• More than 50% of our income taxes are spent on the Pentagon (masspeaceaction.org).
• $1.6 trillion is projected military spending in fiscal 2023 (warrestisters.org).
• $84,000+ per minute was spent on U.S. nuclear weapons programs in 2021 (Intern’l Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons).
• $110 million a day was given to Ukraine over the last year by some estimates (theintercept.com).
What would even a 10% cut in the military budget do? Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a 10% cut in the base military budget last summer. It was defeated, but if it had passed, the $74 billion would have been spent this way:
• Jobs, building affordable housing, schools, childcare centers, community health centers, public hospitals, libraries, sustainable energy projects, and clean drinking water facilities. Pro- vide rental assistance and bring an end to homelessness.
• Improve education by hiring more public school teachers and paying them properly, nutritious meals to families, free tuition for public colleges, universities, and trade schools.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower said in 1953: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
Bob Lee is a professional journalist, writer and editor, and is co-editor of the People’s Tribune, serving as Managing Editor. He first started writing for and distributing the People’s Tribune in 1980, and joined the editorial board in 1987.
