THE 2023 MILITARY BUDGET
The US House of Representatives has just voted 350 to 80 to approve a military budget of $858 billion, $45 billion over what Pres. Biden requested. The bill also removed a Covid vaccine mandate. Service members are required to be vaccinated against 12 viruses but will not be required to be vaccinated against Covid.
The US is not at war, but it is involved in a proxy war in Ukraine and a major program to arm Taiwan, $10 billion over five years.
The US military has money to throw at various questionable programs, such as Junior ROTC, which costs $400 million a year. This program, sometimes mandatory and sometimes not, exists in 3,500 high schools across the US, especially in high schools with large minority enrollments. It comes along with indoctrination in military values, “patriotic” textbooks, uniforms, and not-so-subtle recruitment messages.
Politicians fight over money for civilian health and welfare programs, but the vast majority love to vote money for the armed forces.
(Sources: The New York Times, 12/9 and 12/11, 2022)