By the US Peace Council, March 31, 2019
President Donald Trump has unwittingly handed the U.S. peace movement an opportunity to elevate the discussion of the runaway Pentagon military budget, an issue that has been almost entirely absent from US politics. For 2020, Trump openly proposes another gigantic increase in the Pentagon budget by direct cuts in spending on all social needs. By mobilizing local support for public hearings, especially within City Halls around the country, the peace movement can expose the destruction of our communities resulting from U.S. war policies and engage allies from many sectors to join us in demanding that we reverse course, cut military spending and transfer funds to spending on human needs. The conclusion of this statement is a set of recommendations, based on our own experience for generating that public discussion.
______
THE UNPRECEDENTED SOCIAL DAMAGE OF THIS BUDGET
On March 12, 2019 President Trump released his proposed Federal budget for 2020. It proposed Pentagon spending of $750 billion— a $34 billion increase over last year’s request.
According to Lindsay Koshgarian of the National Priorities Project:
Every single department in this budget gets a cut except for the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs Department, Homeland Security, and a little teeny tiny plus for the Department of Commerce…. They have about $2.7 trillion dollars in cuts to social programs …. It’s an enormous cut. It’s about 9 percent across the board to everything that’s not the military and Homeland Security. And the biggest and hardest hit are things like Medicaid, Medicare, that President Trump, when he ran for office, said he wasn’t going to touch. So there’s a big step back on his word in terms of those programs, and that may actually hurt him when his base comes to realize that’s what’s going on. [1]
Although Republicans supported Trump’s budget proposal, there were outcries from liberals and some Democrats. They were louder this year because the spending priorities were more barbaric this year. The Trump budget was pronounced “dead on arrival,” in the now Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, a doubtful claim, given the pattern of Congressional Democratic quiet surrender to Trump budget priorities especially its military component. While decrying cuts to social spending, Democrats failed to criticize the continued bloating of the Pentagon.
Journalist Matt Taibbi has written about the chicanery and deception in this budget. In the past two budgets, both te Republicans and the Democrats have handed the Pentagon a raise. Both major parties are complicit:
“The military is once again poised to receive a huge budgetary bump from President Trump, and the Democrats don’t seem interested in doing much
about it. Last week, reports emerged that Trump, while touting overall spending cuts “higher than any administration in history,” was planning to ask for a $750 billion defense budget...This will put an end to years of what’s known as budget “parity,” or the idea that defense and non-defense funding should rise and fall together.
Last year, the Department of Defense failed to pass its first-ever audit. For this and other reasons, one would think that this would be a good time for Democrats to band together and prevent a raise in military spending, or even fight for cuts until the Pentagon can get its books in order. That doesn’t seem to be in the works.
According to a Capital Hill source, the Democrats are targeting a counter-offer above the $716 billion budget Trump asked for in 2018. In other words, the Democrats want to lower Trump’s number, but still give the Pentagon a raise.
“Even the opening number is going to be really high,” says the source.
Trump’s budget request represents a 5-percent increase overall. Budget analysts have said they expect the final number to be between last year’s $716 billion figure and $733 billion, the likely final number also quoted in Rolling Stone. A $733 billion defense budget number would represent a 2.4-percent increase, or about half of what Trump wants
Should the Democrats approve a $733 billion budget — remember, Trump’s $716 billion budget passed 85-10 in the Senate last year — it would break a record for the second consecutive year.
This [budget chicanery this year] is … a trick allowing Trump, and likely Congress, to increase defense spending while cutting everything else, despite laws in place designed to prevent exactly this situation.
A $750-billion budget would roughly equal the total spent by the next 15 highest-spending countries, a list that includes England, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — none of which appears to pose much of a threat. Our military spending more than doubles that of our two most serious competitors, China ($224 billion) and Russia ($44 billion).
The Trump budget request includes $31 billion to “modernize” our nuclear triad, plus funding for an additional Virginia-class submarine and 78 F-35 jets from Lockheed-Martin at a cost of $11.2 billion. There is also a request for $7 billion in “emergency” funding for building whatever it is they’re calling Trump’s hare-brained wall plan these days.
The wall funding is likely to spur enough controversy that it will take a long time for the two sides to agree on final numbers. But expect the Democrats to agree up-front to a large military increase, perhaps in conjunction with a deal for higher base non-defense spending levels in the name of “parity.” [2]
FROM GUNS AND BUTTER TO MORE GUNS, AND TAKE AWAY THE BUTTER
Why is this year different? Why is the contradiction between Pentagon spending and the rest of the budget now sharper than ever? What does that mean for a peace strategy?
