In New Video, Senator Murray Rejects Trump’s $1.5 Trillion War Funding Request, Outlines Better Ways to Spend Taxpayer Dollars to Help People

***WATCH: Senator Murray lays out much better ways to spend taxpayer dollars***

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released a video slamming Trump for his reckless war of choice with Iran, and his proposal to slash domestic investments to help pay for a defense spending increase of roughly half a trillion dollars and billions more in additional funds he is still expected to request for the war in Iran.

Senator Murray detailed just a handful of much better ways our country could spend the money than on Trump's astronomical $1.5 trillion request for war funding, such as extending the ACA tax credits, expanding child care, building affordable housing, fighting child hunger, researching cures for cancer and other devastating diseases, making health care and higher education affordable, and so much more.

"Trump just asked Congress to increase defense spending by roughly half a trillion dollars. And to do it, he wants to cut programs people rely on-a home heating and cooling program, housing programs, afterschool programs, small business support, and a whole lot more. In Trump's own words: 'We're fighting wars. We can't take care of day care.' As a former preschool teacher-I have to tell you-that's absolutely wrong. In fact-we can't afford to ignore child care," said Senator Murray. "I think it is pretty obvious to most Americans, that there are a lot of better ways our nation could spend billions of dollars than blowing it on bombs and bullets for a war that no one asked for. So today-we're going to look at a few of the many better options for how our nation could spend the $500 billion war increase from Trump's budget. Things like expanding child care, or building affordable housing, or researching cures for cancer and other devastating diseases, making health care and higher education affordable, and more.

WATCH HERE: What Could We Fund Instead of Trump's War Budget?

Senator Murray's remarks, as delivered, are below:

"Hey everyone, Senator Patty Murray here. Right now, at the same time Donald Trump is making everyday life more expensive for families, he has also been setting your tax dollars on fire. Instead of making sure federal funding serves our families. Trump is destroying the White House to build his golden ballroom. He is letting Stephen Miller burn billions of dollars sending untrained ICE officers to harass our communities, and detain Americans.

"And-of course-he is blowing tens of billions of dollars on the war he chose to start with Iran. A war that is driving gas prices sky high and putting our servicemembers in harm's way for no reason. We, frankly, have no idea exactly how much money Trump has already set on fire in Iran. Though it's certainly in the tens of billions at this point.

"And we have even less of an idea of how much Trump will blow on his war in total because that would require an actual strategy, something it is clear Trump has never had. But you should know Trump just asked Congress to increase defense spending by roughly half a trillion dollars. And to do it, he wants to cut programs people rely on-a home heating and cooling program, housing programs, afterschool programs, small business support, and a whole lot more.

"In Trump's own words: 'We're fighting wars. We can't take care of day care.' As a former preschool teacher-I have to tell you-that's absolutely wrong. In fact-we can't afford to ignore child care. But more on that later.

"I think it is pretty obvious to most Americans, that there are a lot of better ways our nation could spend billions of dollars than blowing it on bombs and bullets for a war that no one asked for. So today-we're going to look at a few of the many better options for how our nation could spend the $500 billion war increase from Trump's budget.

"Things like expanding child care, or building affordable housing, or researching cures for cancer and other devastating diseases, making health care and higher education affordable, and more. Let's get into it.

[LOWERING HEALTH CARE COSTS]

"Last year, Trump and Republicans made the biggest cut to health care basically ever-all to pass tax cuts for billionaires. And then-to top it all off, they refused to extend health care tax credits for working families. They caused premiums for families that relied on those tax credits to double, triple, and even worse. The result? We saw prices skyrocket and health coverage plummet. Millions of people lost their insurance this year and millions more had to downgrade to a worse plan-often still for a higher price.

"So what if instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Trump's war of choice, Republicans had worked with us to save health care? Well-a two year extension, which Democrats argued for, would have cost just $60 billion dollars. So, for the cost of what we've already spent on Trump's war in Iran, we could have extended tax credits this year. Or for $200 billion-so not even half of the budget increase Trump proposed for the Department of War-we could have renewed the health care tax credits for around six years! That would've stopped enormous health care premium hikes-and helped countless people get coverage.

