Endorsement: Send Mike Levin back to Congress to be the voice of the taxpayers
This is no time to play political games with the U.S. military. As the government shutdown, shutdown, shutdown continues to get worse, the military can use every chance to make the case for more funding.
I am speaking of the $10 billion that the Pentagon has been asking Congress for, but have not gotten. They have asked since 2011 and every year since 2014.
The government shutdown means the Pentagon will lose $7.3 billion in funding, or 3 percent of the department’s base budget, but not the other 99 percent.
It is a shame because the Pentagon needs money. And while we have cut military spending at home, President Trump’s foreign policy and budget proposals put the military at even more risk of funding cuts in countries around the globe.
In December, the Pentagon released a Pentagon budget that suggested its war fighters will have to wait until the end of 2025 to reach their goals of 2 percent annual growth. Since 1945, the Pentagon has seen a two percent growth rate.
There’s no time to play politics with the Pentagon. It’s urgent that the members of Congress and the President who lead the department, now begin a new strategy of demanding that the department be given $10 billion this month or we’ll have the whole government shut down!
Send Mike Levin back to Congress to be the voice of the taxpayers, and for the nation to hear his voice!
Levin is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, where he has been the most visible voice advocating for a real defense strategy, and protecting the defense workforce. He has a record of speaking out for the military when it is needed in Washington.
Levin has stood with the military in the fight against the Islamic State. He has supported funding for the modernization of our aircraft in the Air Force, and fought for the troops on the ground in Afghanistan. He has been able to articulate their importance in the world and why it is important that we support them.
Levin has called for