Resources for Media Work
Blog of the Week #4: Congress, Cut Military Spending!
Blog of the Week #3: Ryan Budget Stuffs Pentagon, Starves Us
Blog of the Week #2: Army Wasted $300 Billion Trying to Buy Weapons
Blog of the Week #1: Pentagon Transfers Cuts to War-Fighting Budget
Resources and Talking Points for the 2012 budget battle
The public wants to cut military spending rather than Social Security or Medicare, and a plurality says we spend too much on the military.
The Army wasted $300 billion trying to buy weapons over the past decade.
Congress could cut $50 billion from the Pentagon budget this year – by cancelling, reducing, or delaying weapons systems that systems that are troubled, poorly managed, too expensive, or unnecessary. ($50 billion is what the Pentagon is supposed to cut under next year’s automatic budget cuts, aka “sequestration.”)
The Pentagon could pay for one year of sequestration (with $20 billion left over) if it wasn’t so woefully inept at procuring weapons. According to the GAO’s Assessments of Selected Weapons Report, the cost of the weapons systems in the pipeline grew $74.4 billion from FY 2010 to FY 2011 because of inefficiencies in procurement ($31.1 billion in cost growth), R&D growth ($13.7 billion), and procurement quantity changes ($29.6 billion),
Even the AARP is calling for military spending cuts.
Resources on “Exempt the Pentagon” bills
Talking Points for McCain-McKeon Bills
Fact Sheet for McCain-McKeon Bills
Analysis of McCain’s Senate Bill
How to Evaluate the FY2013 Budget
Talking About Military Spending and the Pentagon Budget – Fiscal Year 2013 (And Beyond)
Sample Letters to the Editor about McCain’s “Exempt the Pentagon” bill
Tips for Writing Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor
How to write a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed (WAND)
Quick Tips for Writing and Placing Letters and Op-Eds (Rethink Media)
Past Letters to the Editor
We’re already paying a war tax at the gas pump
On Letters to the Editor, with samples (doc)
Europe ‘gets it’ on defense spending
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 04 Jan 2011
http://philly.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
‘Bring war dollars home’ instead of closing schools
Waterville Morning Sentinel
12/7/2010
Past Op-Eds
“Help Our Communities by Cutting Military Spending”
The Dorchester Reporter
10/8/2009
“What Does the Military Budget Have to do with the Cost of Bread?”
Newton Tab
4/28/ 2009