U.S. military budget

[Jitendra Hydonus]

Pete Hegseth wants to hand the Pentagon $1.5 TRILLION next year, and Trump himself just admitted what it means: "We can't take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare."

That's a direct quote.

The number exceeds every military budget in American history, adjusted for inflation. More than peak World War II. More than the Cold War. It's over four times what China spends on defense, and more than the next four biggest spenders combined: China, Russia, Germany, and India.

And it doesn't include the war with Iran. The Pentagon now admits that war has cost $29 billion, with internal estimates suggesting closer to $50 billion.

A new poll from Brown University's Costs of War Project found nearly 60% of Americans say the proposed budget is too high. 87% of Democrats. 54% of independents. Even 30% of Republicans.

The Pentagon has never passed an audit. Not once. Trump fired the inspector general who looks into fraud in military contracting, and gutted the independent office that tests whether our weapons actually work.

Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy fighter pilot, said the $1.5 trillion figure looks like it was "pulled out of thin air." Hegseth couldn't name what specific threat required it. Trump just spent the week in China calling Xi a "friend."

Meanwhile, here's what this budget does to your country.

WIC, the program serving roughly half of all American newborns, sees its monthly fruit and vegetable benefit cut from $54 to $13 for breastfeeding mothers, and from $27 to $10 for young children.

LIHEAP, the program that keeps poor families from freezing in winter and dying of heat stroke in summer, eliminated entirely. HUD slashed by 13%. Medicaid already cut by nearly a trillion dollars under this administration.

$18 billion goes to Trump's "Golden Dome" missile shield, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost $1.2 trillion over 20 years to build something that may never work.

A country that lets its children go hungry to fatten a defense contractor's stock price is not strong. It's sick.