There has always been a contradiction between “guns and butter,” so to speak. Since the 1950s bloated Pentagon spending has deprived the US people of vital spending on genuine social needs.
What is new and little noted --- even in the US antiwar movement --- is that this 2020 budget marks a huge departure. The expansion of military spending in 2020 has been obtained by shrinking civilian, social and non-military spending. As well, these cuts hurt key Trump constituencies he promised to protect in 2016. In the 2020 budget for the first time the increase in military spending is being paid for by savage cuts in non-military spending. That is new. It has important political implications.
THE FIGHT AGAINST THE PENTAGON BUDGET
In its most cautious form, protests against Pentagon spending oppose “waste, fraud and abuse.” Protest can be against “misplaced priorities.” Pentagon spending can be opposed for moral, religious and pacifist reasons.
But the motive that can bring millions of people into sustained struggle against bloated Pentagon spending is that it represents an attack on one’s life and livelihood, an obvious attack on one’s direct material interests.
That -- we argue -- is now clearly the case, for the first time. Pentagon spending now openly threatens the direct material interests of millions of Americans. Also, there is a new quality and force to the environmental argument against Pentagon spending. The Pentagon is the greatest polluter in the world, and progressive opinion is far more attuned to the existential threat to humanity posed by environmental destruction. [4]
The US antiwar movement has experience in trying to utilize this contradiction between guns and butter, with mixed results. For example, after 1975, in the post-Vietnam War era, the Coalition for New Foreign and Military Policy proposed the Transfer Amendment, an amendment to the federal budget which would have transferred billions from military to civilian spending.
More recently, in the summer of 2017 the US Conference of Mayors, 253 mayors in all, fearing the impact on city services of a likely Trump budget skewed lopsidedly in favor of military spending, unanimously passed a resolution calling on city councils across the nation to hold hearings on the impact of the military budget on city service provision.
The idea was to engage local government, the level of government most likely to suffer cutbacks in Federal aid as resources are drained away to pay for wasteful war spending. The goal was to bring to bear local government pressure on federal lawmakers, the only ones who can vote on the federal budget, to reconsider their habit of unthinkingly and automatically supporting the gargantuan war budget, and to demand for the sake of the cities and their most vulnerable populations, a more rational balance between guns and butter.
US PEACE COUNCIL EXPERIENCE IN THE LAST THREE YEARS
Based on our own local experience in New Haven, New York and New Jersey, working to give reality to the Mayors’ Resolution of July 2017, we suggest these ideas for a stepped-up and expanded campaign against Pentagon spending in 2019 and beyond.
1. Resolutions passed at City Council level should clearly indicate that there will be a political price to pay if members of Congress do not oppose runaway military budgets. Congress will be held publicly accountable. Congressional support for the runaway military budget will be publicly exposed. Testimony should focus both on the cuts and on the needs that will go unmet. Invite the media to hearings. Quickly share expert testimony with the mass media to maximize political pressure on federal lawmakers to resist the Pentagon and right-wing pressure.
2. Continue to focus on local government -- Mayors and City Council members -- including appointed city agency heads who best know their own budget. They will be in the direct line of fire from the impending draconian budget cuts. Agency heads can discuss concretely what each city agency needs to carry out its goals and what the agency could accomplish if funds were available to it that now go to the military.
3. Hearings should always invite testimony from nonprofits on how the needs of their constituents go unmet, parents and teachers to testify on how the needs of children go unmet, and other nongovernmental agencies. Invite the groups most likely to suffer, the most vulnerable, the poor, communities of color, the elderly, the sick, unorganized working people, and so forth. Their testimony should likewise be made public to the mass media as speedily as possible.
4. As the Mayors’ 2017 Resolution directed, there should be a mandatory, institutionalized public educational component to the campaign. This is a long-term campaign. Each city should include in its report on its public hearings, a report on how much of its residents’ federal taxes go toward paying for the military budget. Urge each city government to pass a law mandating the Mayor annually request reports from federal legislators and the US government on how they are moving significant funds away from the military budget to human needs. Each city should send a copy of the
resolution passed to its federal legislators with a demand that they respond with their plans to reduce the military budget in favor of the human needs budget.
