US Taxpayers Fund $659M Israeli Bombs via FMF
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- Bernie Sanders and fellow senators filed joint resolutions of disapproval opposing $659 million in Trump‑approved bomb sales to Israel.
- Foreign Military Financing funds the bomb sales, meaning U.S. taxpayers pay for them.
- Arms sales notifications list FMF as the funding source for $740 million in armored personnel carriers, $1.98 billion in tactical vehicles, $3.8 billion in attack helicopters, and $150 million in utility helicopters purchased by Israel.
- Biden administration authorized $22 billion in arms sales to Israel, of which an estimated $17.8 billion (81 %) was funded by U.S. taxpayers via FMF.
- U.S. military spending has risen from $295 billion in 1985 to $879 billion in 2021 while arms‑industry employment fell from 3 million to 1.1 million workers, weakening the job‑creation justification for these subsidies.
Why it matters: Taxpayers lose billions while Israel receives the weapons essentially free, exposing a systemic subsidy that persists across administrations and undermining the often‑cited job‑creation rationale, given that military spending has risen while arms‑industry employment has sharply declined and that the promised employment boost fails to materialize.
