This week, the House is expected to vote on the proposed $100 billion military supplemental.

JARED BERNSTEIN
Bernstein is senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. In his most recent piece, “There’s Always Money For War,” he writes: “Okay, this is going to sound really naïve. It’s the kind of question you’d expect from an earnest, if not slightly annoying, 12-year-old, not from a hard-boiled wonk like yours truly. But why is it that our representatives can easily raise endless amounts of money for war, but can’t adequately fund human needs?”

Bernstein is author of the book All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy.
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FRANCES FOX PIVEN
Piven’s most recent books are The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush’s Militarism and Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America. She said today: “The supplemental spending bill … is an attempt to straddle continuing divisions, by combining nearly $100 billion in new war spending with a timetable for troop withdrawal, and some supplemental domestic spending. Of course, even if it passes, the bill may well turn out to be largely symbolic, since it faces both the Senate and the prospect of a presidential veto.

“Nevertheless, the bill crafted by the Democratic House majority is cautious because the leaders are trying to protect their flanks from the unknown consequences of withdrawal as the next election approaches. They are, after all, politicians. But … the antiwar movement is gaining momentum, encouraged by the fact that the new Democratic Congress can’t ignore them as the old one did. That the movement matters is evident in the fact that the House bill faces not only unified Republican opposition, but the prospect of at least 15 defections from Democrats bridling at the compromise the bill represents.”

Piven is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. Her past books include The Breaking of the American Social Compact.
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167