Rep. Hillary Scholten is a militarist that has supported US Imperialism since she joined Congress in 2023

In a recent Straight Talk with Scholten video, Congresswoman Hillary Scholten talked about the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual US military spending bill.

More accurately, Rep. Scholten talked less about what is in the proposed trillion dollar US Military bill and more about 6 amendments she got passed in the House version of the bill. Those 6 amendments are:

• Expand access to child care for military families.
• Improve the diagnosis and treatment of blast-related brain injuries.
• Explore innovative medical technologies that could reduce recovery times for servicemembers.
• Address shortages in the aviation maintenance workforce.
• Strengthen domestic tool and die manufacturing capabilities.
• Study next-generation vessel materials to improve durability and readiness.

A superficial look at these amendments and one would think that these all sound very nice. However, Rep. Scholten doesn’t provide sufficient context for what is deeply problematic about her amendments. Besides child care access for military families – all working families deserve free access to child care – these amendments are all operating on the premise that the US military is a force for good and the annual US military budget is beneficial to the majority of people living in this country.

Rep. Scholten omits the fact that the US military has about 180 bases around the world, acting primarily as occupying forces in order to maintain global dominance. Scholten also fails to say anything about US weapons sales abroad, US military advisors, direct US military intervention and a whole host of other dynamics that the US military is contributing to the killing of thousands of civilians on an annual basis. Add on to that the fact that the US military is one of the largest consumers of fossil fuels, so large that they burn fossil fuels more than most countries do in any given year.

Besides the child care access amendment, the other amendments either provide medical dollar for research and treatment or more funding for the Military Industrial Complex. There are two easy solutions to these amendments, stop putting US soldiers in situations where they would get injured and stop subsidizing the US military industry that is one of the major driving forces in the massive annual military budget.

Another thing that Rep. Scholten said in her weekly video was to voice her objection to the Trump Administration’s proposal to change the US Department of Defense to the US War Department. Rep. Scholten failed to mention that was the original name that George Washington used, a name which stood until 1949 when President Trump signed the National Security Act. Calling it the US War Department would be more honest, since the US military has primarily been used for war as opposed to defending this country.

Rep. Scholten then says the name change would cost $125 million, but whayt she said most was rather telling. In Scholten’s objection to spending $125 million on the name change she said, “Think about what we could do with that money?”

The irony of this statement is lost on Rep. Scholten. The statement – Think about what we could do with that money – is what anti-war and anti-imperialists have been saying for near two centuries. Since Rep. Scholten joined Congress in 2023, she has voted for the annual US military budget, which has been between $800 billion to $ trillion. Rep. Scholten has voted for over $3 billion in military aid to Israel, plus additional funding to support Israel’s genocidal slaughter of the Palestinians and billions more to Ukraine in their war against Russia.

Rep. Scholten’s missive, where she invites us to think about how we could spend money for something other than US militarism is something that she and her fellow Democrats should embrace. Imagine if half of the US military budget – $500 billion – where withheld. What could we do with $500 billion?

• We could provide affordable housing for everyone who is housing insecure today.
• We could provide free health care to everyone in the US.
• We could invest is efficient and clean mass transit.
• We could invest in a sustainable energy infrastructure.
• We could provide financial and legal support for undocumented immigrants to welcomed into this country instead of subjecting them to ICE. Thus, we could abolish ICE, which Rep. Scholten has made clear she is opposed to.

In the end we have to recognize that Rep. Scholten, like most members of Congress, has consistently voted for US militarism and US imperialism through the annual National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Scholten is a staunch defender of US Empire and will not deviate from that, since the Democrats are equally committed to militarism and imperialism.