Budget

‘The Pentagon Has Steadfastly Stonewalled Against Making Its Budget Auditable’

December 18, 2018 Janine Jackson, Fair.org Educate! Budget, Pentagon, US Imperialism

For those of us who remember the $640 toilet seat, the unbelievable absurdity of Pentagon spending has long been—while unbelievably absurd—taken for granted: The Department of Defense spends billions and billions on we know not what, year after year, tra-la. Elite media reported that Congress passed a $700 billion Pentagon bill—more than Trump even asked for—and that was a blip, unchallenged, although the same press corps, faced with a proposal for healthcare, see themselves in the business of grilling proponents on how on Earth they would pay for it. Pentagon spending is untethered, unaccountable.

ICE Asking Congress For More Money; What You Can Do

September 2, 2018 Kathryn Johnson, AFSC.org. Resist! Abolish ICE, Budget, Congress, ICE

For months, headlines have been dominated by the devastating impacts of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies and the growing movement against them. Loved ones have been torn apart at the border, thousands have been funneled into a cruel and inhumane detention and deportation system, and there are almost 500 children who still remain separated from their families. This devastation is only possible because our elected officials continue to fund it. And now they may be trying to increase just how much they are paying through a loophole in the budget process. Though the appropriations process can feel complicated and abstract, these budget bills have immense power to shape the world we live in. Here’s what you need to know:

$717 Billion Defense Bill That Just Breezed Through The Senate Should Be A National Scandal

August 6, 2018 Lindsay Koshgarian, Inthesetimes.com Educate! Budget, Defense, militarism

With little debate or public attention, the Senate just followed the House in approving $717 billion for the nation’s military, meaning the bill is headed for the president’s signature. The passage is no surprise. The National Defense Authorization Act is one of the few pieces of federal budget legislation that sails through every year, without fail, on a bipartisan basis. Yet, the bill deserves fierce debate—and dissent. At $717 billion, the package provides a historically high military budget. By my calculations based on numbers from the Office of Management and Budget, in 1997, after Cold War spending was ratcheted down from its Reagan-era peak, military spending was $386 billion after adjusting for inflation. By the height of spending during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it had more than doubled to $799 billion.

Hundreds of Thousands To Protest President Trump’s Military Parade If It Occurs

March 1, 2018 No Trump Military Parade. Resist! Budget, Racism, Trump, Wars and Militarism

Washington, DC – Leaders of major peace and anti-war organizations met on February 28, 2018 to collaborate on actions to bring hundreds of thousands of people to Washington, DC in November to protest President Trump’s military parade and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. Participants at the meeting are united in opposition to the military parade because it glorifies war and militarism and wastes taxpayer dollars that could be used to fund people’s necessities and protection of the planet.

The Shocking Truth: How Our Empire Rips You Off

February 26, 2018 Harel B., Third Path Educate! Budget, military spending, Wars and Militarism

And what if we told you right now, that just as the mountains of cash spent on militarism are even higher than you likely feared, that the alternative is a more beautifully satisfying, fulfilling, and secure future — for all of us living in the heart of the empire — than you would even dare hope for? What if I told you that once we redirect those 'mountains' away from wars and empire, then everyone, yes everyone, from that point on, could be made, with these savings alone, a virtually guaranteed millionaire? Impossible? Can't be true? Too outlandish a claim? Yet it is true, as we will prove in the sections below.

Rahm’s Police Academy Plan Met With Youth-Led Backlash

October 15, 2017 Maya Dukmasova, www.chicagoreader.com Resist! Budget, Chicago, Education, Police

By Maya Dukmasova for Chicago Reader. Chicago, IL - As rain pelted the Fullerton el platform on Tuesday night, two dozen young people boarded a southbound Red Line train with printed and hand-drawn signs. "#NoCopAcademy" one read. "$95 million for schools, mental health care, and affordable housing!" declared another. The activists organized in protest of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to build a $95 million police and fire training academy in West Garfield Park. The training compound would occupy a 30.4-acre site along Chicago Avenue between Pulaski and Kilbourn and include a swimming and diving pool, driving course, shooting range, labs, classrooms, and auditorium, and a mock CTA station and apartment building.

Early Estimate For Hurricanes, Wildfires At $300 Billion

October 1, 2017 Sabrina Shankman, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Budget, Climate Change, Hurricane, Wildfires

By Sabrina Shankman for Inside Climate News. The devastation from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria—plus dozens of wildfires that raged across the West in early August—could result in the costliest string of weather events in U.S. history, according to a new report. Over the course of a few weeks, the hurricanes and wildfires left a trail of damage that could add up to nearly $300 billion, according to early estimates from the authors of "The Economic Case for Climate Action in the United States," a report released on Wednesday by the nonprofit Universal Ecological Fund. If they're right, the cost of the damage would be equivalent to nearly half the president's proposed 2018 budget for the Department of Defense.

