El-Sayed is expressing a core progressive budget priority — redirecting military spending toward domestic services. This reflects a genuine political debate about budget allocation, not a factual claim. He's campaigning as a Senate candidate and released his 2025 tax returns in response to primary pressure; the web search shows he earned $686K (top 1% in Michigan) with significant capital gains and rental property income, which complicates his anti-wealthy-landlord messaging but doesn't invalidate his position on federal spending priorities. If El-Sayed's argument rests on claims that government spending lacks transparency, that's partly true but overstated. While tools like USASpending.gov exist and provide real transparency, they have documented gaps and inaccuracies in the data they contain. So his point about difficulty understanding where tax dollars go has some foundation, but it's not accurate to suggest transparency is entirely absent — it's incomplete and imperfect.