$25 billion.

That’s the cost — as Public Citizen has calculated — of producing enough coronavirus vaccine to end the pandemic *worldwide*. And with the emerging Omicron variant, ending the pandemic remains humanity’s most immediate need.

As it happens, $25 billion is also how much Congress could allocate for the military next year over and above, the $753 billion the Biden administration asked for. (By the way, the U.S. spends more on its military than the next 11 countries combined — including China and Russia. And we’ve ended our incredibly expensive military operations in Afghanistan.)

A strong case can be made that our nation’s military spending should be slashed by tens or even hundreds of billions. Surely the Pentagon can get by without an extra $25 billion the White House didn’t even want!

Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed an amendment to the bill setting the military budget for next year that would at least claw back that not-even-requested $25 billion. (Public Citizen 4 Dec 2021)

My comment: All we are doing is keeping the arms manufacturers
profitable- on our dime. One of the principal reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was the cost of the army. And are we really going to war with Russia over it’s threatened invasion? (No! I hope) or the hostile stance of China (No! I hope).