Public Opposes Spending More On MIlitary, Wants Cuts

March 30, 2017 Peter Cary, www.philly.com Resist! Budget, Donald Trump, Homeland Security, US military

By Peter Cary for Center for Public Integrity - Altogether, the survey looked at the 10 top areas of spending in Trump’s “Budget Blueprint” and found a gap of $139.6 billion between what the majority of the public would spend and what Trump has proposed. Steven Kull, PPC’s director, said he was surprised both by the extent of the gap and the fact that Trump’s proposals were at odds with the preferences of both Republicans and Democrats. In general, those who identified themselves as Republicans were more likely to favor cutting some of the spending that Trump has proposed to cut, but on a raft of areas where Trump proposed large reductions, members of his party preferred to cut less.

Newsletter – Which Vision For The Future?

March 18, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Budget, Corporatism, Education, National Improved Medicare for All, Privatization, Trump, Wars and Militarism

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. The vision for the future laid out in President Trump's budget is one of large cuts to the federal government for necessary agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development, privatization of services, such as air traffic control, and macho military might. It conjures visions of Nero fiddling as Rome burned. Ralph Nader writes in "'Making America Great' at American's Expense," that "The tower of contradictions, being constructed by Trump and the most extreme Republican Party in its history, won’t be camouflaged or distracted for long." People are rising up and will continue to do so. The corporatist's vision has been pushed for decades in the US and around the world, but there is another vision that is also growing in the hearts and minds of many.

Global Days Of Action On Military Spending U.S. CALL

March 18, 2017 Joseph Gerson, www.demilitarize.org Organize! Budget, Demilitarization, Spending, US military

By Joseph Gerson for Global Campaign On Military Spending - Trump and Congressional Republicans are preparing to eliminate any restraints in the Pentagon’s budget, while also reducing spending for essential social services, from housing and medical care to environmental protection to education. Projected cuts in social services could be as hight as $10.5 trillion over the coming decade. Even without the proposed increases in military spending, the Pentagon’s budget equals the combined total of the world’s next eight largest military spenders. Add to this the “Overseas Contingency Operation” funding for the military interventions from Syria and Iraq to Libya and Yemen, Department of Energy spending for nuclear weapons, and the black budget for “intelligence”

‘Morally Obscene’ Trump Budget Proposal To Make America Cruel Again

March 17, 2017 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Educate! Budget, Donald Trump, Trump Administration

By Deirdre Fulton for Common Dreams - In fact, warned Diane Yentel, head of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, Trump's budget "would have a devastating impact on millions of the lowest income people across the country." As expected, the proposal would cut overall funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by 13 percent or $6.2 billion compared to 2016 levels, resulting "in the most severe cut to HUD since President Reagan dramatically reduced funding in the early 1980s," she said. "Reagan's deep spending cuts ushered in a new age of homelessness with a dramatic increase in the number of people sleeping on the streets, in cars, and in shelters," Yentel added.

Trump’s Increase In Military Spending Is 80% Of Russia’s Military Budget

March 1, 2017 Alex Emmons, www.theintercept.com Educate! Budget, Spending, US military

By Alex Emmons for The Intercept - THE U.S. GOVERNMENT already spends $600 billion dollars a year on its military — more money than the next seven biggest spenders combined, including China and Russia. On Monday, the White House said it would request $54 billion more in military spending for next year. That increase alone is roughly the size of the entire annual military budget of the United Kingdom, the fifth-largest spending country, and it’s more than 80 percent of Russia’s entire military budget in 2015. If Congress were to follow Trump’s blueprint, the U.S. military budget could account for nearly 40 percent of global military spending next year. The U.S. would be outspending Russia by a margin of greater than 9 to 1. At a meeting of U.S. governors on Monday, Trump described his forthcoming budget proposal as “a public safety and national security budget.”

The Choice Trump’s Budget Creates

February 28, 2017 David Swanson, www.worldbeyondwar.org Educate! Budget, Donald Trump

By David Swanson for World Beyond War - Trump proposes to increase U.S. military spending by $54 billion, and to take that $54 billion out of the other portions of the above budget, including in particular, he says, foreign aid. If you can’t find foreign aid on the chart above, that’s because it is a portion of that little dark green slice called International Affairs. To take $54 billion out of foreign aid, you would have to cut foreign aid by approximately 200 percent. Alternative math! But let’s not focus on the $54 billion. The blue section above (in the 2015 budget) is already 54% of discretionary spending (that is, 54% of all the money that the U.S. government chooses what to do with every year). It’s already 60% if you add in Veterans’ Benefits. (We should take care of everyone, of course, but we wouldn’t have to take care of amputations and brain injuries from wars if we stopped having the wars.) Trump wants to shift another 5% to the military, boosting that total to 65%...

Trump’s $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan: Lincoln Had Bolder Solution

November 17, 2016 Ellen Brown, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Budget, Donald Trump, Infrastructure

By Ellen Brown for Counter Punch - It sounds great; but as usual, the devil is in the details. Both parties in Congress agree that infrastructure is desperately needed. The roadblock is in where to find the money. Raising taxes and going further into debt are both evidently off the table. The Trump solution is touted as avoiding those options, but according to his economic advisors, it does this by privatizing public goods, imposing high user fees on the citizenry for assets that should have been public utilities.

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