Hegseth, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, came armed with an $87.6 billion Trump administration supplemental request that includes more than $67 billion for the war and other Pentagon spending.
And as Hegseth announced that the conflict had racked up $37.5 billion in costs, it is expanding. More US troops died over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 18; CNN reported that 100 American personnel had been injured since early July;
That figure came from a line of questioning by US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), as Hegseth appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to support Trump‘s June supplemental funding request, which includes tens of billions for the Pentagon.
Hegseth told Durbin that the $37.5 billion estimate includes what‘s been spent so far, plus some projected spending through the end of the fiscal year in September—an exchange quickly met with fury by various critics, many of whom pointed out the range of ways that money could have been better spent by an administration allegedly dedicated to combating „waste, fraud, and abuse.“
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department was funded with a budget of nearly a trillion dollars, but it is running out of cash, according to three U.S. officials, a former defense official, outside experts and two congressional staff members.
The White House is expected to formally request a supplemental spending bill in the coming days
What‘s everything in Genocide Joe‘s latest request?
First, it‘s important to note the disputes on this. House Republicans want a bill just for Israel, while Democrats say they need it packaged with the other wars (with Russia and China). Both parties agree they want more war.
So, what‘s in Biden‘s request?
To start, $14.3 BILLION for the genocide in Gaza…
(December 15, 2022)
The NDAA would extend and modify the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, as well as authorize $800 million in funding in fiscal year 2023, which is $500 million more than was contained in last year’s defense bill.
The program provides funding for the federal government to pay industry to produce weapons and security assistance to send to Ukraine, rather than drawing directly from current US stockpiles of weapons.
In recent days, German officials have indicated they won‘t send their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, or allow any other country with the German-made tanks in their inventory to do so, unless the US also agrees to send its M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv — something the Pentagon has said for months it has no intention of doing given the logistical costs of maintaining them.