FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(MARCH 11 ,2019 — WASHINGTON) Council for a Livable World Executive Director labeled President Trump’s new Fiscal Year 2020 military budget request of $750 billion outrageously high and unambiguously based on politics rather than military need.
The new request is a $34 billion increase from the total enacted in Fiscal Year 2019.
Council executive director John Tierney, a nine-term former Member of Congress from Massachusetts, pointed out that President Trump earlier called for a Pentagon budget of $700 billion, then $716 billion, $733 billion before settling on $750 after political pressure.
Tierney said: “What is particularly shameful is the Pentagon ostensibly sticking to the Budget Control Act cap of $576 billion and then stuffing $174 billion in the slush fund called Overseas Contingency Operations originally designed to pay for overseas wars.
This huge increase is being recommended at a time the President is proposing to remove most U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan.”
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