Changing the Nation's Spending Priorities from War to Peace
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OP-ED News
By Madelyn Hoffman
10/16/2010
On Saturday, October 2nd, a bus provided by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) left from the Essex Junior Academy, next door to the Bloomfield-based New Jersey Peace Action (NJPA), and traveled to the One Nation Working Together (ONWT) rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. NJPA organized 4 buses to the event as part of the 90 peace organizations that comprised the Peace Table of ONWT. At last count, at least 90 New Jersey buses went to D.C.! The Bloomfield bus was nearly full and carried NJPA members and the Deltas, a sorority associated with the NAACP. Unions, civil rights organizations, environmental organizations and others joined forces in making a strong statement about changing the nation's priorities. News coverage of the historic event didn't always highlight the connection participating organizations made: if it weren't for the $12 billion spent each month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, more money would be available for housing, health care, education, jobs creation and more. In fact, the $720 million spent EACH DAY on the Iraq war is enough to hire 12,478 elementary school teachers!At the beginning of the 10th year of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan (10/7/10), the human and financial costs of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan are monumental. The costs of both wars combined, since 2001, are fast approaching $1.1 trillion. On October 5th, Jo Comerford, Executive Director of the National Priorities Project (NPP) addressed students and community at William Paterson University in a talk titled "New Jersey Out of Balance: The Impact of Federal Spending in an Economic Crisis." NJPA will gladly share a copy with anyone interested. (Please contact us at nj_peaceaction@yahoo.com or 973-259-1126. You can also access this information at www.nationalpriorities.org.) Some of the report is summarized below.For each $1 New Jersey taxpayers spend in federal taxes, 26.5 cents go to the military; 20. 1 cents go to health care; 5.4 cents toward interest on the military debt; 3.5 cents on veterans' benefits; 7.2 cents for housing and community development; 3.7 cents on food; 2.5 cents on the environment, energy and science; and 1.3 cents on transportation (among other items). Taken together, 35.4 cents on every New Jersey tax dollar is spent on the military or related expense. According to the NPP presentation, the median income family in New Jersey paid approximately $7500 in federal income taxes in 2009, broken down as follows: Military $1987 Health $1507Non-military interest on debt 615Military interest on debt 405 Income security and labor 735Housing and community development 637Veterans benefits 540 Food 277Government 262Education 187 Environment, energy and science 150International Affairs 97Transportation 97These priorities do not address the nation's persistent economic woes. Recent figures from the Census Bureau show that the official poverty rate rose to 14.3 % in 2009 from 13.2% in 2008. In New Jersey, this includes 280,000 children. Home foreclosures in August 2010 hit the highest level since the mortgage crisis began. More than 50 million Americans are without health insurance, including more than 1.2 million people in New Jersey! Unemployment remains high at 9.7%, affecting 15 million people. New Jersey lost more than 120, 600 jobs in 2009. According to NPP's report, half the nation's metro areas will not return to pre-recession employment levels until the end of 2012 and some metro areas like Atlantic City may not return to those levels until 2025. These statistics show a crying need for money to create jobs and address unemployment and poverty. But the $3.8 trillion budget for FY 2011 doesn't reflect those priorities.According to the NPP Report, 59 % of the budget is mandatory spending for the federal government, such as revenues for social security and Medicare and Medicaid. 34% of the budget is discretionary spending.Here's how the U.S. Congress apportioned this discretionary spending for FY 2011.Military spending: 58% a record high!Environment, Energy and Science 6%Transportation 3%Income and Security 2%International Affairs 4%Health 5%Housing and Community 6%Government 6%Food 3%Education 4%Veterans' benefits 5%These numbers are terribly skewed toward the military. To make matters worse, the spending levels for all categories except for the military have been frozen for the next three years. New Jersey's budget for FY 2010 was $29.43 billion with an $11 billion shortfall. FY 2010 saw a 16% cut in federal grants to New Jersey for a total of $2.5 billion. New Jersey cut programs in Medicaid, child health, K-12 and early education, the elderly/disabled, funds for policing and hospice care and the state workforce. Ironically, New Jersey's share of the FY 2010 military budget is $32.17 billion, more than New Jersey's total budget for FY 2010! From 2001 2010 New Jersey spent $49.7 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That money could have provided 6 million people with health care, or paid for 4 million college scholarships or 5.5 million Head Start places or 660,000 elementary school teachers. Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight to the Afghanistan war. Anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise. Last month, world-wide attention was focused on a proposal by a Florida pastor to burn a stack of Korans. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asked the pastor to cancel his plans, out of fear of further antagonizing the Muslim world and putting our troops overseas at greater risk of attack. The longer the wars drag on, the greater this risk grows. NJPA is asking Bloomfield residents to join nation-wide efforts to contact their U.S. Senators and member of Congress to tell them to end the war, to support HR 5015 (which requires the administration by January 2011 to submit a plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan ) and to join the U.S. Out of Afghanistan caucus. To date, none of the NJ Congressional delegation has joined this caucus. Together we can change the direction of these wars and restore balance to our nation's spending priorities! Author's Bio: Madelyn Hoffman is the Executive Director of NJ Peace Action, based in Bloomfield, New Jersey. She has held that position since August 2000. Madelyn Hoffman traveled to Afghanistan with Global Exchange in June 2005 and has given dozens of presentations about her experiences since her return. Madelyn Hoffman holds a Masters of Public Administration from Rutgers-Newark. She is an adjunct professor of Political Science at two colleges in New Jersey.
