US House approves record setting military spending bill
The US House has passed a $725 billion military budget with no debate, the largest single military spending bill in world history.
The US defense budget is now nearly equal to the military spending of all other nations combined. The new budget allocates more on American military spending than was spent by the US during World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, or the Cold War Reagan era military buildup. US military expenditures have risen by at about 119%. The budget highlights both spending increases put in place under former US president George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama. David Swanson, author of the book “War is a Lie,” said although many Americans and experts are calling for military spending cuts, Congress simply is not listening. “This is an absolute outrage in the face of all of this discussion of the deficit, and in the face of all of these revelations of war crimes through WikiLeaks, in the face of the president demanding four more years in this disaster in Afghanistan,” Swanson commented. “To put this through without a debate and without more ‘no’ votes is an outreach.”With both US major political parties in agreement on military spending and the expansion of the military industrial complex, it is no surprise there was little media coverage or challenges to the bill, He explained. When there is little conflict among the parties, there is typically less media coverage. Swanson argued American tax dollars are not appropriately being spent given the immense focus on military spending. “It is really well over 50 cents of every income tax dollar going to this war machine,” he said. Many US congressional districts see themselves as dependent on military spending in order to sustain jobs. Congressional representative are afraid to potentially cut jobs during a recession economy. Swanson explained that, while there are jobs that are dependent on US military spending, those jobs can be replaced with new jobs created by investing the same money in other industries. “We have to convert to non-violent industries. We can’t survive the current course economically,” he added.
