WAND organizes letter to Congress about federal budget priorities - 2009
“What does it mean for individuals and families to feel secure? ...We’re paying for more military toys while our folks at home are increasingly worried about everyday security needs. We are asking Congress to consider these trade-offs when they make the federal budget for FY10.”

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Congress Meets the Community
In the next year, Congress will play an essential role in setting the agenda for vital security and budget priority issues.

Let them know how you feel! We can help.

FEDERAL BUDGET WATCH

Read more about proposal by Secretary of Defense Gates to cut obsolete weapons.

Here's the news: For the first time in a long time, there is a groundswell of support for reforming the Pentagon budget: cutting Cold War weapons programs, and realizing billions of savings for things that actually do make us safer and stronger. Those who've endorsed this move range from the President to the Secretary of Defense to activist groups -- and more.

Here's the catch: Every single one of those programs supplies jobs. Jobs in Congressional districts. And those jobs belong to voters, who vote for a Congressperson... So those Congresspersons guard those jobs, those weapons programs... And you can't stop funding for those programs unless Congress votes that way.

So we have the winds of change, but it's hard to huff and puff strong enough to blow the weapons programs down.

That's where you come in. You have to let your Members of Congress know that you want them to go out on a limb and cut those weapons programs. And to fund other programs that will create jobs just as well.

There will be bumps in this road -- but it is a road we HAVE TO GO DOWN. Thanks.

Sign onto the petition to redirect Pentagon spending to human needs.

(Again, we'll spread the good news that we can create more better jobs when we invest our public money in programs that are not military. Again -- not easy. But vital.)

Action Guide from WAND: Finding New Ways to Create Jobs The military industry stays in business because it creates millions of jobs. But other projects can do even better. It's time to reinvest our public monies.

Gates Throws Down the Gauntlet on Defense Budget
by Travis Sharp | The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

The good news is that Gates wants to modify or terminate a number of high-priced weapons programs that are over cost, behind schedule, useless in Iraq and Afghanistan, and unneeded for the foreseeable future. This will allow the Obama administration to provide more resources for military personnel and for weapons programs that are relevant to current threats and the most likely future threats.

The bad news is that while Gates seeks to rearrange certain elements of defense spending, the FY 2010 Pentagon budget, at $534 billion, still perpetuates the decade-long uptick in U.S. defense spending, which today is at the highest inflation-adjusted level since World War II. Indeed, Gates’s April 6 speech featured many more recommendations for spending increases than for spending decreases.

Contractors Defend Their Programs as Pentagon Cuts Loom
By Dana Hedgpeth | Washington Post | March 25, 2009

Missile defense went on the offensive yesterday, as two major contractors set out to justify their costly programs in anticipation of budget cuts from the Pentagon...

Boeing gave out trinkets bearing the logo of its missile defense programs, including a box of mints, a bag of blue and white jelly beans and a magnetic dart board that reads "Right on Target" with a fireball explosion in the background.

The company's airborne laser program is eight years behind schedule and $4 billion over budget. Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), who chairs a House Armed Services subcommittee, said earlier this week that the program reminded her "of the definition of insanity."

"You keep doing the wrong thing over and over and don't learn from it," she said.

Spending habits
The Christian Century | Editor's Desk | March 24, 2009

The U.S defense budget, always outsized, has become even more bloated in recent years. In the past eight years military spending has nearly doubled, with much of the increase devoted to financing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A year ago Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Linda Bilmes of Harvard predicted that the Iraq war could cost the U.S. $3 trillion. Well before the current economic crisis arose, they warned that this expenditure was weakening the U.S. economy: "You can't spend $3 trillion . . . on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home."

Fear of Lost Jobs Is Hurdle to Reining In Defense Contracts
New York Times | By CHRISTOPHER DREW | March 8, 2009

In pledging last week that the “days of giving defense contractors a blank check are over,” President Obama is taking on the giant weapons contracting system that he says has “gone amok.”

But, Mr. Korb said, history has shown that to make lasting cuts to big weapons programs, “you need a president who says to Congress, ‘Put this in there, and I’ll veto it.’ ”

Gates readies big cuts in weapons
Battle looms with Congress
By Bryan Bender | Boston Globe Staff

Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the offi cials said...

