Transcript [00:00] Bernie Sanders says America can't afford [00:02] health care because we're sending [00:04] billions of dollars to Israel. Sounds [00:06] convincing. [music] It's actually just [00:08] scapegoating. Here are three things that [00:11] claim gets wrong. First, that $7 billion [00:14] in weaponry Bernie's [music] talking [00:15] about, that's not foreign aid. That's an [00:18] arms purchase. Israel buying American [00:21] military equipment paid for through [00:23] Israeli financing built by American [00:26] workers approved through US arm sales [00:29] channels. That's not [music] US taxpayer [00:32] money being handed to Israel. That's [00:34] billions of dollars flowing into US [00:36] companies and American jobs from Israel. [00:40] The US does give military aid to Israel, [00:42] but that's a different thing. Almost all [00:45] of that aid is something called foreign [00:47] military financing. And FMF isn't a [00:50] check. It's basically a voucher that has [00:53] to be spent on US-made defense [00:55] equipment. [music] Roughly threearters [00:57] of US aid to Israel is legally required [01:00] to [music] be spent right back in the [01:02] United States. Israel used to have a [01:05] limited carveout to spend some of it [01:06] domestically, but that carveout [music] [01:08] is being phased out by design. And [01:11] here's the part that tweet leaves out [01:13] entirely. The level of [music] US aid to [01:16] Israel wasn't decided this week or this [01:19] year or by Trump. It was set nearly a [01:23] decade ago [music] [01:24] in a 10-year agreement signed in 2016 by [01:28] then President Obama. Congress has been [01:30] funding it every [music] year since. So, [01:32] let's actually talk about healthcare. [01:34] Israel receives about [music] $3.3 [01:37] billion a year in US military FMF aid. [01:41] Now, compare that to Medicare for all. [01:44] Even conservative estimates [music] put [01:45] the federal cost of Medicare for all at [01:48] over $3 trillion a year. That's not a [01:52] trade-off. You could eliminate every [01:55] dollar of Israel's military aid [01:57] completely and it wouldn't even cover [01:59] one/tenth of 1% of the cost, which is [02:02] about 9 1/2 hours of universal [02:04] healthcare. This argument really isn't [02:07] about healthcare, and it really isn't [02:09] about budgets. It's the same old story. [02:13] When things go wrong at home, blame the [02:15] Jews. Or today, blame the Jewish [music] [02:17] state. The claim that Israel is why [02:20] Americans don't have healthcare isn't [02:22] policy analysis. It's a modern version [02:25] of an ancient [music] trope. They're [02:27] taking your money. They're responsible [02:29] for your suffering. Health care isn't [02:31] underfunded because of Israel. Health [02:34] care is underfunded because of political [02:36] choices made in America. When people [02:39] tell you Israel is the reason America [02:41] can't have universal healthcare, they're [02:43] not offering solutions. They're offering [02:46] a scapegoat.
Here’s how U.S. foreign military funding actually works:
When politicians claim billions spent on Israeli weapons could fund Medicare instead, they’re conflating arms sales with foreign aid.
Israel buying American-made military equipment is not U.S. taxpayer money being handed over. It is money flowing to American companies and workers.
The military aid the U.S. does provide is largely restricted to purchasing American defense equipment. And at roughly $3.3 billion a year, eliminating it would barely make a dent in the trillions required for Medicare for All.
Cutting aid to Israel does not fund healthcare or infrastructure. It simply turns Israel into a scapegoat for political choices made in Washington.
