Part of the Series
Fighting for Our Lives: The Movement for Medicare for All
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has vowed to vote against the 2023 national defense budget, saying that it is unconscionable to spend that amount on defense when millions across the U.S. are struggling to survive.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, Sanders said that he is planning to continue his tradition of voting against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) when it soon comes to a vote in the Senate.
“Look, we have 85 million Americans who have no health insurance. We have 600,000 people who are homeless. We have a dysfunctional health care system, dysfunctional child care system where working parents are paying $15,000 a year on average for child care,” Sanders said. “We have got to start protecting the needs of working families.”
He went on to criticize the Pentagon’s continual failure to account for the massive amount of funding that it gets each year.
“The Pentagon is the one major agency of government which has never been independently audited. There is massive waste and fraud and cost overruns within that agency,” he said. “I think that we can have the strong defense that we need without spending the huge amount of money that we’re currently spending on the military.”
Lawmakers from both major parties deem the NDAA a “must-pass” bill each year. It has reached towering new heights in this year’s proposal that will likely pass the Senate in upcoming weeks, coming to a total of $858 billion — smashing records set in previous years and exceeding President Joe Biden’s already sky-high defense request by over $50 billion.
Progressives, including Sanders, have condemned the Pentagon budget year after year, pointing out that over half of the hundreds of billions of dollars allocated for defense go toward massive private contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing — and, in turn, help pad those companies’ huge profits.
The House passed the NDAA last week by a 350 to 80 vote, with left-leaning lawmakers like Squad members Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Cori Bush (D-Missouri), Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), and others voting against it. Some Republicans voted against the bill — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) had baseless complaints about “woke” provisions in the bill — despite scoring a major win for their party in getting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members ended.
Sanders said that, rather than funding defense, his priorities are soon going to be lowering the price of prescription drugs and advocating for Medicare for All. In the new Congress, the senator is slated to become the chair of the influential Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, where he has vowed to focus on universal health care, advancing workers’ rights and access to higher education.
“In that job, I intend to do everything I can to lower the outrageously high costs of prescription drugs in this country,” he said. “We’re going to take on the pharmaceutical industry, we’re going to take on the insurance industry, and try to end the situation where we are the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people.”
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $140,000 in one-time donations and to add 1469 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
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