A pro-peace think tank in Washington has condemned the US government for “robbing” from social programs as a new report indicates Congress is set to appropriate $847 billion for defense in 2023 just weeks after the Pentagon admitted once again it has no idea how to account for its spending.
“This month, news broke that the Pentagon once again failed to pass a basic audit showing that it knows where its money goes,” reads a statement from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) posted on their website. “And instead of holding out for any kind of accountability, Congress stands ready to give a big raise to an agency that failed to account for more than 60 percent of its assets."
If passed, the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act would be a big raise for the Department of Defense indeed. The $847 billion defense budget---which Politico reports “would go as high as $858 billion when including programs that fall outside of the jurisdiction of the Senate and House Armed Services committees”---includes a full $45 billion in more spending than President Biden asked for.
Given the DoD’s record so far in terms of keeping track of that money, IPS says the cash could be better spent elsewhere.
“Here’s one solution: the Pentagon needs to be a lot smaller. After twenty years of war, and in a time when government spending is desperately needed elsewhere, the Pentagon’s fifth failed audit in as many years (and having never, ever passed) should be the last straw.”
In mid-November, Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord admitted the US military had not achieved “the progress I would have hoped for” after it was reported the Defense Department had failed its audit for the fifth year running, with just seven of the 27 military agencies investigated coming back clean.
Under such circumstances, IPS notes, continuing to subsidize the US military-industrial complex “isn’t using our taxpayer dollars wisely.”
Rather, “it’s robbing programs that we need, like the discontinued child tax credit that cut child poverty by half,” they argue. “And it’s continuing the Pentagon’s legacy of war, all for the benefit of the contractors who commandeer roughly half of the Pentagon’s budget in any given year.”
On Friday, the Pentagon revealed a new stealth bomber dubbed the B-21 Raider. The cost of the aircraft has not been revealed to the public, but the Air Force has estimated that each bomber costs $692 million to manufacture. The Pentagon plans on manufacturing six B-21 raiders.