Let Us Reduce Our Bloated Military Budget And Invest In Communities That Need It Most

Transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel. ending a cruel and dysfunctional health care system or addressing the grotesque levels of income and wealth inequality in our country now is the time for a change real change. and when we talk about real change it is incredible to me The. Which Congress continues to ignore our bloated 740 billion dollar defense budget, which has gone up by over a hundred billion since Trump has been in office. year after year Democrats and Republicans who disagree on almost everything. come together. Minimal debate to support and exploding Pentagon budget, which is now higher than the next 11 countries combined now higher than the next 11 countries combined and which represents more than half of our discretionary spending. incredibly. after adjusting for. Inflation. we are now spending more on the military than we did during the height of the Cold War when we faced a major adversary in the Soviet Union. or during the wars in Vietnam and Korea. this extraordinary level of military spending comes at a time when the Department of Defense is the only agency of our federal government that has not. Able to pass an independent audit when defense contractors are making enormous profits while paying their CEOs exorbitant compensation packages and when the so-called war on terror. will end up costing us some six. trillion dollars. I believe. that this is. Moment in history. where it would be a very good idea for all of my colleagues and the American people to remember what former Republican President Dwight D Eisenhower said. in 1953. and as we all recall. Eisenhower was a four -star general who led Forces the victory in Europe during World War two, he knew something. about war and defense spending. Eisenhower said. And I quote and this is a profound statement that we should never forget. Eisenhower said. And I quote. every gun that is made. every war launched every rocket. Signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not Fed. those who are cold and are not clothed This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children end end quote Dwight D Eisenhower. Eisenhower said was profoundly true. 67 years ago and it is profoundly true today. if the horrific pandemic we are now experiencing. has taught us anything It is that National security. is not just building bombs missiles jet fighters. Submarines nuclear warheads and other weapons of Mass destruction. National Security also means doing everything we can to improve the lives of our people many of whom have been abandoned by our government decade after decade. Mister President in order to begin the process of transforming our National priorities. I have filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act with Senator Markey of Massachusetts to reduce the military budget by 10 percent and to use the 74 billion dollars in savings to invest in distressed. All across our country. communities that have been ravaged by extreme poverty Mass incarceration. the industrialization and decades of neglect. At a time when more Americans have died from the Corona virus, then were killed fighting in World War one. when over 30 million Americans have lost their jobs in recent months, 30 million. when tens of millions of Americans are in danger of being evicted from their apartments or their homes because they no longer have adequate income when. Haitian in America from child care to graduate school is in desperate need of reform. when a half a million Americans are homeless tonight. and we close to 100 million of our people. are either uninsured or under insured now is the time to invest in our people. in jobs education. Housing health care here at home Not more. military spending for an already bloated military budget now is the time to get our priorities right. This amendment distress communities in every state in our country would be able to use the 74 billion dollars in funding to create jobs by building affordable housing desperately needed in our country by investing in schools with school budgets all over America are in desperate shape. investing in child. Facilities. Community Health centers public hospitals libraries sustainable energy projects and clean drinking water facilities. These communities will also receive federal funding to hire more public school teachers. provide nutritious meals to our children. and all for free tuition at public colleges universities and trade schools. Mister President at this pivotal moment in American history. we have to rethink our nation's priorities. and we have to make a fundamental decision about who we are as a people. Do we really want to spend billions more on endless wars in the middle east or do we want to provide good paying jobs the millions of unemployed Americans at home as we rebuild our communities do we want to spend more money on nuclear weapons or what do we want to invest in child care And health care. for the American people who need it the most. It's the President when we take a close look at the Defense Department budget and sorry to say that I don't think we are doing that here in the Senate, It is interesting to note that Congress has appropriated so much money for the Defense Department that the Pentagon literally does not know what to do with it. Children go hungry in America People sleep out on the Street out on the streets. Young people can't afford to go to College, but the pence Department literally does not know what to do with all of the money. that Congress throws at it. according to the Government Accountability Office, the GAO. between 2013 and 2018 the Pentagon returned more than 80 billion dollars in funding back to. They couldn't spend the money that they have. In my view, the time is long overdue for us to take a hard look not only at the size of the Pentagon budget, but at the enormous amount of waste cost overruns, Freud and at the financial mismanagement that has plagued the Department of Defense for decades. Let us be clear. about half of the Pentagon's budget goes directly into the hands of private contractors. not our troops and I think I. share the view with every member of the Senate that we must protect