How Trump's trillion-dollar war machine enriches the 1% -- Popular Information

[erronis]

https://popular.info/p/how-trumps-trillion-dollar-war-machine
Stephen Semler

Congress will decide in the coming weeks whether to approve a $1 trillion military budget for 2026.

The House-passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) proposes $893 billion in military spending, while the Senate version proposes $926 billion. Whichever total prevails, the White House plans to add another $119 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. All told, next year’s pending military budget stands between $1.012 trillion and $1.045 trillion.

Money is policy. Should Congress approve such a historic sum, it would not only enable many of Trump’s dangerous and unjust policies — including military occupations of US cities, the resumption of nuclear weapons testing, and rushing toward wars in Mexico, Nigeria, and Venezuela — it would also trigger a historic redistribution of wealth from the public to private arms companies and their shareholders.

A looming half-trillion-dollar privatization of wealth

More than half of next year’s trillion-dollar Pentagon budget would likely go to private companies. A recent study from Brown University’s Costs of War project found that over half of Pentagon spending from 2020 to 2024 went to for-profit contractors. For Popular Information, I expanded the report’s sample size by another 20 years (I should know how to do this, as I co-authored the Brown study.1) Since 2000, 53% of Pentagon spending has gone to contracts.2 By that figure, the 2026 military budget would likely privatize well over $500 billion in public funds.

. . .

[Ping Tung]

1. War is a racket. Smedley Butler

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[gfarber]

2. Pentagon Audit

There once was a Pentagon led
That failed every audit it read.
Eight years in a row,
Still they cheerfully go,
“More trillions?” said Congress. “Ahead!”

Though no other agency slips,
This one keeps misplacing its chips.
With a budget so vast,
That broke records fast,
They still can’t keep track of their ships.

An F-35 flew high in the tale,
Costing sums that make spreadsheets turn pale.
Two trillion and more,
Yet they’re unsure what for—
Even auditors quietly wail.

Their report listed flaws by the score,
Twenty-six “material” or more.
If numbers could scream,
They’d flee every ream,
From ledgers that simply won’t cohere.

They swear they’ll pass audits by ’28,
Which sounds nice, if a bit up for debate.
For now they insist,
With a bureaucrat’s twist,
“Trust us—just fund us. Please wait.”

The GAO sounded alarms,
Of contractors gaming the arms.
With prices run wild,
Brazen, open, and styled
As fraud wrapped in flag-waving charms.

They claim assets trillions in size,
But can’t say where most of it lies.
Sixty percent gone,
Since twenty-twenty-one,
Just… vanished before their own eyes.

Still Congress says, “Here, take some more,”
Nine hundred billion—no, four!
Add extras and bills,
With unanimous thrills,
Now the total’s a trillion-plus roar.

Meanwhile folks in the land pinch their pay,
Skipping meals just to make it through day.
Medical care?
Too costly, too rare—
So they wait, or they look the other way.

Three in ten skip doctors outright,
One in three skips dinner at night.
But the budget that grew,
Could house millions too,
Or feed half the globe if done right.

That same stack of cash, re-designed,
Could lift working families behind.
Homes, SNAP, and some care,
Were all sitting there—
But those options were swiftly declined.

Instead, to the war chest it goes,
Where contractors toast in repose.
With Musk and his peers,
Counting profits, not years,
While the rest just keep tightening clothes.

[erronis]

3. Thanks for honing your skills on this piece.

Now, I wonder if there isn't a generative AI model to do something in these lines (obviously not as good as yours!)