Extra

In this Covid-19 time, the tide is turning against bloated US military budgets that have drained public money from health and other programs that should sustain our daily lives. 

From The Hill: 

“America isn’t ready for this pandemic because our government has been spending money on the wrong things. Instead of putting money towards fighting disease or alleviating suffering, the U.S. spent enormous sums over the past couple of decades on war and war preparation.” 

From The Atlantic  

“[T]he American response to the virus has been crippled by the fact that its spending priorities are all out of whack…[I]n 2019 the U.S. government allocated about $750 billion for national defense and about $8 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” 

The Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2021 is now before Congress. Barbara Lee, representative of the 13^th District of California, is a member of the House Committee on Appropriations. Her constituents can let her know they support reining in military spending.  

Our Senators need to hear from us, too—and so does Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.  

For more on the movement to rein in military spending, go to Win Without War and the MIT Center for International Studies’ Starr April 23 Forum “Rethinking National Security in the Age of Pandemics”