Bernie Sanders Reacts to Chris Hayes Rant on Military Spending: ‘Chris, You Stole My Speech’
As the House was debating passage of the $1.7 trillion Build Back Better agenda on Thursday, Chris Hayes highlighted the extra scrutiny that domestic spending bills receive, even as the size of the nation’s military budget is rarely if ever questioned.
Earlier in the day, the Congressional Budget Office released its estimates for the BBB agenda, and among other things, the legislation is projected to add $367 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
“It is worth noting that late last night, the Senate also in the course of their work, advanced its annual defense policy bill costing more than $700 billion per year.” the MSNBC host said. “Twice the cost of the proposed $350 billion annual cost of the original very big and ambitious proposal for Build Back Better. More than four times the cost of the current pared down version.”
Hayes then welcomed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is threatening to hold up passage of the bill, and the host briefly continued his rant.
“Senator,” said Hayes. “I’ve been covering politics in Washington for 15 years, thereabouts. And it has always been the case: there’s money for domestic programs which is real money that has to be accounted for, where you gotta get CBO scores, it’s got to be paid for. And then there’s money for defense, particularly for war funding. It just doesn’t count. It’s just in a different category, existentially. However much, trillions, trillions, trillions here, trillion there. And it must be maddening at this point to watch everyone poring through the CBO score while the defense approps thing just sails through!”
Sanders agreed.
“Well, I’m going to be on the floor of the Senate in a bit,” said the senator. “And Chris, you stole my speech. That’s exactly the point I’m going to be making. The hypocrisy is extraordinary. When we want to improve lives for our children, for the elderly, when we want to make healthcare universal and affordable, want to deal with climate, [it’s] ‘Oh my god. Bernie, don’t you understand? We have a terrible national debt and the deficit.’ But when it comes to military spending, really, the military industrial complex in a bipartisan way always gets what they want.”
Sanders pointed out that this year the Department of Defense actually received $25 billion more than it had actually requested.
Sanders added, “I hope people understand, when we talk about $1.75 trillion, for Build Back Better, that’s over a 10-year period. When you talk about $778 billion for the military, it is one year. Multiply that by 10. And probably you’ll end up with close to $10 trillion over a 10-year period.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
