Tuesday on MS NOW’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said Senate Republicans were highly stressed about Iran because it is a disaster.

Merkley said, “The whole authorization would be even more because they’re trying to enable there to be a supplemental bill as well as a regular appropriation bill and a reconciliation bill that addressed this defense. And so we’re looking at a total price tag there of about $1.5 trillion, which is a massive increase in the defense budget. And we are at the same time seeing that the Republicans are saying, hey, there’s not money for the foundation for families, housing to bad, health care to bad, nutrition to bad, education, to bad, the fundamentals or for really for infrastructure in the United States of America, important for jobs and important for building the future, communities. So in that context of this disproportionate I mean, we are essentially, throwing away our national wealth on misbegotten foreign adventures in Iraq, in Afghanistan, now in Iran.”

He added, “My colleagues, my Republican colleagues, they’re highly stressed about this. This thing is a disaster. We have 14 Americans dead. We have hundreds injured. High, highly, technical munitions are in short supply. We spent a lot of money. We’ve strengthened the hardliners in Iran. We’ve weakened the reformers. We’ve enriched Russia and the American families. And American farmers are paying a hell of a lot more money for the fundamentals, fertilizer, diesel, gas and groceries and so forth.”

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