Cut Bloated US Military Spending
By 5% Per Year For 10 Years.
The US spends almost as much on military as the rest of the world combined. Every year, military spending consumes more than half of the U.S. Discretionary Budget. (Non-Discretionary Budget items are: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the national debt.)
Democrats and Republicans in Washington overwhelmingly support military spending. Partisan posturing, debate and gridlock are the norm for other legislative issues. Congress even approves budget items the Pentagon doesn’t want!
If elected, I will be a voice in Congress for decreasing military spending. I am an advocate for closing most of our more than 700 overseas military bases in more than 120 countries. Do our foreign bases help defend America? A few perhaps. Our massive spending on foreign military bases is more about defending corporate trade. Oil is at the top of the list of products that need military protection.
Yet, corporate America doesn’t want to pay for this protection. Why should you or I? It is time to bring our troops home, not just from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, but from all around the world.
By spending less on military and more on healthcare, housing and education, we will create more good paying jobs. Americans should be known for building hospitals, not bombing them.
I am a member of the Green Party. Continuing to fund a bloated military industrial complex makes no sense to me. Did you know the United States is also the largest arms dealing country in the world? We export death and destruction. Supposedly, it is good for business.
In 1969, John Lennon released: “Give Peace a Chance”. Instead, the United States has chosen war ever since. I’ve always thought that providing for human needs is not only a better thing to do, but is also far less expensive. If elected, I will be an advocate for peace. It would be the first time since 1987 that San Francisco voters would have an advocate for peace in Washington.
Barry Hermanson