This is the question at the crux of what may be the greatest moral dilemma in our national history—our bloated, destructive defense budget gobbles up our nation's funds while millions of people lack food and shelter.
Organizers want Congress to refocus spending in the following ways:
1. Provide adequate funding for critical social needs, including food stamps, Social Security, improved and expanded Medicare for all, and public education including college.
2. Create a full employment public jobs program to jump start the green economy (a Green New Deal).
3. Rebuild vital infrastructure.
At the top of the agenda is for Congress to stop using our nation’s massive military budget to police the world, and instead return to a defense-oriented approach. Another necessary shift is to undo the unjustified militarization of our national borders against nonexistent military threats. The current militarization, the campaign argues, violates the basic human right to seek refuge from economic or political oppression.
Further, the groups urge the U.S. to pull American troops from Europe, Japan and Korea, as well as our 1,000 bases in almost 130 countries. These foreign bases cost more than a hundred billion dollars a year to maintain, the campaign notes.
In Ralph Nader's words, it’s time to to “rollback the Empire.”
Reverend Kristin Stoneking, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation notes that redirecting funds would allow the U.S. to invest in food, jobs, health care and the general needs of citizens at home, creating space for a “culture of peace.”
