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US military sucks money away from social programs: Analyst

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American political commentator Will Williams says the United States’ military sucks money away from the social programs.

In a phone interview with Press T V on Tuesday, Williams said, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, the US Defense Department has a giant “suction cup” that “sucks money away from the social programs that is much needed in this country to fund wars all over the world.”

Williams, of Vietnam Veterans against the War, was referring to a recent report by the Associated Press that said the US Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has spent $4.7 million of taxpayers’ money on a total 373 days of overseas travel. Mabus also spent about $116,000 on hotels, meals and other costs.

This is while Army Secretary John McHugh’s trips totaled 126 days and cost about $2 million for the flights. He spent under $33,000 for hotels, meals and other personal expenses on his 18 trips.

Williams said that the US can’t spend so much on defense and take proper care of the people in need in the country. “You can’t do this and take care of the people that need to be taken care of.”

The Defense Department, he said, should be called “the Offense Department, because that’s what is happening, money is squandered on these expeditions throughout the world for no need.”

The Pentagon is currently preparing its fiscal 2016 budget, which is scheduled to be released in February, while Congress is taking measures to fund US military activity, with a base budget of $496 billion, in the 2015 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1.

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