Moral Budget Over a War Budget |
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by Nancy Price
Martin Luther King, Jr and his colleagues envisioned an alternative to increasing militarism and war-at-all-cost. In his April 4, 1967 Riverside Church speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, King said clearly: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” The Poor People’s Campaign planned before his assassination was then held in Washington, DC from Mother’s Day May 12 to June 24, 1968.
Today, Reverend William Barber, II has brought together a broad coalition in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to advocate for a comprehensive response to the systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism, and war economy plaguing our country. The Campaign refuses to “accept the lies of scarcity and the constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible, politically insensitive and economically insane politics we are witnessing today.” It calls for:
Martin Luther King, Jr and his colleagues envisioned an alternative to increasing militarism and war-at-all-cost. In his April 4, 1967 Riverside Church speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, King said clearly: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” The Poor People’s Campaign planned before his assassination was then held in Washington, DC from Mother’s Day May 12 to June 24, 1968.
Today, Reverend William Barber, II has brought together a broad coalition in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to advocate for a comprehensive response to the systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism, and war economy plaguing our country. The Campaign refuses to “accept the lies of scarcity and the constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible, politically insensitive and economically insane politics we are witnessing today.” It calls for:
- $350 billion in annual military spending cuts to make the nation and world more secure;
- $886 billion in annual revenue from fair taxes on the wealthy, corporations, and Wall Street; and
- Billions more in savings from ending mass incarceration, addressing climate change, and meeting other key campaign demands. Read the comprehensive Poor People’s Moral Budget: Everyone Has the Right to Live.
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In recent years, House members created the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus ,"to support moves to reduce the priority given to war in our foreign policy and our current war-based national economy. They promote utilizing defense budget cuts, up to $350 billion, to increase our diplomatic capacity and for domestic programs that will keep our nation and people safe.”
House Resolution Bill 476 was referred to the Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Affairs. We need to convince our Representatives to cosponsor the bill to have any chance of cutting the military budget. |
Moral MarchOn June 18, 2022, The Poor People's Campaign organized The Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March. The march was not just a day of action. It was a declaration of an ongoing, committed moral movement to
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Move the Money
War Resisters Chart Sources: “Current military” includes Dept. of Defense ($743 billion) and the military portion ($222 billion) from other departments as noted in “Current military” box. “Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt. For further explanation, please go to warresisters.org.