our troops. I don't want troops and their families on food stamps. I don't want to see our military living in inadequate. Or lacking childcare for their kids, we must make sure that our men and women in the armed forces have a good quality of life as we can provide. but let us not forget that about half of the Pentagon's budget goes directly into the hands of private contractors, not the troops. and over the past two decades virtually. Major defense contractor in the United States has paid millions of dollars in fines and settlements for misconduct and fraud. all while making huge profits on those government contracts. since 1990, - five Boeing Lockheed Martin and United Technologies some of the major defense contractors in America, have paid over. Three billion dollars in fines. or related settlements for fraud or misconduct over three billion dollars in fines or related settlements fraud or misconduct yet. those three companies received around one trillion dollars in defense contracts over the past two decades alone. Mister President I find it interesting that the very same defense contractors that have been found guilty or reach settlements for fraud. are also paying their CEOs excessive compensation packages. Last year, the CEOs of Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman both made over 20 million dollars total compensation. while 90 percent of the company's revenue came from defense contracts in other words these companies and it's important to note that we don't talk about this often for. Intent and purposes these companies are governmental agencies. They are receiving over 90 percent of their revenue from the federal government. Yeah, they're private Corporation but they are essentially a subsidiary of the federal government and yet despite receiving over 90 percent of their funding from the taxpayers of this country they are paying their CEOs over a hundred times more than the Secretary of defense makes. Secretary of defense does just fine. but the CEOs on government. revenue. of the major defense companies earn a hundred times more than the Secretary of defense. It is not therefore a very surprising to learn have a revolving door. where our generals and Admirals and high-ranking officials in the military. Leave Government service and then end up on the boards of directors of these major defense companies. more of mister President as the GAO has told us there are massive cost overruns in the defense departments acquisition budget. that the United States Congress must address according to the GAO the Pentagon's one point eight trillion dollar acquisition portfolio currently. For more than 628 billion dollars in cost over runs, which must with with much of the cost taking place after production in other words they tell the government they tell the DOD that they will produce a weapon system for X dollars doesn't mean much because the total amount ends up being why after they get the contract. GAO also tells us the quote and I quote many DOD programs for short of course. schedule and performance expectations. meaning the DOD pays more than anticipated can buy less than expected and in some cases, the live is less capability to the war fighter and of quote that's from the DOD. That's from the GAO Sorry jail. The President, the Commission on wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, concluded in 2011. that 31 to 60 billion dollars spent in Iraq and Afghanistan have been lost to fraud and waste 31 to 60 billion dollars. separately in 2015, the special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported that the Pentagon could not account for 40. Billion in funding for reconstruction projects just got lost. a few bucks here a few bucks there 0405 billion dollars. of taxpayer money was lost could not be accounted for and more recently in order conducted by Ernst Young for the Defense logistics agency found that the DOD could not properly account for some eight hundred million in construction projects. Mister President That is what happens when you have a huge agency is truly unaccountable. Now I believe in a strong military, but we cannot keep giving more money to the Pentagon than it needs. when millions of children in our country. are food insecure. When A hundred and 40 million Americans cannot afford the basic necessities of life. without going into debt, throwing billions of billions into the Pentagon and a few blocks away from here, the nation's capital people's sleep out on the streets children. Can't find decent education. young people can't afford to go to College. in 1966. Doctor Martin Luther King Junior warned us that and I quote a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death and me repeat that. Dr King said. And I quote a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. The time is long overdue for the United States Senate to listen to what doctor King said. At a time when in the richest country in the history of the world. half of our people are struggling paycheck to paycheck. went over 40 million Americans are living in poverty and when over 500000 Americans are homeless. to quote Doctor King we are approaching spiritual death. at a time when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major. Tree on Earth and when millions of Americans are in danger of going hungry. We are approaching spiritual death. at a time when over 60000 Americans die unnecessarily every year. because they can't afford to go to a doctor when they need to go to a doctor and when one out of five Americans Cannot afford the prescription drugs their doctors prescribe. yes. Are approaching spiritual death. Now, at this moment of unprecedented National crisis. it is time to rethink what we value as a society and to fundamentally transform. our National priorities The status quo is no longer good enough now. at this moment. Of National crisis. a growing pandemic and economic meltdown the demand to end systemic racism and police brutality. and an unstable President. It is time for us. to truly focus on what we value as a society and to fundamentally transform. our National priorities. cutting the. By 10 percent and investing that money in human needs is a modest way to begin that process and with that Mister President I yield the floor.