Services Committee in April. “My general view is that this president or any president deserves to have multiple options to deal with national security situations.”

Austin recently assured Asian allies that Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget makes one of the largest investments in history to preserve this region’s security, which he said “includes $6.1 billion for our Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which will strengthen multilateral information-sharing and support training and experimentation with our partners.”

TRENDS FORECAST: Congress has never been more divided and disagreements seem to border on hatred from every major domestic issue… but among the only bills that get bipartisan support are for….more military spending! 

Indeed, as we have reported, Democrats in both houses, even those who claim to be for peace, voted to send $40 billion to Ukraine last month to keep bloodying the killing fields.

Military spending will only continue to surge with new threats from China and Russia, and it will continue to cost millions of lives until there is a legitimate pro-peace leader. 

Yet, there are minimal protests among Americans to end the foreign entanglements sapping economic resources of their declining, deep in $30 trillion nation of debt to further enriching the military/industrial/intelligence complex.