Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told Democracy Now in an April 15 interview that hundreds of billions of dollars from America’s defense budget should be better used on diplomacy, humanitarian aid, international public health and other initiatives. He and 50 other House Democrats wrote to President Biden in March urging a Pentagon budget “significantly reduced” from well over $700 billion now. “The Pentagon increases make no sense,” says Khanna. “If you’re ending the forever war in Afghanistan … then why are we increasing, at the same time, the defense budget?” The Congressman is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Representative Khanna also insisted the United States should “stop the Saudi blockade of Yemen” – specifically, of fuel deliveries through the Hodeidah port, without which food aid deliveries cannot be transported in the country. “I spoke to the Saudi ambassador,” Khanna recounted, “and she said, `Well, we’re not engaged in a blockade. We’re just enforcing the U.N. resolution.’ Well, enforcing the U.N. resolution to prevent fuel getting in is a de facto blockade.”
