Dear Supporter,

After a decade of doubling the Pentagon budget, driving the deficit up with two wars, tax cuts for the rich and after over a trillion dollars in cuts to domestic programs in the last four years, the fight is down to generating revenues versus making cuts.

Tomorrow, December 5, join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and community groups in a national call in day to set the record straight. And hundreds will take over the Senate Gallery.

Tell the Senate, Tax the rich and cut the waste from the Pentagon budget. Call (202) 224-3121.

Some on Capitol Hill, like Sen. Lindsay Graham (SC) say they will only accept revenue increases if major cuts are made in Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. And he is also one of the main drum majors for protecting the Pentagon budget from any cuts at all.

Now the House GOP has made their formal proposal to put the needs of the richest 2% over the needs of the oldest and the sickest.

Call your Senators (202) 224-3121 on Wednesday: Time to change federal budget priorities. Make the top 2% pay their fair share and cut the waste from the Pentagon budget.

Some defense industry executives are beginning to acknowledge what we have known all along. For the good of the country, we can and must cut Pentagon spending. And higher taxes may be necessary.

Tell your Senators: Save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid by putting peoples’s needs first, not the millionaires and military industrial complex!

There are two myths in the fiscal showdown debate:  tax cuts for the rich spurs the economy. Not so, read this study. And an economy premised on endless possibilities of war is sustainable.

On December 3, 2012, in the heart of The Boeing Corporation country, Jon Talton, Seattle Times business columnist said,  “But it would be healthier even for national security to rebuild a peacetime economy. A dollar spent on infrastructure, teachers’ pay or research would get us further than one thrown down the hole of a runaway Pentagon budget buster or more overseas adventures."

He said and we totally agree, "How to make that switch should be the national conversation.”

Power to the peaceful,

Judith LeBlanc
Field Director
Peace Action