Presidential Hopeful Marianne Williamson Calls For Trimming Defense Budget By 20%: 'System Theft, Systemic Ripoff'

Democratic primary candidate Marianne Williamson came down hard on the nation's defense spending and called out the “corporate tyranny” involved there.

What Happened: The huge U.S. defense budget of $858 billion for the fiscal year 2023 is partly due to the “unbelievable price gouging” by corporate defense contractors such as Raytheon Corp (NYSE:RTX), Northrop Grumman Corp (NYSE:NOC) and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), said Williamson in a podcast published last week.

“They're just running away; this is just their piggyback. I mean there's no regulation. They are being left to regulate themselves,” she said, adding that “they are price gouging.”

Williamson also highlighted a conflict of interest as she pointed out Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is a former board member at Raytheon.

“The question that I’m bringing up for people is that we have to recognize that this whole idea that national security has increased your defense budget is such a crock,” she said. To make her case, she noted that neither the Iraq War nor the war in Afghanistan has increased national security.

Instead, we should be thinking about things like healthcare, about getting education and living wage and so forth, she said.

Williamson said she is in favor of taking 20% off the defense budget. “The American people need to realize the rip-off that is involved here, the systemic theft, the systemic ripoff,” the presidential hopeful said.

She blamed the insurance companies for the lack of universal healthcare, the pharma companies for the lack of availability of adequate insulin, and big oil companies for climate change and the lack of a healthy energy grid.

"It's an entire matrix of corporate greed and that corporate greed has grown into corporate tyranny," she added.

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Why It's Important: Economists and political analysts are divided over the huge defense spending the U.S. has apportioned.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in late July made a strong case against ratifying the National Defense Authorization bill for the fiscal year 2024. He argued that the need of the hour is to invest in transforming energy systems away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

“While the insurance companies and the drug companies make hundreds of billions of dollars in profit, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured,” he said.

He also noted that the U.S. defense spending is more than three times what China spends on its military.

The bloated defense budget is despite the fiscal waywardness of the U.S., which has run up a huge deficit and swelling debt load.

The Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSE:PPA) ended Friday’s session up 0.36% at $85.31, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Read Next: Democratic Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson Says Debt Ceiling Deal Was A ‘Negotiation With Economic Terrorists’

Marianne Williamson. Photo via Shutterstock