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WASHINGTON — Win Without War Senior Washington Director Erica Fein released the following statement regarding the release of President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) budget request:

“Deadly pandemics, desperate inequality, worsening climate crisis — 2020 provided an entire year of deadly proof that throwing money at the Pentagon won’t keep us safe. Yet President Biden appears to have ignored the lesson.

“At over three-quarters of a trillion dollars — $12.5 billion more than even Trump’s highest spending levels — President Biden has accepted the reckless logic of ever-expanding Pentagon spending. Let’s be clear: a budget that provides $15.5 billion for nuclear bombs, 85 additional F-35s at a cost of $12 billion, despite that program’s trillion-dollar failure, and $42.1 billion for wars and other overseas military operations is just more of the failed status quo.

“One bright spot in the budget is the administration’s commitment to ending the use of the war slush fund, known formally as Overseas Contingency Operations, while maintaining some budgetary transparency into how much we’re allocating for the United States’ overseas military operations.

“We urge Congress to reject this dangerous misuse of resources. It’s time to divest from the war machine and invest instead in meeting human needs and solving the real security challenges of our times. It’s time to put people over the Pentagon.”

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Win Without War is a diverse network of activists and national organizations working for progressive foreign policy in the United States.