1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Reject the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion defense budget request. This isn't a serious national security proposal — it's a 58 percent spending increase over 2025 levels that would push the federal debt to 275 percent of GDP by 2056. That's not strength. That's fiscal self-destruction. We already outspend China two to three times over and Russia three to four times over. Non-US NATO allies spend more than twice what Russia does. Even Trump's own first-term defense plan required far less than what we're already spending this year. There is no credible military justification for $1.5 trillion — just an administration doubling down on reckless escalation. The money we're burning on an inflated Pentagon budget could fund scientific research, NASA, universal healthcare, and real solutions to homelessness. A country drowning in debt, with crumbling domestic investment, is not a secure country. Vote against this budget and redirect those resources toward the things that actually make Americans safer and stronger at home.