This week, President Trump falsely claimed that “it’s not possible” for our government to fund programs like Medicaid and Medicare because “we’re fighting wars.”
Trump’s outrageous but telling remark comes as the war on Iran has put a spotlight on the immoral disparity between government spending on war versus the needs of our communities.
On Thursday, FCNL helped lead a national coalition of nearly 300 organizations urging Congress to reject President Trump’s request for another major Pentagon budget increase and to instead invest in human needs.
The letter brought together a diverse range of groups including unions, faith-based organizations, service providers, public policy groups, grassroots organizations, and small businesses – all coming together to say loud and clear that we oppose more money for war.
As Deborah Weinstein of the Coalition on Human Needs said, we are proud to join with “a rapidly growing number of organizations nationwide who are telling Congress to oppose a bloated Pentagon budget whose excesses prevent us from meeting basic needs for all Americans.”
President Trump’s request for a 50% Pentagon budget increase comes at a time when annual U.S. military spending has already exceeded $1 trillion – more than the next nine countries including Russia and China combined.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also requesting an additional $200 billion in supplemental appropriations to continue the war on Iran. That alone would be more than enough to restore healthcare and food assistance for the millions of Americans harmed by Trump’s Medicaid and SNAP cuts.
As our coalition letter explains, diverting more and more resources from human needs to war doesn’t strengthen our security – it undermines it.
To support true security, our government must invest “in the shared prosperity that comes from more housing, health care, climate and public health protections, ending hunger, and providing quality public education” – not more weapons and war.
Elsewhere
From Immigration Abuses to a Future of Safety and Dignity
Amid unprecedented violence and abuses from immigration enforcement agencies, Congress has a responsibility to act. FCNL’s Maria Mitri broke down the key steps lawmakers must take to keep our communities safe and defend the rights and dignity of all.
These include rejecting any additional funding for ICE and Border Patrol, enacting serious accountability measures, and restoring protections for sensitive community locations like hospitals, schools, and houses of worship.
Experts Sound Alarm Over Iran War Undermining International Law
This week, FCNL’s General Secretary Bridget Moix joined 100 legal and policy experts in a letter expressing “profound concerns” over the ways in which the war on Iran is undermining international law and human rights.
The experts wrote that U.S. strikes on Iran are a clear violation of the U.N. Charter’s strict prohibition against wars of aggression. They also expressed alarm over the Trump administration’s disregard for the laws of war, warning that U.S. strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure are possible war crimes.
Supreme Court Hears Case on Birthright Citizenship
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments in the case challenging President Trump’s executive order attacking birthright citizenship.
President Trump’s order seeks to upend the 128-year-old principle enshrined in the 14th Amendment that all people born in the United States are citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
While the arguments are filled with legal minutiae, the ultimate questions before the court are simple, ACLU lead counsel Cody Wofsy explained. “What does it mean to be an American?” And “will we adhere to the best of American history and protect the values of equal citizenship and opportunity?”
