Bernie Sanders’ new call to outright reject the funding – rather than put conditions on it, as he previously called for.
MAGA Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has announced that he and the Democrats have agreed on upon a 2024 budget agreement they hope will avoid a government stoppage this year.
The far Right members of the Republican House Caucus are reported to be apoplectic.
Of course.
The deal is for a $1.5 trillion dollar budget. It includes $886 billion for military spending that lawmakers already agreed to last month and $773 billion for else anything else that doesn’t kill or explode. The deal comes 12 days before the stopgap spending bill passed in November to avert a government shutdown was set to expire on Jan. 19th.
In spite of the outrage expressed by some of the far Right Congressional MAGAs, this is what Biden, Schumer and the rest of main stream Democrats call a bipartisan agreement.
It is a budget that prioritizes more war and underfunds education, healthcare and affordable housing.
The agreement keeps non-military spending flat while the war budget shows an increase.
Congressional Democrats should be asked about their views of this deal while on the 2024 campaign trail.
Also note that is part of a record $38 billion agreement over ten years negotiated under former US President Barack Obama in 2016. US military aid to Israel exceeded $3.8 billion in 2023. That doesn’t include additional military aid that Biden has provided.
It is this funding that allows Israel and Netanyahu do continue the indiscriminate killing in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has said he has had enough of Irael’s use of American dollars to fund the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza.
While some have called for Israel to receive so-called conditional military aid, Bernie wants to cut it all off.
I agree.
The issue we face with Israel-Gaza is not complicated. While we recognize that Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack began this war, we must also recognize that Israel’s military response has been grossly disproportionate, immoral, and in violation of international law. And, most importantly for Americans, we must understand that Israel’s war against the Palestinian people has been significantly waged with U.S. bombs, artillery shells, and other forms of weaponry. And the results have been catastrophic.
Since October 7th, over 22,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes, two-thirds of these victims have been women and children – and 57,000 have been wounded.
Since the start of the war 1.9 million Palestinian men, women, and children have been driven from their homes – 85% of the total population of Gaza. According to an analysis of satellite radar data nearly 70% of the housing units in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombardment. Today, not only are the vast majority of people in Gaza homeless, they lack food, water, medical supplies, and fuel. A recent UN report indicates that half of the population of about 2.2 million are at risk of starvation and 90% say that they regularly go without food for a whole day. The chief economist at the World Food Program said the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is among the worst he has ever seen. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Congress is working to pass a supplemental funding bill that includes $10 billion of unconditional military aid for the right-wing Netanyahu government to continue its brutal war against the Palestinian people. Enough is enough. Congress must reject that funding. The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.