For Immediate Release:
April 8, 2025

Contact:
Gabe Murphy
gabe@taxpayer.net

Washington, D.C. – In response to President Trump’s announcement that he will seek a $1 trillion Pentagon budget for Fiscal Year 2026, Taxpayers for Common Sense President Steve Ellis released the following statement:

“A trillion-dollar Pentagon budget is not a sign of strength; it’s a sign of indecision. It belies an inability or an unwillingness to make strategic decisions about what we truly need to defend our nation. This is the latest in a series of efforts touted by President Trump, like extending tax cuts without paying for them, that seem purpose made to send the national debt into the stratosphere.

“The Pentagon has demonstrated year after year, failed audit after failed audit, that it cannot account for the money we’ve already given it. Throwing more money at it will lead to more of the wasteful spending the president claims to be fighting against.

“Since the turn of the Century, Congress has approved a nearly 50 percent increase in Pentagon spending adjusted for inflation, while sleepwalking our nation into more than $36 trillion of debt. You know what beat the Pentagon to $1 trillion – the interest payments to service that debt. This proposed 17 percent increase in Pentagon spending is a wake-up call. It’s time for Congress to put the brakes on this runaway gravy train.”

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Taxpayers for Common Sense is a nonpartisan budget watchdog calling out wasteful spending and advocating for transparency.