Billions for war. Who is the real Merchant of Death?

My painting and drawings are on Instagram @klonskyart.

It’s called the defense budget but not much of it has to do with the country’s defense.

It’s better to call it a war budget and a gift to the military/industrial complex.

Both houses of Congress are about to pass a military spending bill totaling $847 billion which is $45 billion more than President Joe Biden’s already hefty budget request.

The one thing that Congress is bipartisan about is war spending.

There were only 80 no votes in the House. Only 45 Democrats.

From Illinois only Chicago Democrats Danny Davis, Chuy Garcia, Marie Newman, and Jan Schakowsky voted no.

Democrats Bustos, Casten, Foster, Kelly, Quigley, Rush, Schneider, Krishnamoorti and Underwood voted for it.

It will be the largest U.S. military budget since World War II.

Even with inflation it is more than during Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

You might think that this is billions to send and restock arms sent to Ukraine to fight the Russians.

You would be wrong. Only a small part of this war budget includes arms for Ukraine. That is covered by different war appropriations.

However the bill provides $800 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

That fund does allows the Pentagon to contract for new weapons and equipment for Ukraine beyond the billions of dollars in weapons that President Joe Biden has already transferred to Kyiv.

Most of the money though is simply to buy more stuff that the Pentagon has requested—more expensive combat planes, warships, missiles, etc.

It amounts to essentially an unrestricted gift of money for the war industry.

The media kept calling that Russian guy Biden traded for Brittney Griner the Merchant of Death.

But Merchant of Death fits the United States much more accurately.