The Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing – one of the largest military budgets in American history. Yesterday, President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. The NDAA is an outrageous $778 billion 2022 military spending budget that includes a $25 billion increase from Congress to the White House’s initial budget.
Only 80 members of the House and 8 members of the Senate voted against the NDAA. Congress can approve monstrous military spending budgets with rapid success and bipartisan support but waited until the last day before their holiday break to shoot down the Build Back Better act, which was an already staggeringly weak social spending bill.
The overwhelming support from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to hand the Pentagon $778 billion, while tabling critical social programs, shows us that we truly only have one political party in power – the corporate party.
The Democratic Party continues to use scapegoats like Sen. Joe Manchin to mask their broken promises for funding and passing social programs while continuing to support corporate welfare, despite the fact that Democrats hold the majority in the House, Senate and Presidency. This latest military spending budget just goes to show, the issue stalling legislation isn’t one Senator from West Virginia. Congress can get work done when it benefits the pocketbooks of their corporate donors and the establishment elite.
The corporate-fueled military establishment is thriving, despite pulling troops from Afghanistan, which was touted to save American taxpayers millions a day, but none of those savings are reflected in public needs such as housing, education, and healthcare. Instead, the Warhawk Congress has turned their sights on China by approving an additional $25 billion in spending for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which was included in the Congressional increase over Biden’s initial budget. Congress is marching the United States toward a second cold war while fattening the pockets of bloated military contracts and offering little to no oversight.
We need a new populist party that’s not beholden to corporate influence and the current political power structures. Voters deserve a choice at the ballot box that will fight for universal single-payer healthcare, student loan debt forgiveness, tuition-free college, investments in small business development and for a living wage. It’s time to build a People’s Party.
Yours for the revolution,
Zeynab Day
Executive Director
People’s Party