"Or, another option, since Trump's plan is to add half a trillion to the War Department's annual budget, what would that look like for one year of health care? Well that is the cost of Medicaid coverage for over 50 million people. That sure seems like a better use of tax dollars, than letting Trump single handedly launch our kids into war in Iran.

"Another way to put the cost of this war into perspective? Half a trillion dollars-is more than double the total of all medical debt owed by Americans. Instead of a war of choice in Iran, with no clear end in sight, Trump's war budget is enough to declare a war on medical debt-and wipe it out pretty much entirely.

"But rather than doing anything on health care, Republicans are talking about sending more money to Trump's war of choice and even discussing more cuts to health care to do that. That's unbelievable.

[HELPING FAMILIES AFFORD CHILD CARE]

"Now, I've been focused on child care basically as long as I have been in politics. I got my start as a mom in tennis shoes-fighting to save my own kids' preschool program. So, when I see Trump calling for half a trillion dollars to fight another endless war in the Middle East, while saying-right out loud-that we can't afford child care.

"I have to wonder-what if instead of blowing your tax dollars on bombs dropped on Iran, we invested big to help moms and dads in tennis shoes. Because, we have a child care crisis in this country. It's too hard to find child care, too hard for families to afford it, and too hard for child care providers to stay in businesses. This is holding back families and holding back our economy. But putting the kind of money Trump is talking about into child care would be a world of change for all families.

"I fought hard to secure an historic level of funding for child care in our last funding bill. All said and done, around $20 billion for programs like the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start. But with the amount of money Trump is considering for his war in Iran, with just half of his Defense budget increase, we could increase our child care investments ten times over. That would be transformational for our country.

"Half a trillion dollars would make high-quality child care affordable for every family that needs it. It would allow child care providers to pay their teachers and staff a living wage, so they can stay in these careers. It would mean employers wouldn't have to worry about their employees missing work because they couldn't find child care.

"Ask any parent what would be more helpful, shoveling money at a war that also drives up gas prices and alienates our allies, or funding child care-one of the single biggest expenses many new parents struggle with. I will tell you right now-it's no contest.

"In fact-we already know nearly three-quarters of parents support universal child care. That is hardly news to those of us who have been [in] this fight for years now. And believe me, I am going to keep fighting for bold reforms so we can get every family quality, affordable child care.

[ENDING CHILD HUNGER]

"Here's an idea-what if instead of spending half a trillion fighting Trump's wars, we spent that money fighting child hunger in this country? For the amount of money Trump wants to blow on bombs, and bullets, and destruction, we could put a free lunch on a lot of school trays, dinner on a lot of families' tables, and a healthy meal in a lot of hungry bellies.

"With $500 billion-we could fund free school lunch for every child in the United States, and still have $370 billion left over. One option for the extra-we could fully fund free school lunch for the next couple decades. Another would be to expand summer lunch programs as well to keep more kids fed year-round. We could help stock up food banks.

"Or maybe we could undo some of the SNAP cuts from Republicans' big ugly bill. Because remember-in order to fund tax breaks for the rich, and fuel private jets. Republicans made huge cuts to SNAP last year. They are kicking families off the program, and taking food off the table and they did it to give more money to the richest people on the planet.

[MAKING HIGHER EDUCATION AFFORDABLE]

"What if instead of Trump spending $500 billion sending our kids to war in Iran, we put that money toward sending kids to college and helping them attain a higher education? Increased federal investments would open the doors of opportunity to millions of students across our country.

"One option would be to sharply increase support for community college students across the country. With just $200 billion we could provide free community college for anyone who wants to further their education and careers, or, fully cover the costs for 5 million students a year-for the next decade.

"Another option would be to enhance Pell grants-which helps millions of students every year afford their dreams of a higher education. For the cost of Trump's war budget increase, we could double the maximum Pell grant to make a postsecondary education drastically more affordable for millions of students

"There are a lot of different ways we could tackle making higher education more affordable. The one thing they have in common-they are all a much better investment in our future than Trump's plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars starting a new 'forever war' in the Middle East.

