Human
needs organizations unite to urge Congress to change
priorities in federal budget: Less for the Pentagon,
more for human beings
March 2008
Contact:
Mary Babic | 781 643 6740 | mbabic@wand.org
Over
100 groups from across the country sign on to letter
delivered to Congress. Participants at conferences
for National Coalition of Women’s Organizations and
Ecumenical Advocacy Days delivered letters to Capitol
Hill on March 10 and 11, 2008.
Letter
to Congress.
“Higher
Pentagon spending does not guarantee greater security.
True security for individuals and families requires
support for adequate housing, access to nutritious
foods, available healthcare, safe child care, and
appropriate education to ensure a well-prepared workforce.”
WASHINGTON,
DC - Calling for a new and better definition of security,
140 organizations from across the U.S. signed onto
a letter to Congress delivered March 10. The letter
urges Congress to reevaluate the country’s security
needs, and to make significant changes in the proposed
FY09 federal budget.
“What
does it mean for individuals and families to feel
secure?” asks Marie Rietmann, public policy director
of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND). “Is it
an Osprey helicopter that continues to guzzle billions
of dollars, but still falls out of the sky? Or is
it feeling safe in a real home: fed, educated, healthy,
warm? Because 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 FY09.”
The
140 organizations that signed on work with people
who live on the edge, who daily feel insecure about
what tomorrow holds. “Government has a role to play
in these people’s lives,” says Susan Shaer, Executive
Director of WAND. “It is there to guarantee a certain
level of security. But the federal budget increasingly
defines security as having a huge military machine.
It continues to pour more and more billions into a
huge federal Pentagon developing outdated, expensive,
and ineffective weapons systems designed years ago
to fight the Cold War.”
Noting
that the proposed federal budget for FY09 pours over
half the discretionary budget into the Pentagon, Sister
Claire Regan of the Office of Peace and Justice/Sisters
of Charity of New York says “It’s time to re-deploy
funds from war to human services.” Rietmann says,
“We are offering fewer and fewer services to our own
people, while we feed more and more to the arms manufacturers.
And make no mistake: this is not money for veterans,
or even the wars; this is about nuclear weapons and
high-tech machines.”
The
letter -- organized by WAND and NETWORK, a National
Catholic Social Justice Lobby -- cites the fact that
the Pentagon budget is growing at a time when funds
for human needs are shrinking; and does NOT include
money needed for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The
letter states: “While the President requested a 7.5%
increase in funding for the Pentagon, his 0.3% increase
for domestic discretionary spending falls far short
of the estimated 2.8% rate of inflation. Therefore,
overall the programs intended to bring security to
families are cut approximately 2.5%, not accounting
for inflation. Again, President Bush has called for
elimination of programs, 151 this year and many for
the seventh time. These cuts and eliminations are
an outrage.”
“As
the most powerful, wealthiest country in the world,
we should be able to take care of our citizens,” says
Rietmann. “We need a security paradigm shift to see
beyond technologically arcane weapons systems to the
real needs of our people.”
Women’s
Action for New Directions
WAND
empowers women to act politically to reduce violence
and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources
toward unmet human and environmental needs.
NETWORK
NETWORK
is a progressive voice within the Catholic community
that has been influencing Congress in favor of peace
and justice for more than 30 years.
www.networklobby.org
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