To: Sen. Bernard Sanders (VT-2)
Bernie: Talk About Cutting the Bloated Pentagon Budget
Just Foreign Policy
We urge Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to make cutting the bloated Pentagon budget and redirecting the money to domestic needs part of his standard stump speech.
Why is this important?
On May 26, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. [1] Bernie presented a strong progressive agenda, including creating jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure, confronting the threat of climate change, and breaking the stranglehold of big money on our elections.
But a key element of our progressive agenda was missing from Bernie’s announcement speech: cutting the bloated Pentagon budget. Bernie is right to say that when the super-rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes, it contributes to our obscene rate of child poverty. But it’s just as important to say that when our federal income tax dollars are diverted to wars, foreign military bases, and weapon systems that we don’t need, that contributes to our obscene rate of child poverty as well. We have a problem with the 1% on the revenue side, but we also have a problem with the 1% on the expenditure side. Raising taxes on the super-rich won’t reduce child poverty if we let the Pentagon gobble all the money.
Urge Bernie to talk about cutting the bloated Pentagon budget in his stump speech by signing our petition.
References:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHHzTdu6Clw
But a key element of our progressive agenda was missing from Bernie’s announcement speech: cutting the bloated Pentagon budget. Bernie is right to say that when the super-rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes, it contributes to our obscene rate of child poverty. But it’s just as important to say that when our federal income tax dollars are diverted to wars, foreign military bases, and weapon systems that we don’t need, that contributes to our obscene rate of child poverty as well. We have a problem with the 1% on the revenue side, but we also have a problem with the 1% on the expenditure side. Raising taxes on the super-rich won’t reduce child poverty if we let the Pentagon gobble all the money.
Urge Bernie to talk about cutting the bloated Pentagon budget in his stump speech by signing our petition.
References:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHHzTdu6Clw