[LOWERING THE COST OF HOUSING]

"Why would we let Trump spend half a trillion to continue a war in Iran, when we could be using that money to end homelessness right here in this country. That's not some pie in the sky idea, with $500 billion dollars it becomes an achievable goal. Instead of putting bombs over the skies in Iran, we could use this money to put roofs over a lot of heads.

"Just consider: The National Alliance to End Homelessness, has estimated that for around $10 billion dollars we could provide rapid re-housing or permanent supportive housing to everyone in a homeless shelter who struggled to get housing in one year. That is just a fraction of Trump's half a trillion dollar war budget. Meaning we could invest in other housing affordability programs too.

"For example-by one estimate, in addition to getting everyone out of homeless shelters, we could cover the cost of Section 8 housing for a year for every single person eligible-and still have over $350 billion left over.

"And of course, a huge challenge with the housing crisis is expanding the supply. We have to build far more affordable housing units, that is something I push for every year, even as Trump keeps trying to cut those investments in his budget. For $350 billion dollars-we could cover the costs of building over 800,000 affordable housing units.

"We could make this funding go even farther through policy changes. The Center for American Progress has put forward a policy plan they say could close the 2 million housing supply gap in 5 years-for $95 billion. That's not even a quarter of what Trump plans to spend on a war.

"So why in the world would we spend so much money on destruction across the globe. When we can make those same dollars go a lot farther for construction right here at home.

[FUNDING MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS]

"While Trump is creating new threats abroad through his reckless warmongering and demanding hundreds of billions of dollars to fight wars that Americans never wanted him to start in the first place, there is another set of enemies, right here at home-killing our people, and that we could all but vanquish with robust investments. And that is disease.

"Given the same $500 billion Trump wants to send to a war in Iran, we could increase our investments to beat cancer and Alzheimer's ten times over. Instead of a war that risks American lives, we could be fighting to save countless lives researching cancer, and Alzheimer's, and heart disease, and more.

"Just consider according to one estimate, it would take just over $24 billion dollars-so not even 5 percent of Trump's war budget, to prepare prototype vaccines for each of the 26 known viral families that cause human disease. Even if that estimate were off by double, we could have a vaccine for every known viral family, and still have well over $400 billion dollars left over.

"And what could we do with that? Well one option-would be to end the AIDS epidemic. PEPFAR has already been one of the most successful programs in history-and at a budget far below what Trump has proposed for his war. If we spent our energy fighting HIV and AIDS instead of fighting whatever war Trump decides to start, this is a fight we can win. UN AIDS estimated we could end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 if the US increased its funding by $29 billion dollars. Wouldn't that be something. A deadly global enemy-actually eradicated.

"It's almost heartbreaking to think we are passing up these kinds of opportunities, just to blow more money on bombs for Trump.

[CONCLUSION]

"The crazy thing is I've only just scratched the surface of better ways we could spend all the money Trump wants to set on fire to fuel his war in Iran. And I would love to hear your suggestions in the comments as well. We could spend that money replacing lead water pipes, or improving access to mental health care, or building bridges and fixing roads, or providing better care for our veterans.

"Remember when Trump promised tariff rebates? Another broken promise. By some estimates-President Trump's tariffs cost the average family over a thousand dollars last year.

"In fact, for the amount Trump wants to increase war spending-$500 billion dollars, you could send each of the 130 million households in this country $3,800 dollars.

"At the end of the day-it is almost hard to think of a worse way to spend hundreds of billions of dollars than Trump's war in Iran. Though I have no doubt he will try to outdo himself.

"And it's important to remember, when we talk about how Trump's budget would jack up defense spending by half a trillion dollars, that is only half the problem. Trump doesn't only propose spending more money on missiles and war, he wants to cut programs our families rely on to do that, affordable housing, small business support, teacher training, and a lot more.

"So stay tuned, because I am going to have a lot more to say about that. Last year I promised to tear Trump's budget in half, and that is exactly what I did. So I know exactly what to do with this new one."

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