Astonishing Moral Cowardice': Sanders and Khanna Denounce $738 Billion Bipartisan Pentagon Giveaway

This illuminates one more time that it isn’t just that “other political party” that’s the problem! Corporate democrats are, in the bigger picture, just as dangerous to our country and the planet as their republican counterparts. In too many ways they are mirrors for each other and without moral bearing or consciousness of and commitment to a higher good. Truly, whoever is supporting endless wars, drill baby drill, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and all the countless manifestations of the deadly predatory capitalist system must go! — Molly

"This bill does nothing to rein in out-of-control military spending, prevent unconstitutional war against Iran, limit the poisoning of Americans' drinking water, or end the obscenity of innocent children in Yemen 

being killed by U.S. bombs."

By

Jake Johnson

After House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Monday on a massive annual military spending measure, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna condemned the bipartisan compromise as "a bill of astonishing moral cowardice" that will hand the Pentagon $738 billion in 2020 while doing nothing to end U.S. complicity in Saudi Arabia's assault on Yemen.

"Congress should have used this National Defense Authorization Act to stop our endless wars," Sanders and Khanna said in a joint statement late Monday. "Instead, this bill does nothing to rein in out-of-control military spending, prevent unconstitutional war against Iran, limit the poisoning of Americans' drinking water, or end the obscenity of innocent children in Yemen being killed by U.S. bombs."

The two progressives noted that the tens of billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending under the 2020 NDAA would be "more than enough to fund tuition-free public college across America."

Sanders and Khanna added:

Voters would be appalled to know that instead of seizing the opportunity to end illegal U.S. participation in the horrific Saudi-led bombings of Yemen, Congress will continue to fund Trump's unconstitutional war, which threatens to kill 24 million Yemenis facing starvation and disease. Americans will be furious to learn that Congress refused to protect Americans from being poisoned by toxic PFAS chemicals polluting their drinking water.

Every member of Congress should vote against this measure. There is no pressing reason for Congress to shower Trump, his Saudi friends, and the Pentagon contractors of the military-industrial complex with this $738-billion taxpayer giveaway right now. We owe it to the American people to go back to the drawing board. Congress must say no.

As Common Dreams reported last month, Sanders and Khanna led an effort to include amendments to the NDAA that would cut off U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's bombings in Yemen, which have fueled the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.   

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