Fw: Blank check for war; Spending cuts for hurricane relief? - FCNL

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Guthrie" <kathyguthrie@fcnl.org>
To: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@optonline.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 12:10 PM
Subject: Blank check for war; Spending cuts for hurricane relief? - FCNL

The Senate is scheduled to vote later this week on a $445 billion
military appropriations bill including another $50 billion for the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additional military spending will be voted on
later this fall in separate bills for nuclear weapons programs ($17
billion), military construction ($10 billion), and military housing
allowances ($13 billion).
All total, U.S. military spending will account for well more than half
of all of the discretionary funds that Congress has to allocate this
year, and will exceed the military spending of almost all other nations
combined.

Meanwhile, Senators Frist (TN), Santorum (PA), and others are saying
Congress will have to cut spending on other ongoing government programs
in order to pay for hurricane relief. Later this month, Congress is
expected to consider a budget reconciliation bill to cut spending by
$35 billion over the next five years from Medicaid, food stamps, and
other vital anti-poverty programs. Senator Stevens (AL), Chair of the
Appropriations Committee, stated that military spending would be off
limits for cuts.

Blank check for the military? More austerity for the poor?

ACT NOW: Please contact your senators immediately. The vote on the
"defense" appropriations bill (HR 2863) will likely be this
Thursday (10/6) or Friday (10/7). Urge them to vote no. Congress must
stop giving a blank check to the military.

See FCNL's web site to find a sample letter and to contact your
senators directly:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=8083341&type=CO You
will need to enter your zip code to see the sample letter.

BACKGROUND: If ever there was a good reason for deficit spending,
assisting the communities devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is
it. These hurricanes could not have been anticipated by Congress when
they prepared the federal budget, but aid is urgently needed now to
assist the displaced and to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. Relief and
reconstruction may cost $100 billion or more. Yet, ongoing government
operations, already budgeted for, must go on, too. Therefore, it is
reasonable for the federal government to borrow funds to address the
emergency.

If ever there was not a good reason for deficit spending, the war in
Iraq is it. This was a war of choice. It was premeditated. Why didn't
the administration and Congress budget for it and ask the public to pay
for it? Pentagon spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has so
far exceeded $224 billion. Non-military reconstruction costs are on top
of that. So far this year, the Pentagon's "burn" rate for the
Iraq war has been about $5.6 billion per month, up from an average of
about $4.4 billion per month last fiscal year. In addition, the U.S. is
spending another $700 million per month for the war in Afghanistan.
This spending rate is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

But President Bush and Congress got it backwards: They cut taxes
several times and took the country to war, driving the U.S. Treasury
hundreds of billions of dollars into debt. But, when the federal
government is needed to assist in hurricane relief and reconstruction
here at home, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (TN) and Chair of the
Senate Republican Conference Rick Santorum (PA) are calling for cutting
ongoing federal programs in order to reduce the impact on the deficit.

Some perspectives on military spending. . .

In the fiscal year just ended (FY05), the U.S. spent about $466 billion
on the military (not including mandatory spending on military health
care and retirement). That's more than $1,600 for every man, woman and
child in this country. That's 23% more than the U.S. spent in the
average year during the Cold War when the U.S. was eyeball-to-eyeball
with the Soviet Union (adjusted for inflation in 2000 constant dollars;
FY05 compared to the period 1962-1989). In FY05, military outlays were
about 3.8% of U.S. GDP.

In June, The Independent (London) cited a new report by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute which observed that, "led
by U.S. purchases of $455 billion, the world spent more than $1
trillion on arms in 2004, the highest level since the height of the
Cold War." The figure dwarfs the $78.6 billion the world spent on
aid to the world's most needy countries, prompting aid groups to label
the recent push for more aid to Africa by G8 countries
"negligible." (From the UN Wire, 6/9/05)

_______________________________________

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________________________________________

Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002-5795
fcnl@fcnl.org * www.fcnl.org
phone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330

We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
We seek a society with equity and justice for all
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
We seek an earth restored.

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