Pamela — We know Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth want more money for illegal wars and vanity projects like the “Trump battleship”. We know they’d make it happen at the expense of healthcare, education, and anti-hunger initiatives.
What they failed to anticipate, however, is a massive wave of public opposition, and the powerful ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Patty Murray (D-WA), jumping in to pump the brakes on their proposed $1.5 TRILLION war budget.
“I cannot accept a lopsided topline that helps defense CEOs while families get left behind,” Sen. Murray recently told reporters.[1]
She’s right. And her stance has made her a target. Now, as the pressure ratchets up on Sen. Murray to fold, particularly from her Republican counterpart, Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), it’s critical we — the anti-war majority — let her know we’re with her. Can you help send Sen. Murray a resounding message of gratitude and encouragement to keep up the fight and block Trump’s reckless budget from becoming a reality?
| SIGN THE PETITION |
In Congress, authorizing and appropriating money are two different things. So even if war hawks succeed in greenlighting a record-breaking $1.5 trillion in Pentagon funds through the National Defense Authorization Act or other bills, Trump and Hegseth’s war budget will be left in the lurch so long as Congress decides it won’t spend the money.
Here’s what Senator Murray told Hegseth about his proposed budget earlier this year:
You want to increase the war budget for next year by half a trillion dollars. That is taxpayer money that could be used to feed families, or build new, affordable homes, or wipe out some diseases completely, or increase [child care] investments twenty times over. But you are asking us to blow it all on war—and that’s not even counting the money you’ve spent bombing Iran—or that you may still request in a separate supplemental.
And to me, this budget wasn’t even strategically crafted. 1.5 trillion dollars? It’s like the president decided that was the number and you all filled in the blanks. So, what I am here today to say is you asked for a massive laundry list of unnecessary spending—a huge payday for defense contractors, and you still don’t even ask to give DOD’s civilian workers a pay raise, and to me, this is absurd!
I know you don’t care what I have to say. So let me quote you someone you might actually listen to: President Eisenhower. He said: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
That is what this budget proposal is asking. It’s going to leave Americans cold and hungry to fund Trump’s wars and make defense contractors a fortune. So that is why I hope this committee throws that in the trash and comes together with a budget that works for all American families.[2]
This is the type of leadership this moment demands, Pamela. Gratitude can go a long way in hardening the opposition to an unjustifiable down payment on bombs and bloodshed. We hope you’ll sign on to our petition to Sen. Murray.
Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team
- Samantha Handler, "June 8, 2026 X Post"
- Sen. Patty Murray, "Senator Murray Grills Hegseth on Iran War, Trump’s Astronomical $1.5 Trillion War Budget, and Spending Priorities"
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