"There are so many people employed in the industry and they are spread across the country," William S. Cohen, former Republican senator from Maine who was Defense secretary in the Clinton administration, said in an interview. "Even though members of Congress may say, 'It's great that you are recommending the termination of X, Y, and Z,' they will also say 'that means 4,000 jobs in my state. Frankly, I can't go along with that.' "

The costs to research and develop fighter jets and other programs have been rising steadily. Last year, they were 42 percent over initial estimates. That compares with 27 percent in 2000, when the cost of the portfolio of programs was half of what it is today.

NUCLEAR NOTES

New hope for a nuclear-free world: Obama's speech in Prague

What more can we say? He's taking "concrete steps" toward a nuclear-free world. It's significant, profound, and audacious. Hopeful, even.

President Obama is planning to put Vice President Biden in charge of what is expected to be the difficult job of getting the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, administration sources said.

Watershed Moment on Nuclear Arms
New York Times Editorial | March 24, 2009
President Obama... can start by unilaterally taking all of this country’s nuclear weapons off of hair-trigger alert. He should also commit to eliminating the 200 to 300 short-range nuclear weapons this country still has deployed in Europe. That would make it much easier to challenge Russia to reduce its stockpile of at least 3,000 short-range weapons. These arms are unregulated by any treaty and are far too vulnerable to theft.

Mr. Obama must also declare his commitment to include all nuclear weapons in negotiated reductions — including thousands of warheads that are now held in reserve and excluded from cuts. And he must make good on promises to press the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (opponents are already quietly organizing) and the international community to adopt a pact ending production of weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

Obama, Medvedev Pledge Cooperation
Leaders Open Talks on Arms-Control Treaty
By Michael D. Shear and Scott Wilson
Washington Post | April 2, 2009

In a separate joint statement, the two leaders pledged to begin working immediately on an agreement to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which will expire at the end of this year. They committed to reducing their nuclear arsenals to levels lower than those mandated by the Moscow Treaty of 2002, which calls for both nations to have no more than 1,700 to 2,200 warheads by Dec. 31, 2012.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the new agreement would have to be signed by early August for the Senate to ratify it this year. The deadline probably means that Obama and Medvedev would have to sign the treaty during their July summit in Moscow.

IRAQ UPDATES

At Dover Air Force Base in Delaware last night, the Pentagon granted the news media access to the arrival of a fallen soldier from overseas for the first time in 18 years. In February, the Obama administration lifted the ban on news coverage of returning war dead, which had been in place since the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Following the new policy, the media were allowed to cover the return after the military received consent from family members of the soldier.

IRAN HAPPENINGS

Iran Responds Cautiously to Obama
New York Times | By NAZILA FATHI | April 8, 2009

President Obama said in a message late last month that he wanted better ties with Iran and offered a new start in relations. Iran and the United States severed diplomatic ties in 1979 after religious students attacked the American Embassy in Tehran and took its diplomats hostage.

“The Iranian people would welcome a hand extended to it if the hand is truly based on honesty,” said Mr. Ahmadinejad in a speech at the central city of Isfahan today.

NEWS FROM WiLL

WiLL in Indiana hosts breakfast for Great American Pie campaign and message about changing our federal budget priorities.

Faith in Action

Announcing a NEW edition of WAND's Faith Seeking Peace curriculum!
Faith Seeking Peace is curriculum primarily for the Christian communities.

• Download the curriculum from this page;
• or use this order form to request professionally printed copies for your group.

NOTABLE NATIONAL EVENTS

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days April 26-29, 2009 Come to Washington for four days of advocacy and training about nuclear issues

• Learn from experts and maximize your impact
• Meet with Members of Congress
• Network with activists from across the country

WAND’s Public Policy Field Director, Kathy Robinson is participating in the planning and training for this year’s DC Days event.

Please let Kathy know if you are planning to participate in either Ecumenical Advocacy Days or Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days! krobinson@wand.org (202) 544-5055 ext. 2605

IDEAS, VISIONS, RESOURCES FOR A BETTER WORLD

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And it's not just books! Oh, no. It's toys, groceries, DVDs, magazines, and even gift certificates! It's all good.

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