Thread by @RevDrBarber

Someone came on my Twitter recently and tried to challenge what I said about discretionary spending. At @BRepairers and @UniteThePoor we value being truthful, so if you’re going to challenge us, you better come correct.

53 cents of every discretionary dollar goes to the military and the war economy, and here is why it matters and how it hinders our people from addressing poverty and low-wealth:

Discretionary isn’t code. It describes the spending that Congress decides every year through appropriations. And military spending is by far the greatest recipient of that spending. In 2020 discretionary spending was $1.6 trillion & $714 billion of that went to military spending.

There is another category of spending, mandatory spending, which is greater than discretionary. In 2020, mandatory spending was $4.6T. And the programs that make up the bulk of that spending are Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid. But that spending isn’t decided the same way.

Mandatory spending (esp. on those programs) is based on how many people are eligible for and use those programs and then the $$$ automatically goes into those programs. Congress has no choice or “discretion” on that matter.

So the fact that so much $$$ is spent on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reflects the great need for health care and basic economic security that people aren’t finding in other places.

Also Social Security and Medicare are given to people who have paid into that system, often throughout their entire working lives. That’s not the same as discretionary spending.

This is why you can’t really compare discretionary spending and mandatory spending.

In fact, a lot of other priorities—housing, community investments, public health and medical research, K-12 education, the environment, even a large chunk of veterans benefits and Medicaid spending—don’t get any significant mandatory spending (or none at all).

They have to compete with the military for every dollar of discretionary spending they can.

What we should be looking at is—given the conditions we’re facing—why is Congress deciding to spend over $750 billion on the military?

Is this what will address our health crisis, jobs crisis, climate crisis, or crisis of democracy? Is this what will meet the needs of the 140 million poor and low-income people in this nation?