House to vote on $895 billion military bill
Polygraph | Newsletter n°282 | 10 Dec 2024
Situation
The House will vote on an $895 billion military policy bill this week, probably tomorrow. The Senate aims to vote on it next week. As a policy bill and not a spending bill, the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) doesn’t actually provide any funding for the Pentagon, but it says how much congressional appropriators can put toward Pentagon programs, hence why the bill is reported with a price tag.
Even if Congress votes to give the Pentagon less than the authorized amount during the normal appropriations process (which won’t take place until after Trump takes office), the military budget will likely end up being stuffed with more money through a supplemental spending bill. For example, the FY2024 NDAA authorized $886 billion, but the FY2024 discretionary Pentagon budget ended up at $954 billion because of Biden’s foreign aid bill.
Will it pass, and what’s in it
Yes, but not by as wide a margin as usual. Democrats who typically champion the annual NDAA will oppose it because of partisan and controversial policies regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and transgender health care.
As usual, though, it’s the non-controversial policies in the NDAA that I find the most alarming — both because of their content and the fact that most members of Congress don’t find them controversial. A few examples:
[1] Continuing to provide intelligence and operational support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza
[2] Ensuring weapons manufacturers don’t have to disclose their CO2e emissions
[3] Accelerating the US military buildup in the Indo-Pacific
[4] Classifying arms transfers to Taiwan
[5] Prohibiting the Pentagon from citing data on casualties/fatalities from the Gaza Ministry of Health. Because everybody relies on those stats, it’s effectively a ban on talking about Palestinian deaths
[6] Privatizing an estimated $478 billion in public funds, based on the average share of military budget authority obligated to contractors from FY2019-23:
^Alt text for screen readers: Most military spending goes to for-profit companies. Private contractors at 55% of the Pentagon budget in fiscal year 2023. This chart shows military contract spending and other military spending for each year between and including 2019 and 2023. In order, in billions of dollars: 2019, 397 in contract spending, 291 billion in other spending; 2020, 430, 294; 2021, 390, 314; 2022, 420, 357; 467, 385. Data: Office of Management and Budget and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
Disturbingly, the chart above on US military spending looks eerily similar to the chart below on US food insecurity, and not just because they’re both yellow. I’m not saying there’s a causal link between rising military expenditures and rising hunger, but they stem from the same moral failure.
The following graph originally appeared in Polygraph newsletter #275.
^Alt text for screen readers: US food insecurity increased 40% since 2021. This graph shows the number of people living in food insecure households in millions. 2019, 35.2; 2020, 38.3; 2021, 33.8; 2022, 44.2; 2023, 47.4. Data: US Department of Agriculture.
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Abe B., Alan F., Andrew R., AT., BartB., BeepBoop, Bill S., Bob N., Brett S. Byron D., Chris, Chris G., Cole H., D. Kepler, David J., David S.,* David V.,* Elizabeth R., Errol S., Foundart, Francis M., Frank R., Gary W., Graham P., Griffin R., Hunter S., Irene B., Isaac, James H., James N., Jcowens, Jennifer, Jerry S., Joe R., John, John A., John K., John M., Jonathan S., Joseph B., Kheng L., Lea S., Leila CL., Linda B., Linda H., Lindsay, Lindsay S.,* Lora L., Mapraputa, Marie R., Mark L., Matthew H.,* Megan., Michael S., Mitchell P., Nick B., Norbert H., Omar D.,* Peter M., Phil, Philip L., Rosemary K., Silversurfer, Springseep, Teddie G., Theresa A., Themadking, Tim C., Timbuk T., Tony L., Tony T., Victor S., William P.
* = founding member
Thanks for documenting this, as well as some of the special provisions tucked into this bill. It is a certainty that 99% of the American taxpayers who fund this crime organization have no knowledge and no real voice in how their money is spent. The MSM treats this all like the natural order of things when it is anything but.
Combining the Pentagon budget with the budget for the Veterans Administration (which represents the legacy costs of our endless wars) totals well over a trillion dollars annually. On top of that we spend another trillion dollars annually on interest costs on the debt, which is largely attributable to decades of obscene military budgets. It is simply unsustainable, but those who are profiting from this don’t give a damn.