5. The peace movement should focus its search for allies on grassroots and independent forces, and not rely on party labels. Those who receive funding from the military-industrial complex, including corporate Democrats, will seldom be friends of this campaign.
6. Seek allies in the trade unions. The key argument is that for the same amount of funding there are fewer jobs in making weapons and war than on manufacturing for human needs [5]. Seek support from public sector unions and unions in the service sector that will be negatively impacted by the direction of Trump’s budget. Federal legislators claim they are creating jobs with military spending. The reality is that they are creating fewer jobs than if the same amount of funding went to spending on human needs. Thus, they are actually killing jobs. The falsehood of creating jobs with military funding is best answered by voices from within the unions. Some voices can be found even now, especially in the public sector.
Hundreds of thousands of US workers toil in the arms industries. Peace campaigners must show utmost sensitivity to their plight. Any proposal to slash Pentagon spending must also include guarantees for jobs for them at equivalent pay in other industries. It can be done if there is the political will. There exists a vast literature on economic conversion and Just Transition.
CONCLUSION
To take advantage of this new opening we offer these reflections on lessons leaned by US Peace Council in New Haven, New York and elsewhere. The outrageousness of the Trump war budget has created a new political opening for the peace movement and its allies. The whole peace movement ought to respond to the opening by stepping up the struggle against the Pentagon budget.
Endnotes
[1] Lindsay Koshgarian Interview with Mark Steiner of The Real News "Trump's Militarized Budget Slashes Medicare, Medicaid, and Clean Energy" March 14, 2019.
[2] Matt Taibbi, "Trump Wants More War Money Than Last Year and Democrats Don't Seem to Mind." Rolling Stone March 19, 2019.
[3] The "Million Parts per Trillion Tour" Featuring America's Most Contaminated Military Bases By Pat Elder, Military Poisons.org.
[4] https://www.peri.umass.edu/publication/item/995-job-opportunity-cost-of-war
_____________________________________________________________
Appendix #1
City of New Haven Peace Commission
Resolution Calling for Hearing on Funding Human Services in New Haven
WHEREAS, by vote of the Board of Alders the New Haven ballot in November 2012
contained the nonbinding referendum, “Shall Congress reduce military spending;
transfer funds to convert to civilian production; create jobs to rebuild our
infrastructure; meet pressing human needs?”
WHEREAS, 23,398 citizens voted for this resolution and only 4,152 voted against it, thus
it passed overwhelmingly by nearly six to one;
WHEREAS each year the Pentagon and other Federal Departments engaged in war and
preparations for war are provided 55% of the Federal Discretionary Budget, that is
money raised by our taxes and borrowing, leaving all other needs of the people –
education, veterans benefits, housing and community, healthcare, social security and
unemployment and labor, energy and environment, international affairs, science,
transportation, food and agriculture – to divide up among them the remaining 45%;
WHEREAS in 2013 the State of Connecticut passed Public Act 13-19, which called for
establishing a Commission to investigate how CT could create jobs manufacturing
civilian, green products as alternatives to producing weapons for war;
WHEREAS the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit organization based in
Northampton, Massachusetts, annually analyzes and publishes information and charts
detailing how the large US military budget and ongoing wars take funds important for
human needs required by every city, congressional district and state, and if redirected
what products and services these funds might provide;
WHEREAS one of the Board of Alders’ main priorities is developing livable wage jobs
for New Haven residents, which would include service sector jobs;
WHEREAS the Board of Alders has in past years held public hearings with
presentations by the National Priorities Project;
And WHEREAS the city of New Haven has limited resources both to fulfill the human
service needs of the city and to generate good jobs;
Therefore, the City of New Haven Peace Commission urges the Human Services
Committee of the Board of Alders to
1) call one or more public hearings in the winter/spring of 2016 to reveal what the
extent of the city’s public and human services needs are, what the gaps are
between the city’s needs and all funds provided by taxes, grants and debt, and
how those gaps could be met by reducing the annual national military budget;
2) invite representatives of the National Priorities Project and any other
organization that weighs spending on military versus human needs to make
presentations; and
3) invite directors of relevant city departments – including but not limited to
Community Services; Livable City Initiative; Public Works; Engineering;
Transportation, Traffic and Parking; Parks & Recreation; Arts, Culture &
Tourism; Education – to speak to their departments’ unfulfilled needs.
