U.S. Leaders Release Joint Statement Opposing Trump Budget

David Swanson via ActionNetwork.org [mailto:david@davidswanson.org]
Monday, April 3, 2017 11:14 PM

U.S. Leaders Release Joint Statement Opposing Trump Budget “Our environmental and human needs are desperate and urgent. We need to transform our economy, our politics, our policies and our priorities to reflect that reality. That means reversing the flow of our tax dollars, away from war and militarism, and towards funding human and environmental needs, and demanding support for that reversal from all our political leaders at the local, state and national levels. We and the movements we are part of face multiple crises.  Military and climate wars are destroying lives and environments, threatening the planet and creating enormous flows of desperate refugees. Violent racism, Islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia and other hatreds are rising, encouraged by the most powerful voices in Washington DC. President Trump plans to strip $54 billion from human and environmental spending so as to increase already massive spending on the military. The plan raises Pentagon spending to well over 60 cents of every discretionary dollar in the U.S. budget -- even as Trump himself admits that enormous military spending has left the Middle East "far worse than it was 16, 17 years ago."  The wars have not made any of us safer. Washington's militarized foreign policy comes home as domestic law enforcement agencies acquire military equipment and training from the Pentagon and from military allies abroad. Impoverished communities of color see and face the power of this equipment regularly, in the on-going domestic wars on drugs and immigrants. This military-grade equipment is distributed and used by many of the same private companies that profit from mass incarceration and mass deportation. Using just a fraction of the proposed military budget, the US could provide free, top-quality, culturally competent and equitable education from pre-school through college and ensure affordable comprehensive healthcare for all. We could provide wrap-around services for survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence; replace mass incarceration with mass employment, assure clean energy and water for all residents and link our cities by new fast trains. We could double non-military U.S. foreign aid, wipe out hunger worldwide. The list of possibilities is long. Instead, the Trump administration plans to take much of their $54 billion gift for the Pentagon from the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency (even threatening to shut down its already under-funded environmental justice office), the Department of Health and Human Services (slashing family planning and anti-violence-against-women programs), from the State Department (thus privileging war over diplomacy), and foreign aid (so that the wealthiest country in human history turns its back on the world's most desperate). Among those most desperate are the 24 million refugees who have been forced out of their homes and countries, more than at any time since World War II.  Instead of cruel Muslim bans and cuts to the already meager number of refugees allowed into the U.S., we should be welcoming far more. Alleviating the refugee crisis also means working to end, rather than escalate, the wars that create refugees, and supporting human rights defenders in their home communities.  That means more diplomacy and foreign aid, not more military spending. With its hundreds of billions of un-audited dollars, the military remains the greatest consumer of petroleum in the United States, and one of the world's worst polluters. The US needs new green, sustainable jobs across our economy targeted to people facing the highest rates of unemployment and low wages. Military spending results in an economic drain.  Clean energy production creates 50% more jobs than the same investment in military spending. The U.S. military also serves as a security force protecting the extraction and transport of fossil fuels domestically and from the Middle East and other parts of the world. U.S. military force thus enables the continued assault on the planet and some of its most impoverished inhabitants by ensuring the supply of cheap fossil fuels, all while subsidizing some of the largest corporations in the world. A December 2014 Gallup poll showed people in 65 nations considered the United States far and away the largest threat to peace in the world.  If the United States was known for providing clean drinking water, schools, medicine, and solar panels to others, instead of attacking and invading other countries, we would be far more secure and face far less global hostility. We can do this. Reverse the flow. No walls, No War, No Warming!” Partial list of signatories: Michelle Alexander - author of The New Jim Crow Lindsey Allen - Rainforest Action Network Olivia Alperstein - Progressive Congress Medea Benjamin - CODEPINK Phyllis Bennis - Institute for Policy Studies Regina Birchem - Women's International League for Peace & Freedom May Boeve - 350.org Reiner Braun - International Peace Bureau Jaron Brown - Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Peter Buffett - American musician, composer, author and philanthropist Leslie Cagan    - Peoples Climate Movement NY John Cavanagh - Institute for Policy Studies Daniel Carrillo -  Enlace Reece Chenault - US Labor Against the War StaceyAnn Chin - Poet Jamie DeMarco - Friends Committee on National Legislation Michael Eisenscher - US Labor Against the War Zillah Eisenstein - International Women's Strike/US Eve Ensler - V-Day and One Billion Rising Jodie Evans - CODEPINK Laura Flanders - The Laura Flanders Show Jane Fonda - actress & activist Jeff Furman - Ben & Jerry's Dan Gilman -  Veterans For Peace Eddie S. Glaude Jr. - Princeton University Rafael Jesús González – poet Xochipilli, Latino Men's Circle Steph Guilloud - Project South Saru Jayaraman- Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC-United) Chuck Kaufman - Alliance for Global Justice Naomi Klein – author, This Changes Everything Lindsay Koshgarian - National Priorities Project Judith LeBlanc - Native Organizers Alliance Annie Leonard - Greenpeace Mairead Maguire - Nobel Peace Laureate Kevin Martin - Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund Maggie Martin - Iraq Veterans Against the War Michael T. McPhearson -  Veterans For Peace Stephen Miles - Win Without War Nabil Mohammad -  Arab-American Anti-Discrimination committee Terry O'Neill - National Organization for Women C. Dixon Osburn- Center for Justice & Accountability Rabbi Brant Rosen - American Friends Service Committee Lukas Ross - Friends of the Earth Josh Ruebner - US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Linda Sarsour - MPower Mab Segrest - Southerners on New Ground John Sellers - Other 98% Adam Shah - Jobs With Justice Thenmozhi Soundararajan - Equality Labs Kathy Spillar - Feminist Majority David Swanson - World Beyond War Mike Tidwell - Chesapeake Climate Action Network Opal Tometi - Black Alliance for Just Immigration; & Co-Founder, BLM Network Rebecca Vilkomerson - Jewish Voice for Peace Alice Walker - poet and writer Vince Warren - Center for Constitutional Rights Cindy Wiesner - Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Robert Weissman -  Public Citizen Kimberle Williams-Crenshaw- The African American Policy Forum Winnie Wong - People for Bernie Ash-Lee Woodard-Henderson - Highlander Research & Education Center Ann Wright - Veterans for Peace Murshed Zaheed - CREDO Mobile *organization for identification only Sent via Action Network, a free online toolset anyone can use to organize. Click here to sign up and get started building an email list and creating online actions today. Action Network is an open platform that empowers individuals and groups to organize for progressive causes. We encourage responsible activism, and do not support using the platform to take unlawful or other improper action. We do not control or endorse the conduct of users and make no representations of any kind about them.