Article worth a read (although two years old): Democrats Keep Capitulating on Defense Spending
For those who want a TL;DR: Atlantic article notes that massive defense budgets sail through Congress with overwhelming support from both parties, with Democrats hardly putting up any resistance whatsoever.
Indeed, just a few weeks ago, the Senate voted 86-8 to approve a $738 billion defense bill and send it to Trump.
Of the remaining Democratic candidates still running, Bernie and Warren are probably the only ones likely to try to cut back the defense budget significantly. Warren’s chances of being the nominee look dimmer and dimmer by the day. Biden is a centrist and probably shares similar views to Obama on this, who increased the defense budget substantially while in office. I don’t know about Klobuchar’s voting record, but like as not she was probably among the overwhelming majority who voted to pass the $700 billion NDAAs each time. As for people like Buttigieg, Steyer and Bloomberg, it’s hard to tell because they were businessmen or mayors, not Congressmen.
Either way, though - if a (D) wins - and especially, if it’s Bernie - is this when they finally start taking pruning shears to the defense budget?