And WHEREAS: Such a public hearing, duly noticed, was held by the Human Services
Committee of the Board of Alders on January 26, 2017, where an informative discussion
was achieved.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the New Haven Board of Alders shall send
a letter with a copy of this resolution to all of the city’s federal legislators, urging them to
cut the military budget and use the savings to fund human services, infrastructure and
other local needs.
_______________________________________________________________________
Appendix #2
New York City Council
Res. No. 747
Resolution calling on the federal government and its legislators to move significant funds away from the military budget to fund human needs and services. Introduced Feb. 2019
By Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez
Whereas, spending on defense already makes up more than half of the federal discretionary budget and President Trump is seeking to increase this to 65 percent by 2023; and,
Whereas, this increase would be offset by cuts to social services, and New York City would lose at least $850 million under this budget shakeup; and,
Whereas, like other local governments, New York City’s ability to fund essential social services relies in part on federal grants; and,
Whereas, the City’s Department of Housing and Preservation, for example, is the largest municipal housing agency in the nation and currently 83 percent of its budget comes from federal funds; and,
Whereas, according to the New York City Comptroller, cuts to federal programs would directly impact the lives of New Yorkers because it would eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program, which 770,000 New Yorkers rely on to keep their homes warm in the winter; and,
Whereas, additional programs that would be cut include the Community Services Block Grant, which funds rental assistance, summer youth employment and adult literacy programs, and the Social Services Block Grant, which funds a broad range of programs, from providing meals and services to the elderly, to helping victims of domestic violence find safe shelter; and,
Whereas, the United States consistently outspends other countries on military and defense; and,
Whereas, in 2017 the country spent over $600 billion on the military, more than Japan, the United Kingdom, France, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China combined; and,
Whereas, polling has shown that constituents do not want increases in defense budgets, especially at the cost of social services; and,
Whereas, a poll by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation recently revealed that while President Trump wants to increase military spending by more than $52 million, those polled said they wanted to see the defense budget cut by $41 million; and,
Whereas, according to data from the National Priorities Project, taxpayers in New York City contributed more than $25 billion to the Department of Defense (‘DOD’) in 2017, but a small decrease in the military budget could provide a range of essential services for New Yorkers; and,
Whereas, reducing the DOD contribution by ten percent could fund healthcare for approximately 850,000 children from low-income families, medical care for nearly 200,000 veterans, stimulus to create more than 46,000 infrastructure jobs and 25,000 additional elementary school teachers jobs; and,
Whereas, in June 2017, the United States Conference of Mayors, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, unanimously passed a resolution calling upon all cities to hold public hearings on the ways that the federal defense budget hampers local spending on essential social services; and,
, residents of New York City have a right to know and publicly comment on how their Whereas tax dollars are spent and which services they want funded and prioritized;
Whereas, local governments are the main victims of lopsided federal priorities embodied in a federal budget skewed to Pentagon spending; and,
Whereas, these municipalities could be much more fair and stronger if the federal government spent less on the military and instead utilized the money to improve transportation, education, housing, healthcare, environmental protection, and public goods and services; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, that the federal government and its legislators move significant funds away from the military budget to fund human needs and services.
LMS
LS #6495
2/8/19
___________________________________________________________________________
Appendix #3 -- Greater New Haven Peace Council Flyer
LOOK OUT!!
Trump’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Discretionary Budget request tops 1.3 TRILLION!
The military budget is increasing from $727 billion (61% of discretionary spending) to over $750 billion! Make no mistake about it folks, this is a budget for the military industrial complex, corporate CEO’s, Wall Street, and for the billionaire class of robber barons.
Where will the money come from? Buckle your seat belts, pilgrims. Here it is. Read it and weep.
Over the next 10 years, Trump’s budget would cut:
This is a budget that promises “a more lethal force,” adding more victims to the hundreds of thousands – military and civilians – killed as a result of U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It is also a more lethal budget with big cuts to food stamps, healthcare, legal protection for the poor, low income housing, employment training, environmental protection, parks, renewable energy, and more.
Your tax dollars will fund these obscene increases:
WEAPONS
WALLS
WHOPPING DEFICITS
Sources: National Priorities Project (nationalpriorities.org)
International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (icanw.org)
Public Debt History at Wikipedia (Wikipedia.org)
Warren Gunnels, staff director for Senator Bernie Sanders
As the World War II combat veteran, esteemed educator, and dedicated anti-war activist, Howard Zinn, said: “If Patriotism means supporting your government’s policies without question, then we are on our way to a Totalitarian State!”
Please Call: Your Congress persons at 202.224.3121 today!
