Dr. Cornel West on politics: what the evidence says · JRE #1325
SUBJECT: POLITICS
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
Now, of course, part of the question here has to do with, they'll say, well, we wasted this money on the poor. You say, well, wait a minute. Donald Trump just passed a $750 billion military budget.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
West asserted that Trump "passed" a $750 billion military budget. The Trump administration's fiscal year 2020 budget proposal, released in March 2019, did request $750 billion in discretionary budget authority for national defense, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis of Office of Management and Budget data, of which roughly $718 billion was for the Department of Defense and the remainder for Department of Energy atomic-energy activities and other defense-related agencies. Congress did not enact that exact figure: the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020, passed with wide bipartisan margins (377-48 in the House, 86-8 in the Senate) and signed by Trump on December 20, 2019, authorized $738 billion for national defense. The $750 billion figure therefore reflects the administration's initial request rather than the amount ultimately enacted, which was about $12 billion lower, and the bill's passage reflected bipartisan congressional negotiation rather than a unilateral presidential act. Overall the claim is roughly accurate in order of magnitude and directionally correct about a large defense budget increase under Trump, but imprecise about the exact enacted figure and about attributing the outcome to Trump alone.