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Our National Budget Shows US Values
By maudeaster on 2019-04-19 10:57:06
People’s [caption id="attachment_ 12396" align="alignright" width="300"]
Rev Dr Liz Theoharis and Rev Dr William Barber II[/caption] Campaign, Rev Dr William Barber II and Rev Dr Liz
Theoharis, joined by Lindsay Koshgarian of The National Priorities Project summed up my feelings in a powerful piece in
The Guardian: “A budget shows our values more clearly than any tweet, campaign speech or political slogan. It’s what
marries detailed dollar-and-cents policy decisions to deeper political — and moral — priorities. One set of values
would end our endless wars and use the vast wealth of this nation to end poverty and lead to true security for all of
us. It would invest in healthcare, well-paying jobs, affordable higher education, safe drinking water and clean air for
all of us. The proposed Trump budget drops bombs on that vision — almost literally.” Trump’s budget gives 62% of
every dollar you and I pay in taxes to the military or to our militarized Department of Homeland Security. From all of us,
PuTrump budget cuts funds
for food stamps, Medicaid, the Job Corps, and heating assistance for low income families. The employment impact of the
bloated military budget is also important. An interesting study by Heidi Garrett-Peltier for The Watson Institute’s Costs of
War Project, “War Spending and Lost Opportunities” describes how military spending creates much fewer jobs than federal
spending on the domestic economy. Domestic-spending is for more labor-intensive work like education, domestic spending
stays within the US’s own economy, and domestic spending, with lower average pay than in the military complex spreads
the funding to more job-holders. And there is also a moral case for ending the terrible death and destruction triggered by the
US military, the world’s largest lethal force, with 800 bases in 90 countries, arms provision to belligerents around the world,
fount
and seemingly endless active warfare against Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians,
Yemenis, Somalis and others across Africa where the US has been rapidly building a multi-country counter-insurgency
presence. Trump’s military budget is a recipe for his belligerent foreign policy, threatening new US wars. The vast US
military machine fed by this spending predisposes the US to try to resolve disputes with threats of military action when
diplomacy-based negotiations would provide us much greater national security. Trump’s initial threats last year to use US
nuclear weapons against North Korea are a blatant example, and it is still unclear whether he and his hawkish advisors will
replace unilateral demands with a diplomatic win-win strategy for denuclearizing Northeast Asia. Another example:
Trump’s replacing the carefully negotiated and effective Iran Nuclear Accord with military threats against Iran could easily
embroil us and the entire Middle East in a destructive conflict. Trump’s threats of military action against China over sea
lanes and over Taiwan threaten to plunge the US into another conflict just when the 2 largest global economies need to be
cooperating to save the world from a climate disaster. As Vijay Prashad wrote about the American war machine, “There’s an
old adage: if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The sheer scale of the US military arsenal gives its political
leaders a rush. They feel they can intimidate the rest of the planet to suit their needs.” Trump’s disregard for constitutional
constraints on his power makes his belligerent approach even more frightening. His veto message this week of the bi-
partisan Congressional resolution to end US involvement in the war against Yemen proclaimed that it was his constitutional
authority to make war, ignoring the constitutional checks and balances which give Congress, not the president, the power to
use our taxes for war. Please join me in signing a letter calling on Congress to override the President’s veto on Yemen and to
support even stronger legislation to end the war in Yemen. H.R.643 and S.3652 go even further than the War Powers
UU eee =
YEMEN
Resolution. §.3652 in the Senate, “the Saudi Arabia ~~ Accountability and
Yemen Act of 2019,” is being led by Senator Menendez and would prohibit certain arms sales to Saudi Arabia and in-
flight U.S. refueling of Saudi war planes. H.R.643, introduced by Congressman Jim McGovern alongside a bipartisan
group of 20 lawmakers in the House, would stop all U.S. arms sales and military aid to Saudi Arabia. Together, these two
bills would effectively end the war. Stopping funding for the Yemen way is just one piece of needed cuts in military
spending — but it is a start!
