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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County expressing the sense of Council regarding Federal budgetary priorities, and advocating for prudent reallocation of certain funding.
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WHEREAS, according to the World Bank, from 2010-2019, the United States’ military spending fluctuated between $633.8 billion and $752.29 billion; and
WHEREAS, in 2019, the United States’ military spending of $731.75 billion accounted for 53% of the country’s discretionary spending, greater than the discretionary amounts spent on science, food and agriculture, employment and labor, transportation, international affairs, energy and environment, education, health, veterans’ services, housing and community, and general government combined; and
WHEREAS, the nation’s military spending was $690 billion for Fiscal Year 2020 according to the United States Treasury, and the budget for military spending in FY 2021 is approximately $740 billion, a figure representing a 20% increase over the last four fiscal years; and
WHEREAS, in 2019, the United States spent almost ten times as much on its military than it did on education ($74 billion), and roughly 20 times as much as it did on employment and labor ($36 billion) or science ($35 billion); and
WHEREAS, from 2015 through 2019 alone, the United States’ military spending totaled over $3.3 trillion; and
WHEREAS, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, also in 2019, the United States’ military spending of $731.75 billion was greater than the amount spent by the 10 next largest defense spenders in the world (Brazil, South Korea, Japan, The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, and China) combined, and was nearly double the total military spending of the other nations on Earth; and
WHEREAS, had the United States spent even 10% less on its military from 2015-2019, over $300 billion would have been available for expenditure in other areas in that time period, and over $3 trillion would ...
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