Action Alerts
- Email Congress this week: cut military spending, not safety nets!
Congress will vote this week on the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets overall spending limits for the Pentagon. House leaders are trying to increase the Pentagon budget, save useless weapons, and cut survival programs for children, elderly, and families on the line instead. Please:
- Call your congressperson and say: Cut military spending, Save food stamps and medicaid, and don’t balance the Pentagon budget on our backs.
- Write a letter to the editor that names your representative and calls on ‘em to cut military spending.
- Ask sympathetic local officials and organizational leaders to call Congress and send letters to the editor with you.
See this week’s full alert here and use these resources as well as the ones immediately to your right. We especially recommend Proponomics, a video from the Coalition on Human Needs that shows how many people will be hurt. Send it to your network!
- Blog of the Week #2: Army Wasted $300 Billion Trying to Buy Weapons
On March 8, Senator John McCain said that the Army’s notoriously inefficient acquisition has wasted more than $300 billion over the past decade. This means that the Army managed to waste more than 3/5 of the $ that the Pentagon is supposed to cut if automatic deficit cuts go into effect (after savings from interest are deducted).
The day before, Pentagon officials testified that automatic deficit cuts would literally force the Pentagon to shut down and stop operating.
Please use this for letters, op-eds, blog posts…. Some points you can make:
- How can an outfit that wastes $300 billion claim that can’t find any more savings without turning off the lights? (thanks to Stephen Miles of Win Without War for this point!)
-And that’s just the Army. What about the billions that the other three service branches are still wasting on planes that can barely fly, ships we don’t need, and nukes that can blow up the world many times over?
-This is money we need in our communities to create jobs, save vital services, and get our economy back on track.
- New Priorities 2012 Campaigns
This year we’ll increase pressure for serious cuts in military spending and serious funding for jobs and services by:
1. Bringing our demands to the candidates.
2. Organizing resolutions and People’s Assemblies city by city.
3. Pushing back on Capitol Hill budget battles.
Resources
- Study: Americans overwhelmingly support big cuts in military spending
In a new survey that gave people actual information about the federal budget, 67 percent of Republicans and 90 percent of Democrats supported cutting military spending. Click here to see the report. The average they’d cut was $103 billion, almost twice the level of cuts under automatic deficit reduction (“sequestration”) next year and far more than President Obama has called for. Nuclear weapons took the biggest percentage cut and ground forces took the biggest cut in dollars. More than 80% said there’s a lot of waste in the national defense budget. See coverage on NPR‘s blog and CNN.
- End America’s Longest War – Afghanistan Briefing Packet
Afghanistan Briefing Packet May2012 contains talking points, polling numbers, quotes, and articles you can use for Congressional calls, letters to the editor, and op-eds. Thanks to Win Without War.
- Resources for May military budget fight
Click here for reports that show how cutting human services to save military spending will hurt vulnerable children, adults, seniors, and (in your own state) food stamp users. Use these reports for writing letters to the editor and talking with local/state elected officials. We also recommend Proponomics, a video from the Coalition on Human Needs that shows how many people will be hurt. Send it to your network! And click here for quotes from Defense Secretary Panetta, JCS Chairman Dempsey, and congresspeople slamming the House “save the Pentagon, sacrifice the poor” budget passed May 10.
Click here for sample letters to the editor that you can adapt in your own words. They’ll be stronger if you use personal stories or statistics from your own city instead of the generic food stamp example in the first paragraph. Or you can cite the number of food stamp users in your own state who will be at risk if House leaders shift the cuts from the Pentagon to people programs.
Latest News
- House panel backs defense bill that ignores Pentagon request
May 11th, 2012Associated Press, May 11th, 2012: The House Armed Services Committee overwhelmingly backed a $642 billion defense bill Thursday that calls for construction of a missile defense site on the East Coast, restores aircraft and ships slated for early retirement, and ignores the Pentagon’s cost-saving request for another round of domestic base closings. Continue Reading…
- Americans overwhelmingly favor big defense cuts
May 11th, 2012CNN, May 10th, 2012: two-thirds of Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats supported making immediate cuts— a position at odds with the leaderships of both political parties. The average total cut was around $103 billion. Continue Reading…
- House Approves $310 Billion in Cuts, but Passage in the Senate Is Very Unlikely
May 11th, 2012New York Times, May 11th, 2012: The House approved sweeping legislation on Thursday to cut $310 billion from the deficit over the next decade — much of it from programs for the poor — and shift some of that savings to the Pentagon to stave off automatic military spending cuts scheduled for next year. Continue Reading…
- The F-22: Final Delivery for a Flying Disaster
May 5th, 2012Huffington Post, May 3rd, 2012: At $412 million a pop — the final price tag once a new round of upgrades is completed — the F-22 is the most expensive fighter plane ever built….Let’s hope the F-35 doesn’t become the next generation’s F-22 — a plane we don’t need at a price we can’t afford. Continue Reading…