PRIORITIES • Protect Our Future • Policy for

No Blank Checks for War

Why I believe this — and how I’ll fight for it.

I am antiwar. Let me say it plainly, because too few politicians will: I will never vote to fund or support an unnecessary war — not for profit, not for politics, not because an ally demands it. Having the strongest military on earth is one thing. Using it to start wars, or letting it run as a machine for profit and destruction, is another entirely. Our strength should be spent keeping the peace, not manufacturing reasons to break it.

This is personal for me. I come from a military family. My father was a disabled veteran, and I grew up watching what his service cost him — the physical toll, the pain that never fully left. My brother served on a submarine, deployed underwater for months at a time after 9/11, while we waited at home not knowing if he’d come back. I’ve seen the trauma, the injuries, the PTSD up close. When Washington signs a blank check for war, these are the people who pay it — and the families who wait.

America was supposed to be the beacon — the country the world looked to as the best example of what’s right. A real leader leads by example and tells the truth, even to its friends. A real friend holds an ally accountable instead of enabling it. Instead, we’ve too often become the enabler — pouring weapons and tax dollars into death and destruction abroad, while families here can’t afford groceries or gas and our debt climbs every year. Our money is going halfway around the world to fund war while our own people struggle. I’m running to make us the leader again, not the enabler — and to bring that focus, and that money, home.

Here’s what I’ll do — and why

End U.S. funding of unnecessary foreign wars. I’ll vote against every dollar that fuels a war we have no business being in. This does not mean abandoning our military or our real allies — it means we stop being the world’s arms dealer and open checkbook for destruction. Every dollar we stop pouring into wars that don’t make us safer is a dollar we can put toward the people struggling right here at home.

Restore Congress’s constitutional war power — no new wars without a vote. The Constitution gave the power to take this country to war to Congress — the people’s representatives — not to a president acting alone or a backroom deal. That’s been eroded for decades. I’d restore it: no new war, anywhere, without an up-or-down vote in Congress, in the open. If we’re going to ask Americans to fight and die, the people’s branch has to say yes first.

No military aid without a vote — and no aid without conditions. No more shipping weapons to foreign governments through backroom deals nobody voted on. Every package gets a public vote. And every dollar comes with conditions: be good allies to America, honor their commitments to America, follow international law, and respect human rights — or the aid stops. Your tax dollars should never underwrite a foreign leader breaking the law and killing innocent people — not in our name, and not without our consent.

Be a true ally — because a real friend tells the truth and holds you accountable. Being a good friend has never meant handing an ally a blank check and looking away. It means holding them to the same standards we hold ourselves — and refusing to bankroll what we know is wrong. I will not vote to enable mass killings, apartheid, or the collective punishment of innocent people — not for anyone, and not just because an ally asks it of us. Real leadership means telling a friend the hard truth to their face — not enabling an atrocity and then sending a strongly-worded letter after the fact. We can stand with our allies and still insist they stand for something.

Use our soft power, not just our weapons — and take on the war profiteers. America’s greatest power was never only its military — it was its example, its diplomacy, its ability to lead the world toward peace instead of into war. I’d put that power back to work preventing conflicts instead of just funding them. And I’d go straight at the war profiteers: the defense contractors who bankroll politicians and cash in on endless war have every reason to keep it going. I’d force real competition and innovation into defense spending — drive the costs down, build what actually keeps us safe, and stop writing blank checks to a war machine that answers to its shareholders, not to you.

What this means for Our District

Which brings it home. Our own congressman is a combat veteran, and I honor and respect his service without reservation. He’ll tell you he’s antiwar — but watch what he does when it actually counts. Take the big defense bill this past December: nearly $900 billion for the Pentagon. This one wasn’t a party-line vote you can hide in — 18 Republicans broke ranks and voted no, and most of our own Northern California Democrats refused too: Garamendi, Huffman, Matsui, and more. Our congressman had every cover to join them. He voted yes instead — the same cycle he was cashing checks from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Chevron, and the oil lobby. That’s the difference between antiwar in name and antiwar when it matters. I take none of their money, so I don’t owe them a thing — and I’ll do what he won’t: actually stand up to them.

The bottom line

America can be the leader again — the one the world looks to for what’s right, not the one writing checks for what’s wrong. We can keep the strongest military on earth and stop using it as a machine for endless war. We can be a true friend to our allies and still tell them the truth. Bring our power, our conscience, and our money back into balance, and we stop funding destruction abroad and start rebuilding the country our veterans fought for, and hand our kids an America that leads by example again. That’s the country I believe in. Let’s go be it.

All Policies
Next Policy
Return to Top

SOURCES

Join the Fight
Contribute