Sanders Statement on President Biden's Discretionary Budget Request

[Donkees]

04.09.21

WASHINGTON, April 9 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, on Friday issued the following statement after President Joe Biden introduced his FY 2022 discretionary budget request:

"At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when tens of millions of Americans continue to recover from the worst economic and public health crisis in modern history, I’m glad that President Biden has presented a discretionary budget that begins to address the urgent unmet needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.

"President Biden’s budget request proposes a much needed and substantial increase in funding for education, affordable housing, health care, environmental protection and the needs of our veterans. At a time when over half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, and millions of elderly people are experiencing poverty, this budget goes a long way in providing the help that so many Americans desperately need.

"I have serious concerns, however, about the proposed $753 billion budget request for the bloated Pentagon – a $12.3 billion increase compared to the last year of the Trump Administration. At a time when the U.S. already spends more on the military than the next 12 nations combined, it is time for us to take a serious look at the massive cost over-runs, the waste and fraud that currently exists at the Pentagon.

"As the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I look forward to carefully reviewing the President’s request and working with my colleagues to write a budget that works for all of our people, not just the wealthy and well-connected."

https://www.budget.senate.gov/chairman/newsroom/press/news-sanders-statement-on-president-bidens-discretionary-budget-request

[George II]

1. Why is this statement bashing President Biden posted?

[ColinC]

11. "serious concerns" about putting more money into an already bloated pentagon

...is not bashing. It is addressing a long ignored problem that needs to be taken care of. In fact the statement is largely rightfully praising President Biden and his agenda.

[Demsrule86]

14. Yes it is.

[wackadoo wabbit]

20. Do you seriously saying that the Pentagon budget isn't bloated? /nt

[Demsrule86]

24. Sen. Sanders knows full well that is a small increase.

[George II]

15. It's an increase of less than 4% of the existing budget, and considering inflation it's about 2%....

MOST of which is for salary increases. When did pay increases suddenly become an issue?

[wackadoo wabbit]

21. That may be, but since the military budget is already incredibly bloated, any increase is too great

The Pentagon is constantly losing literally trillions of dollars. Let them fund their salary increases out of that.

[George II]

23. The annual defense budget in it's entirety is less than $750 billion, so I don't see how they're....

...."constantly losing literally trillions of dollars".

In order to lose "literally trillions of dollars" they'd have to lose the ENTIRE annual defense budget for three straight years.

[msongs]

2. Mr F-35 speaks out about wasteful military spending lololololol nt

[betsuni]

5. Didn't that bloated military spending program cost 1.2 trillion?

[George II]

7. Each F-35 alone has a lifetime cost of $1.6T, that's EACH aircraft!

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/air-force-admits-f-35-fighter-jet-costs-too-much-ncna1259781

With an estimated lifetime cost of $1.6 trillion, the F-35 Lightning II, conceived as a versatile, super stealthy next-generation fighter plane, is the most expensive weapon system ever built.

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/pentagon-reportedly-estimates-that-the-f-35-budget-plan-is-running-10-billion-short-through-2025-1.644700

Pentagon reportedly estimates that the F-35 budget plan is running $10 billion short through 2025

The F-35's total "life cycle" cost is estimated at $1.727 trillion in current dollars.

[betsuni]

8. Now that's really bloated! I have serious concerns.

A White House official said a large amount of the increase in military spending is for a 2.7% pay increase for service members that was announced last year, so I don't understand why Sanders' concerns are serious. I think he should wait until he knows what the Pentagon spending is for.

[George II]

9. Right, almost ALL of the increase is for pay increases, and 25% of the entire defense budget....

...is for salary, and roughly 10% is for Veterans Affairs.

That's roughly one-third spent on PEOPLE.

Taking into account inflation, I read the other day that the defense budget is basically flat compared to last year.

[betsuni]

12. Yes, they said that accounting for inflation it's roughly the same as 2020.

I suppose it's only a matter of time before we hear about drone warfare again, a constant complaint against President Obama that completely disappears when a Republican's in office, even though just in Yemen there were 176 strikes during two years of Trump compared with 154 in all eight years of Obama's administration. The rule: Always assume evil intentions of Democrats, ignore Republicans. If a President Hillary Clinton had increased the Pentagon budget even a little, people would completely lose their minds. Ha!

[Celerity]

18. That's the total programme cost, not each one of the 625 built so far. If it was per plane

that is over 1 quadrillion USD for the lifetime cost, which is 38 times or so the entire national debt of the US at present.

[Chuuku Davis]

25. That is not correct

Each one is going to be $75-90 million when all is tallied.

Need to buy a bunch of Super Tucanos also for ground support.

[lapucelle]

3. We can save $1,500,000,000,000 ($1.5 trillion) if the F-35 does not go into full production.

The Biden administration must decide whether to allow the plane, which still has serious design and software flaws, to move into full-scale production, at a cost of $1.5 trillion. Many analysts, as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have argued that given all the problems it has, the Pentagon should stop throwing good money after bad and cease procuring more F-35s, and it should instead build more B-21 bombers. In late December 2020, Ellen Lord, the former undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, postponed the March 21, 2021, decision on whether the F-35 was ready for full production.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2021/03/10/496890/opportunity-change-president-bidens-first-defense-budget-proposal/

[George II]

6. Late last year the last of 20 F-35s assigned to the VTANG arrived in Burlington. Vermont is...

....the first state in the country to receive it's entire complement of F-35s.

I don't know why Vermont needs TWENTY of those aircraft, but at least we can rest assured that we're prepared in case of a sneak air strike from Canada.

[msongs]

10. who in vermont could possibly benefit politically from having those planes there? nt

[sheshe2]

19. Hmmm...

[betsuni]

22. ...

[sheshe2]

13. They are flawed...

And Hillary's words are correct.

[div class="excerpt"the Pentagon should stop throwing good money after bad and cease procuring more F-35s, and it should instead build more B-21 bombers.

[George II]

16. We could probably eliminate the entire increase by mothballing a couple or three...

... of the F-35s currently based in Vermont. I have it on good authority that Canada has no plans of mounting an air strike on New England, at least as long as Biden is President.

[sheshe2]

17. I will take you at your word about Canada. ;)

[brush]

4. Bernie, Bernie, Bernie. Always the contrarian but he neglests to mention...

that many F-35 components are produced in his state.

Can we say hypocrisy?