 Views & Opinions |
Views & Opinions |
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The Pentagon's 2024 budget will be at least $953 billion. Adjusting for inflation, notes journalist Stephen Semler, that's more than the average annual U.S. military budget during World War II. |
"A trillion-dollar Pentagon budget used to be hyperbole," he writes. "Now it's almost reality." Semler notes that a majority of our military budget goes to private contractors, and that "the Pentagon allows these contractors to overcharge taxpayers on almost everything it buys." "The arms industry goes great lengths to keep it this way," he writes. "Military contractors fund influential think tanks to give their profit-driven demands a scholarly gloss, retain more lobbyists than Congress has elected officials, and pour tens of millions of dollars into elections." Lawmakers who wish to move toward a sensible level of military spending should know two things, says Semler. First, polls show the public supports a leaner Pentagon budget. Second, public opinion is not enough. Public pressure is what's needed. "Introducing a bill that addresses Pentagon excess and working people's material concerns can help." More than anything, he concludes, stopping the continued military buildup "requires a mass movement to overcome the arms industry's hold over Congress." Read the op-ed at TheHill.com. |
Welcome to The Hill's Views & Opinions newsletter, it's Friday, April 26. I'm Daniel Allott, bringing together a collection of key opinion pieces published from a wide range of voices. |
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Op-eds exploring key issues affecting the U.S. and world: |
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By Chris Truax, charter member of the Society for the Rule of Law |
Yes, all things considered, it's unlikely that a former president — much less a potential president-elect — would find himself in jail or prison. Of course, it's also unlikely that a former president would find himself facing four separate criminal trials. Yet here we are. |
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By Mark Pinsky, author of "A Jew Among the Evangelicals: A Guide for the Perplexed" |
At the risk of being unduly reductive, this struggle is one of territory; literally, the soil — the soil of homeland, not just dirt. From the perspective of 30,000 feet and 3,000 years of history, no one has an exclusive claim to the Holy Land. |
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By Dennis Aftergut, former federal prosecutor |
Trump says the quiet part out loud, offending all perceived and actual foes. Biden, by contrast, knows how to cultivate adversaries and preserve them by keeping mum on his work behind the scenes. |
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By Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute |
If Trump loses, Putin loses too. So long as America and Europe keep providing arms, money and political backing to Kyiv, the best outcome he can hope for is a bloody stalemate. |
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Opinions related to pivotal issues and figures in the news: |
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You're all caught up. See you next time! |
Views expressed by contributors are theirs and not the opinion of The Hill. Interested in submitting an op-ed? Click here. |
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