Democrats support increase in war budget; why doesn't corporate media ask questions about this?

 LTE by David Delk, Chair of OR Progressive Party, was published by the Portland Tribune

Year after year, America spends close to half of its discretionary budget on military budgeting; more than the total of the next 11 countries combined, including China and Russia. It is 12 times higher than the military budget of Russia. It is said that this is the price of security but still it did not stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It appears to be a false security.

Biden’s budget request for the Pentagon is $813 billion dollars, a $31 billion increase over last year’s budget. Congress will likely increase that by another $25 billion or more.

Yet our national and local media doesn’t ask questions of candidates about this ever increasing military budget. No questions about how this budget reflects the priorities of America, even as the needs of the people cannot be provided for - housing, healthcare, or relief from student and medical debt, for instance. Congress even seems to be having a difficult time approving a new expenditure for fighting the COVID pandemic!

It seems that the world’s greatest democracy and “freest” press cannot find its voice to ask important questions. One wonders if we have a democracy at all, or, if we do, who our democracy represents.

Let’s have a national discussion of priorities: war v. human needs. That discussion could begin if the press did its job and asked some hard questions. But we don’t have to wait on the “freest press”. We can start asking the questions ourselves. Let’s do that now.

Chris Hedges Writes about the Perpetual U.S. War Econony

The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism. No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable Covid relief program. No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.

The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $ 6 trillion more than the US GDP of $ 24 trillion. Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year. We spent more on the military, $ 813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.

Read more at https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/no-way-out-but-war

Two American war parties approve spending $40.1 b for war on Ukraine w/all 'progressive" members voting Yes

Both the House and Senate have voted to approve the Biden request for additional funds to conduct our war in Ukraine.  While Biden had requested $33 B, Congress added $7 b more, approving a total of $40.1 Billion.   

This again was another bi-partisan support for more war by the two American War Parties, the Democrat' and Republicans.  The House vote was 368 Yes vs 57 No, while the Senate vote was 86 yes v 11 No.  All the No votes in both the Senate and House were from Republican members of Congress.  All OR Representatives voted Yes as did both Or Senators.  Note that all members of the Progressive Squad voted including AOC voted in favor of additional funding.  Progressive Senator Sanders voted in favor.  

Checking the websites of Rep. Blumenauer and Bonamici as well as Sen Wyden and Merkley, looking for press statements from them explaining their votes.  None of them thought their votes important enough to warrant a statement.  SHAME!

See the votes in the House here and in the Senate here.  

I think that it would be very appropriate for us to call Rep. Bluemanuer and Rep. Bonamici as well as Senators Wyden and Merkley and ask that they explain their vote.  We need to have some accountability.  Find their contact info easily here:  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/map

Glenn Greenwald in a story noted:  

 

To put this $54 billion [DD note:  that is $40.1 billion plus $14 billion which had been approved shortly after the beginning of the conflict] amount in perspective, it is (a) larger than the average annual amount that the U.S. spent on its own war in Afghanistan ($46 billion), (b) close to the overall amount Russia spends on its entire military for the year ($69 billion), (c) close to 7% of the overall U.S. military budget, by far the largest in the world ($778 billion), and (d) certain to be far, far higher — easily into the hundreds of billions of dollars and likely the trillion dollar level — given that U.S. officials insist that this war will last not months but years, and that it will stand with Ukraine until the bitter end.

Link to Glenn Greenwald story:  https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-bizarre-unanimous-dem-support-426?s=r

Results for the Candidates Endorsed by the OPP in the May 2022 Primary Election

The Oregon Progressive Party endorsed these candidates running in the May 17, 2022, primary election:

Non-Partisan Office	Candidate	Result
OR Labor Commissioner	Chris Henry	6th place
Portland City Auditor	Brian Setzler	2nd place
Portland City Council	Jo Ann Hardesty	1st place*

Office Sought in Primary	Candidate	Result
Governor (D)	Patrick Starnes	3rd place
U.S. Congress #2 (D)	Adam Prine	2nd place
U.S. Congress #4 (D)	Doyle Canning	2nd place
Oregon House #19 (D)	Jackie Leung	withdrew
Oregon House #41 (D)	Mark Gamba	1st place
Oregon House #44 (D)	Eric Delehoy	withdrew
Oregon House #45 (D)	Catherine Thomasson	2nd place

*Jo Ann Hardesty earned 44% of the vote in the 11-candidate
race for Portland City Commissioner #3.  That puts her in a
runoff against Rene Gonzalez (23%) in November 2022.