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Republican Spending Bill Throws $156 Billion at Defense Contractors
President Trump’s spending bill was supposed to be about trimming the government’s fat to give money back to working families. At least, that’s how the administration has been justifying the unprecedented cuts to social safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid and the rollbacks of President Biden’s clean-energy policies.
Of course, we know that the bill was never going to cut government spending to give money back to the working class, but if you still need convincing, just take a look at the bill’s defense provisions proposed by the House and Senate.
The House version of the bill proposed $150 billion in new Pentagon spending, and the Senate Armed Services Committee proposed an even higher $156 billion. Since the two chambers are still working out the details ahead of a July 4 deadline from Trump to pass the bill, it’s not clear exactly what the final number will come out to be. Even before those numbers are finalized, though, it is already clear that the bill will cut $300 billion from SNAP and almost $800 billion from Medicaid.
Advocates who follow Pentagon spending and policy are used to exorbitant military spending, but say that this bill goes a step beyond the usual military boosts. “Reconciliation was never meant to be a tool for ramming partisan spending proposals through Congress,” said Gabe Murphy, a policy analyst at Taxpayers for Common Sense. “It was supposed to be about balancing the budget, and this bill does the opposite by piling trillions of dollars on the national debt.”
Of course, we know that the bill was never going to cut government spending to give money back to the working class, but if you still need convincing, just take a look at the bill’s defense provisions proposed by the House and Senate.
The House version of the bill proposed $150 billion in new Pentagon spending, and the Senate Armed Services Committee proposed an even higher $156 billion. Since the two chambers are still working out the details ahead of a July 4 deadline from Trump to pass the bill, it’s not clear exactly what the final number will come out to be. Even before those numbers are finalized, though, it is already clear that the bill will cut $300 billion from SNAP and almost $800 billion from Medicaid.
Advocates who follow Pentagon spending and policy are used to exorbitant military spending, but say that this bill goes a step beyond the usual military boosts. “Reconciliation was never meant to be a tool for ramming partisan spending proposals through Congress,” said Gabe Murphy, a policy analyst at Taxpayers for Common Sense. “It was supposed to be about balancing the budget, and this bill does the opposite by piling trillions of dollars on the national debt.”
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-06-17-republican-spending-bill-throws-156-billion-at-defense-contractors/