Don’t whine. Get off your duffs and do something about it! Silence is not an option.
[1] Lindsay Koshgarian Interview with Mark Steiner of The Real News "Trump's Militarized Budget Slashes Medicare, Medicaid, and Clean Energy" March 14, 2019.
[2] Matt Taibbi, "Trump Wants More War Money Than Last Year and Democrats Don't Seem to Mind." Rolling Stone March 19, 2019.
[3] The "Million Parts per Trillion Tour" Featuring America's Most Contaminated Military Bases By Pat Elder, Military Poisons.org.
[4] https://www.peri.umass.edu/publication/item/995-job-opportunity-cost-of-war
_____________________________________________________________
Appendix #1
City of New Haven Peace Commission
Resolution Calling for Hearing on Funding Human Services in New Haven
WHEREAS, by vote of the Board of Alders the New Haven ballot in November 2012
contained the nonbinding referendum, “Shall Congress reduce military spending;
transfer funds to convert to civilian production; create jobs to rebuild our
infrastructure; meet pressing human needs?”
WHEREAS, 23,398 citizens voted for this resolution and only 4,152 voted against it, thus
it passed overwhelmingly by nearly six to one;
WHEREAS each year the Pentagon and other Federal Departments engaged in war and
preparations for war are provided 55% of the Federal Discretionary Budget, that is
money raised by our taxes and borrowing, leaving all other needs of the people –
education, veterans benefits, housing and community, healthcare, social security and
unemployment and labor, energy and environment, international affairs, science,
transportation, food and agriculture – to divide up among them the remaining 45%;
WHEREAS in 2013 the State of Connecticut passed Public Act 13-19, which called for
establishing a Commission to investigate how CT could create jobs manufacturing
civilian, green products as alternatives to producing weapons for war;
WHEREAS the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit organization based in
Northampton, Massachusetts, annually analyzes and publishes information and charts
detailing how the large US military budget and ongoing wars take funds important for
human needs required by every city, congressional district and state, and if redirected
what products and services these funds might provide;
WHEREAS one of the Board of Alders’ main priorities is developing livable wage jobs
for New Haven residents, which would include service sector jobs;
WHEREAS the Board of Alders has in past years held public hearings with
presentations by the National Priorities Project;
And WHEREAS the city of New Haven has limited resources both to fulfill the human
service needs of the city and to generate good jobs;
Therefore, the City of New Haven Peace Commission urges the Human Services
Committee of the Board of Alders to
1) call one or more public hearings in the winter/spring of 2016 to reveal what the
extent of the city’s public and human services needs are, what the gaps are
between the city’s needs and all funds provided by taxes, grants and debt, and
how those gaps could be met by reducing the annual national military budget;
2) invite representatives of the National Priorities Project and any other
organization that weighs spending on military versus human needs to make
presentations; and
3) invite directors of relevant city departments – including but not limited to
Community Services; Livable City Initiative; Public Works; Engineering;
Transportation, Traffic and Parking; Parks & Recreation; Arts, Culture &
Tourism; Education – to speak to their departments’ unfulfilled needs.
And WHEREAS: Such a public hearing, duly noticed, was held by the Human Services
Committee of the Board of Alders on January 26, 2017, where an informative discussion
was achieved.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the New Haven Board of Alders shall send
a letter with a copy of this resolution to all of the city’s federal legislators, urging them to
cut the military budget and use the savings to fund human services, infrastructure and
other local needs.
