Forum Held on War Spending
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WLNS
Cedra Mayfield
03/06/2011
A local push for a change in federal tax spending. A local forum addressed concerns about the way your tax dollars are being spent on the national level. The gathering was at Lansing's Central United Methodist Church. It focused on ways to change federal spending to help people struggling here in our state. Many say that change has to start at the Pentagon. One by one community members like Jo Comerford voiced their concerns, worried about how the federal government is spending money from Michigan taxes.
Jo Comerford, national priorities project: "Michigan taxpayers pay into this big pot of money called the federal fund and you get back billions of dollars in federal aid."
And she says that federal aid is suppose to come back to Michigan, but says much of it is being used by the Pentagon on war spending instead.
Jo Comerford: "This year's military budget is well over 700 billion dollars."
A budget Comerford and a crowd of more than 100 gathered at the Lansing church want to see cut down.
Rep. Joan Bauer, (D) Lansing: "There is an impact with there being fewer federal dollars available, so we're here to listen."
State Representative Joan Bauer was part of a panel of local political leaders who listened to ideas about how to better spend those federal tax dollars.
Rep. Joan Bauer: "We need to send the message back if people want things to change to our representatives and senators at the federal level."
And while Bauer doesn't directly deal with federal funds, she still hopes she can somehow help so community members can see more of their tax dollars put to use here in Michigan.
