Michigan Senator Gary Peters votes to pass $750 billion military budget

For the second year in a row, the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Michigan Senator Gary Peters sits on, has voted for an increase in military spending.

According to the independent news agency, The Intercept:

The Senate version of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act would raise military and other defense spending to levels not seen since 2009, when more than 180,000 troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The Pentagon forecasts that in years to come, its budget requests will keep rising to levels not seen since the World War II.

In some areas, the Senate bill even exceeds what the Trump administration requested. According to a summary document provided by committee staff, the bill authorizes $10 billion for 94 F-35 Fighters — 16 more than the Pentagon asked for.

In a bi-partisan vote of 25 – 2, the Senate Armed Services Committee members voted to approve an increase in US military spending. Some of that spending includes: 

• Fully funds the mission of the men and women of USSTRATCOM, beginning with the sustainment modernization of our nuclear forces, including the warheads and supporting the Department of Energy’s nuclear complex.

• Builds on last year’s support for the supplemental systems announced in the president’s Nuclear Posture Review by authorizing funds for the deployment of a low-yield ballistic missile warhead to increase deterrence against Russia.

• Complements the administration’s approach to comprehensive arms control by requiring the Department of Defense to submit a report describing threats beyond the scope of today’s arms control regime, including Russia’s deployed non-strategic weapons, weapons not covered by New START, non-deployed strategic weapons, and China’s nuclear modernization program.

• Fully authorizes critical bilateral U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense programs.

◦ $69.8 million for several critical weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration – such as the Stockpile Responsiveness Program – in order to buy-down future risk and enhance the resilience of our nuclear complex.

◦ $113 million for the development of the next generation of GPS receivers to ensure the U.S. military continues to have access to resilient position, navigation, and timing capabilities.

• Prohibits any reduction in responsiveness, alert level, or quantity of our ICBM forces.

Michigan Senator Gary Peters voted for this massive US military budget, along with most of his Democratic and Republican colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee. However, Senator Peters does not include many of the details of this increased US military budget in his Press Release from last Friday. Instead, Peters chose to present himself as someone who is looking out for US military veterans and Michigan Defense Contractors. As we have reported in the past, Senator Gary Peters, like his predecessor Carl Levin, have always supported massive US military budgets no matter which party sits in the White House. This dynamic demonstrates that the Democratic Party is equally (and has always been) committed to US imperialism as the Republicans are. However, it won’t matter that Democrats like Gary Peters will vote for massive military budgets, while so many Americans live in poverty, because ultimately people will continue to vote for Democrats no matter how much they defend war and militarism at home and abroad.