To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Extend Unemployment Assistance By Cutting the War Budget
Just Foreign Policy
Congress should use the extra $5.7 billion in the war budget to pay for a three-month extension of assistance to long-term unemployed Americans, currently numbering 1.7 million, instead of using that $5.7 billion for Pentagon contractor pork that the Pentagon doesn't want and doesn't need.
Why is this important?
In early February, the Senate narrowly failed to pass a three-month extension of assistance to the long-term unemployed, due to disagreements over how to pay for it. While many Democrats object in principle to offsetting an extension of unemployment assistance, as a practical matter there is no plausible political path in the near future to extending assistance to the long-term unemployed that does not include an offset.
Fortunately, the roughly $6 billion cost can be covered by cutting $5.7 billion from the war budget that never belonged there in the first place - it was money put there by Congress that the President never requested. Congress put that money there to pay for Pentagon contractor pork that wouldn't fit in the base Pentagon budget. If that money isn't redirected to some useful purpose, it's going to be wasted on Pentagon contractor pork.
Sign our petition to Congress and the President: the $5.7 billion that is about to be wasted on Pentagon contractor pork should be used to help 1.7 million unemployed Americans and their families instead.
Fortunately, the roughly $6 billion cost can be covered by cutting $5.7 billion from the war budget that never belonged there in the first place - it was money put there by Congress that the President never requested. Congress put that money there to pay for Pentagon contractor pork that wouldn't fit in the base Pentagon budget. If that money isn't redirected to some useful purpose, it's going to be wasted on Pentagon contractor pork.
Sign our petition to Congress and the President: the $5.7 billion that is about to be wasted on Pentagon contractor pork should be used to help 1.7 million unemployed Americans and their families instead.