Fiscally Responsible Idea: Cut Pentagon, Corporate Welfare

This is an excellent 60 second spot on how Pentagon spending benefits weapons industry CEOs who are even richer than Wall St. CEOs and are thus sometimes called "the 0.01%."

I've been reading up in preparation for a statewide meeting on Saturday about how to resist more austerity for Maine. There's no need to cut any social programs at all. But corporate welfare and massive "defense" spending must end if we are to preserve our safety nets and ward off European-style austerity.

I just love it when people do their homework and share it with the rest of us. Here are two useful articles on thus subject. An ambitious summing up of the real total cost of the U.S. military abroad is worth a read: How U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying the Pentagon to Occupy the Planet: Picking Up a $170 Billion Tab by David Vine in Tomdispatch and Common Dreams.

Then check this from the ever-edifying National Priorities Project on why the fiscal cliff is more of an obstacle course, with a clear brief discussion of each of the major obstacles: What Will Happen With The Fiscal Cliff? by Mattea Kramer.

Encouraging news from Minneapolis this week, which passed a unanimous city council resolution directing Congress to cut military spending right away to avoid cuts to Medicare and Social Security. As reported by the MinnPost:

“The United States will spend more in Afghanistan next year than the entire food stamp budget for the country — and way more than the federal government will contribute toward education,” said Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer of the Minnesota Arms Spending Alternative Project, which joined the City Council in support of the resolution.

Finally, to further lift my spirits, I enjoyed photos of CODEPINK leading 100 people in a protest in the Cayman Islands, a notorious sinkhole of taxes that corporations owe the U.S. for operating here, but avoid paying. Love how Medea and Jodie modified their Bring Our War $$ Home tunics to read Bring Our Tax $$ Home. Amen, sisters.

Rae Abileah, Medea Benjmain and Jodie Evans demonstrate for an end to corporate welfare.