TEHRAN- A health system on the verge of collapse, record level of homelessness and crippling infrastructure untouched for many decades, yet the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill setting policy for the Pentagon to the tune of $886 billion.

The bill will head to the Senate where Democrats have a majority before being signed into law by President Joe Biden later this year. 

The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act will be the largest amount the Pentagon has ever received in history. The bigger question is whether the U.S. needs to spend so much on its military at a time Americans are facing multiple domestic crises?

Whilst there is no military threat to the U.S. mainland, the funds will include initiatives to counter China and more support for Ukraine, as well as other malicious military activities way beyond U.S. borders.

Research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows U.S. military expenditure accounted for almost 40 percent of defense spending by countries around the world in 2022. According to recently released figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the U.S. spends more on its military than the next ten countries combined. Research by the institute shows U.S. expenditure on its military accounted for almost 40 percent of defense spending by countries around the world in 2022. 

So, with the U.S. facing massive national debt, is this money being used effectively or should it be diverted to other domestic priorities?

Whilst the Pentagon continues its military adventurism abroad, there are major issues back at home that need to be urgently addressed.

HEALTH

The health of a country’s population would be on the top of the agenda of priorities for a government. In the case of consecutive U.S. administrations, this doesn’t appear to be the case.

According to Georgia State University, nearly 30 million Americans still lack health insurance. Getting access to medical care often means “navigating a maddeningly circuitous and opaque bureaucracy”, the university’s research magazine states. And even for the insured, medical treatments can be wildly expensive, leading people to take on debt or even declare bankruptcy.

Earlier this year, an article by the New York-based Time Magazine was titled: “The Coming Collapse of the U.S. HealthCare System”.

The article highlights how “hospitals throughout the country are losing millions if not billions of dollars per year. Hospitals are closing urgent care centers, obstetric, pediatric and other services to try to survive.”

The massive shortfall of staff and dependency on temporary staff has created a critical issue in the realm of patient care, it pointed out. And further notes that “critically ill patients boarded in the emergency department have also spent long hours or days waiting for inpatient beds due to lack of trained staff even when beds become available.”

There are many other news reports that underscore a crippling health system on the verge of collapsing, that needs swift government action to survive as well as urgent funds among other problems including staff training so patients can receive an adequate level of treatment.

Perhaps more alarmingly is that America is strongly struggling to gain pace, in terms of healthcare per capita, with most of the other developed countries around the world.

Drug addiction is another major issue that is on a record rise and receiving little to no funds to help people recover and get back to life.  

HOMELESSNESS

This year, the largest study in decades by the University of California shed light on the number of homeless people in the United States and the results should be of a major concern to the U.S. administration.

As it turns out, the state of California, which is among the richest in the U.S., is home to more than 171,000 people experiencing homelessness. This comprises 30% of the homeless U.S. population and half of all Americans who do not have a shelter and are living on the street.

Over the years, it has been documented that the homeless crisis in America has become a public health catastrophe with an ageing population being forced to live in tents, cars and other makeshift shelters. As a result, thousands are dying on the streets each year.

The Pentagon is not only busy making people homeless in the countless wars and proxy conflicts around the world that the U.S. has waged or triggered, but also receiving record funds that are preventing Americans themselves from leaving the streets and moving into affordable housing.

INFRASTRUCTURE

One of the most unreported facts is the state of infrastructure.

California, the richest state in the U.S., is home to more than 171,000 people experiencing homelessness.Yet all Americans seem to agree on one thing. The U.S. needs to renovate its vital infrastructure. Once the best in the world, it's now in bad shape and falling apart.

The road to repairing the bridges and tunnels however looks like it will be a bumpy one. Over the years, the most basic infrastructure got a D-plus from the American Society of Civil Engineers or ASCE. That’s a near-failing grade. It got the same grade back in 2013.
Perhaps the wakeup call came in August 2007 when the interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed. It claimed the lives of 13 people and injured 145 others.

The shocking incident reverberates to this day but more importantly are the calls to invest big in replacing the nation's crumbling infrastructure. The ASCE cites over a dozen problematic issues, one of these is the water system, a very serious matter for one community too many.

While some other nations have improved roads, bridges and transport systems, the U.S. is lagging behind. How does a country that claims to be an economic powerhouse allow its infrastructure to slide on so many potholes?

Experts and engineers say trillions of dollars are needed to fix aging bridges, tunnels and roads.

Take a step back and look at China, which already has the world’s longest bullet-train system. Yet, Beijing plans to spend more than half a trillion dollars in two years to expand the country’s railway system to 150-thousand kilometers. 10 years ago, China had virtually no bullet trains.

Some underground systems in the U.S. have been left untouched for 100 years.

Leaders across the globe tend to love infrastructure spending. It brings down unemployment levels and helps businesses while big projects leave a nice legacy on their resume when they leave office. Former U.S. President Trump, being aware of this, tried but failed. Surprisingly, there is no appetite to address this issue among the Biden administration.

GUN VIOLENCE

The first six months of 2023 has seen the highest number of mass shooting incidents in modern U.S. history. The grim new record of 380 killing incidents means this year will be the deadliest so far. However, Congress cannot and never will agree to regulate gun control laws.

A fraction of the $886 billion could be given to the powerful gun lobby groups in Congress to end the endless cycle of firearm deaths. Instead, the U.S. is killing abroad and at home.

RACISM

Another major issue that doesn’t leave the headlines is institutionalized discrimination and the police killing of Black Americans. Police stations argue they lack the funds to address the issue and train officers to stop killing Black Americans in broad daylight.

Health, homelessness, infrastructure, gun violence, racism, national U.S. debt are just part of a vast list of pressing issues that require urgent funds to address.

U.S. policy makers, however, are choosing to inflict these issues abroad instead of addressing them at home.