Bloomberg.com reports: “President George W. Bush sent Congress a $3.1 trillion federal budget that trims Medicare and health care programs, boosts military spending and projects the deficit this year and next will hit near-record levels. … Pentagon spending would rise 7.5 percent to $515 billion, the 11th consecutive year of increases. Programs in the departments of education, interior, transportation, justice and agriculture would be reduced.”
FRANCES FOX PIVEN
Piven’s most recent book is The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush’s Militarism. She said today: “American wealth is being redirected toward the military and the rich. Meanwhile, the growing needs of Americans, especially the poor and the old, are being ignored. The instabilities in the U.S. economy now becoming evident are more and more worrisome.” 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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MIRIAM PEMBERTON
Pemberton is peace and security editor for Foreign Policy In Focus and a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She recently testified in Congress on the economic consequences of going to war with Iraq. Pemberton said today: “The budget request increases spending to engage the world through the military, while shrinking spending on non-military international engagement. This is marching us exactly in the wrong direction. Most of the cuts in the budget for non-military foreign affairs are from programs to stop the spread of nuclear and chemical weapons materials.”
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ANITA DANCS
Research director of the National Priorities Project, Dancs said today: “The administration proposes to further increase the military budget by 5 percent, not including war spending (after adjusting for inflation).”
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
