 April 2004
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Sara Burke, Managing Editor Sam Diener, Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Coalition Calls for Funding Human Needs A coalition of 57 national organizations, including Women's Action for New Directions, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), the National Council of Jewish Women, and the American Baptist Churches USA, joined together on March 8, 2004, to send this message to all US Senators. Please see www.wand.org/news/coalitionltr.htm. Dear Senator, We urge you to adequately fund human needs programs in the FY 05 budget and oppose attempts to reduce non-defense discretionary spending to pay for increases in defense spending.
The President's plan would spend almost as much on our military as the rest of the world combined, while reducing funding for child care, low-income housing assistance, education for the disadvantaged, crime prevention programs, environmental protection, and the global fund to halt the spread of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria around the world. Further, the plan proposes to increase the military budget by $20 billion per year for the next five years, at the expense of these and other domestic programs. Additional untold billions will be requested to pay for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. The President's plan would extend the tax cuts permanently, further reducing revenues in the face of soaring deficits and looming shortfalls in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds in the decades to come. Revenues would be cut by more than $1 trillion over the next ten years. If enacted, this plan would further shift the tax burden away from the wealthiest and onto the backs of middle income wage earners and future generations. The permanent tax cut extension, the fast-growing military budget, and the rising costs of the military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan will make it difficult for the federal government to address significant domestic needs at a time of economic hardship here at home. Poverty rates in the US are once again on the rise. The number of people without health insurance is increasing. Over 13 million children live in households in which the specter of hunger still lingers. Poor and low-income parents are increasingly unable to find affordable, quality child care. Only one quarter of the families eligible to receive low-income housing assistance receive it. In 25 cities last year, requests for emergency food assistance increased by an average of 17 percent, and requests for emergency shelter assistance increased by an average of 13 percent. Many state and local governments, facing the worst fiscal crises in decades, are cutting programs serving poor and low-income households, despite the growing unmet human needs. More tax cuts for the wealthy and more military spending are no way to get America back to work or to address the pressing issues facing our society in the years ahead. Congress needs to act where the President's plan has fallen far short. National security requires taking reasonable measures in partnership with other governments around the world to assure the public's safety. But national security also requires assuring other core elements of the common good: equity and justice for all; a healthy and safe environment; and safe, economically productive communities in which each person's potential may be fulfilled. We the undersigned organizations call upon Congress to enact budget priorities to address these urgent national needs. We urge the following budget priorities: oppose permanently extending tax cuts for the wealthiest; cut wasteful, excessive* military spending; extend unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed; expand investment in education opportunities for the disadvantaged and job training for the unemployed; expand access to quality, affordable health care, child care, and housing for poor and low-income households; increase investment in cooperative international efforts to combat HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; and increase investment in public and alternative transportation systems and renewable energy sources.
* Editor's note: Ned Stowe of FCNL, one of the drafters of the
letter, explained that to FCNL, the entire military budget is
wasteful and excessive, whereas for others, the meaning is much
different. The word was used here to try to forge a coalition
that includes pacifists and non-pacifists alike, not to imply
support for increasing the military's ability to kill more people
per dollar spent. 
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