_______________________________________________________________________
Appendix #2
New York City Council
Res. No. 747
Resolution calling on the federal government and its legislators to move significant funds away from the military budget to fund human needs and services. Introduced Feb. 2019
By Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez
Whereas, spending on defense already makes up more than half of the federal discretionary budget and President Trump is seeking to increase this to 65 percent by 2023; and,
Whereas, this increase would be offset by cuts to social services, and New York City would lose at least $850 million under this budget shakeup; and,
Whereas, like other local governments, New York City’s ability to fund essential social services relies in part on federal grants; and,
Whereas, the City’s Department of Housing and Preservation, for example, is the largest municipal housing agency in the nation and currently 83 percent of its budget comes from federal funds; and,
Whereas, according to the New York City Comptroller, cuts to federal programs would directly impact the lives of New Yorkers because it would eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program, which 770,000 New Yorkers rely on to keep their homes warm in the winter; and,
Whereas, additional programs that would be cut include the Community Services Block Grant, which funds rental assistance, summer youth employment and adult literacy programs, and the Social Services Block Grant, which funds a broad range of programs, from providing meals and services to the elderly, to helping victims of domestic violence find safe shelter; and,
Whereas, the United States consistently outspends other countries on military and defense; and,
Whereas, in 2017 the country spent over $600 billion on the military, more than Japan, the United Kingdom, France, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia and China combined; and,
Whereas, polling has shown that constituents do not want increases in defense budgets, especially at the cost of social services; and,
Whereas, a poll by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation recently revealed that while President Trump wants to increase military spending by more than $52 million, those polled said they wanted to see the defense budget cut by $41 million; and,
Whereas, according to data from the National Priorities Project, taxpayers in New York City contributed more than $25 billion to the Department of Defense (‘DOD’) in 2017, but a small decrease in the military budget could provide a range of essential services for New Yorkers; and,
Whereas, reducing the DOD contribution by ten percent could fund healthcare for approximately 850,000 children from low-income families, medical care for nearly 200,000 veterans, stimulus to create more than 46,000 infrastructure jobs and 25,000 additional elementary school teachers jobs; and,
Whereas, in June 2017, the United States Conference of Mayors, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, unanimously passed a resolution calling upon all cities to hold public hearings on the ways that the federal defense budget hampers local spending on essential social services; and,
, residents of New York City have a right to know and publicly comment on how their Whereas tax dollars are spent and which services they want funded and prioritized;
Whereas, local governments are the main victims of lopsided federal priorities embodied in a federal budget skewed to Pentagon spending; and,
Whereas, these municipalities could be much more fair and stronger if the federal government spent less on the military and instead utilized the money to improve transportation, education, housing, healthcare, environmental protection, and public goods and services; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, that the federal government and its legislators move significant funds away from the military budget to fund human needs and services.
LMS
LS #6495
2/8/19
___________________________________________________________________________
Appendix #3 -- Greater New Haven Peace Council Flyer
LOOK OUT!!
Trump’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Discretionary Budget request tops 1.3 TRILLION!
The military budget is increasing from $727 billion (61% of discretionary spending) to over $750 billion! Make no mistake about it folks, this is a budget for the military industrial complex, corporate CEO’s, Wall Street, and for the billionaire class of robber barons.
Where will the money come from? Buckle your seat belts, pilgrims. Here it is. Read it and weep.
Over the next 10 years, Trump’s budget would cut:
- $1.5 trillion from Medicaid
- $845 billion from Medicare
- $25 billion from Social Security
- $207 billion from college education
- $220 billion from food stamps
This is a budget that promises “a more lethal force,” adding more victims to the hundreds of thousands – military and civilians – killed as a result of U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It is also a more lethal budget with big cuts to food stamps, healthcare, legal protection for the poor, low income housing, employment training, environmental protection, parks, renewable energy, and more.
Your tax dollars will fund these obscene increases:
WEAPONS
- $24 billion more for nuclear weapons, which 122 nations are working to outlaw
- $69 billion more for endless war & more drone strikes that have killed over 5,000 civilians in Iraq & Syria since Oct. 2014
- $10 billion for a missile “defense” system: false insecurity and more militarism
- $75 billion for aircraft, missiles, tanks and giant contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Boeing
- A lot more for the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit and cannot account for billions of dollars of your money
WALLS
- $1.6 BILLION – U.S dollars not Mexican pesos – for 65 miles of border wall
- $3.5 billion for more armed border agents, ICE officers and 52,000 detention beds
- $15 billion cut to the State Dept. says to the world “military force not diplomacy”
- An endless drumbeat of tweets and reporting that criminalizes immigrant communities in the nation of immigrants
WHOPPING DEFICITS
- $7 trillion added to the deficit over 10 years
- U.S. public debt spikes with every war and military build-up since the Civil War
- Children will be paying off debt for today’s endless wars – and
Sources: National Priorities Project (nationalpriorities.org)
International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (icanw.org)
Public Debt History at Wikipedia (Wikipedia.org)
Warren Gunnels, staff director for Senator Bernie Sanders
As the World War II combat veteran, esteemed educator, and dedicated anti-war activist, Howard Zinn, said: “If Patriotism means supporting your government’s policies without question, then we are on our way to a Totalitarian State!”
Please Call: Your Congress persons at 202.224.3121 today!
Don’t whine. Get off your duffs and do something about it! Silence is not an option.
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