The now infamous DOGE is raising all kinds of chaos in DC….but the one place that needs slimming down and budget cuts is somehow missing from the long list of targets.
CDC slashed to the bone, IRS being attacked, Social Security under a cloud, etc etc….but what about the one department with the most obscene budget and little to no oversight…..the War Department?
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Monday that the Pentagon will soon have its first $1 trillion budget despite the Trump administration’s pledges to cut government spending.
Hegseth made the announcement on X while sharing a video of President Trump saying that his administration approved a plan for a $1 trillion military budget. “Nobody’s seen anything like it. We have to build out military, and we’re very cost-conscious, but the military is something we have to build, and we have to be strong,” he said while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump said he was “proud to say” it will be the biggest military budget “we’ve ever done.”
Hegseth wrote on X, “Thank you Mr. President! COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar [Defense Department] budget.”
Hegseth said the Pentagon would “spend every taxpayer dollar wisely,” but he is currently overseeing a massive bombing campaign in Yemen that’s failed to achieve its stated goal of stopping Houthi attacks and will soon cost over $1 billion in just a month of operations.
While the Pentagon has never had a $1 trillion budget, the actual cost of total US military spending has exceeded $1 trillion for years.
The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which President Biden signed into law in December 2023, totaled $895 billion. According to veteran defense analyst Winslow Wheeler, based on the $895 billion NDAA, US national security spending for 2025 is expected to reach about $1.77 trillion.
Wheeler’s estimate accounts for military-related spending from other government agencies not funded by the NDAA, such as the Department of Veteran Affairs and Homeland Security. It also includes the national security share of the interest accrued on the US debt and other factors.
Trump and Hegseth’s comments suggest the president will request a $1 trillion NDAA for 2026, which would really bring total US military spending close to $2 trillion.
(antiwar.com)
Seriously?
This is obscene…..this is pathetic…..this is stupid.
Does this country need to spend $2 trillion on war prep?
I think not!
Thoughts?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Yeah, I saw this coming. The military is without a doubt the single most wasteful government entity. It starts with milti-billion dollar high tech weapons systems that simply don’t work like the navy’s littoral ship fiasco, and extending down the entire chain to supply contractors charging the military 500% markups on stuff they could get for a fraction of the price at the local Walmart. Congress eagerly cooperates in it as well in order to be able to brag back home how they brought government money back to the home state for military contractors. Politicians here i Wisconsin were lining up to get their pictures taken up at the shipyards up in Marinette bragging how they snagged hundreds of millions of dollars to support a few hundred jobs at the shipyard. Well they did until the whole program failed utterly when it was discovered the ships didn’t actually work. Now they’re trying just as desperately to absolve themselves of any blame for it.
Do not forget the ‘flying brick’–F35…..lobbyists have buckets of money for the Congress and they willingly accept…there are about 12000 lobbyists in DC that means about 23 per member of Congress and they all have money to buy influence. sickening. chuq
Maybe Trump is preparing to cote Hitler’s plans for world domination and is readying his forces and weaponry for that. A Megalomaniac at work.
He is not alone….apparently it is the same no matter which dullard holds the White House. chuq
The MIC is never going to suffer any cuts, as the politicians are bought and paid for to keep voting them money, and the myth of America’s military might must be perpetuated. Much the same thing going on here, with more money for Ukraine, new warships ordered, and an extra 1.5% of spending on the military overall. Yet they have cut benefits for the disabled, pensioners, and the unemployed.
Best wishes, Pete.
I is pathetic when one has to be the tough in the playground…..chuq
You can’t take over the world without a very large military. Ask Hitler how that works.
Apparently did not work out in the end….a lesson learned? chuq
This comment by Hegseth sounds just like the guy whose ass he is kissing: We have to build out military, and we’re very cost-conscious, but the military is something we have to build, and we have to be strong, Idol worship is a real thing.
That is a bs line that does nothing to protect anything but his job. chuq