Over the last few weeks, we’ve alerted you that the Pentagon is trying to direct funds for COVID-19 relief into its own bloated coffers.
In the last three years alone – during a time of relative peace – we have already increased annual Pentagon spending by more than $90 billion, or 15 percent. This has occurred during a period without any military action authorized by Congress.
Right now, the coronavirus is our greatest adversary. It has killed more than 80,000 Americans over the past two months, far surpassing the number of American casualties during the entire Vietnam War. We must remain focused on providing the resources for combating the coronavirus and not on increasing Pentagon spending that already outpaces 144 nations combined.
Please call on Congress to take action.
Two of our most trusted allies in Congress, Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA-13) and Mark Pocan (D-WI-2) have drafted a letter to the House Armed Services Committee chair Adam Smith (D-WA-9) and the ranking member Mac Thornberry (R-TX-13) urging them to draft a Pentagon budget below last year’s $740 billion levels as we fight this global pandemic.
“America needs a coronavirus cure, not more war. We need more testing, not more bombs. In order to reopen our nation in a data-driven, safe manner, we need to focus our spending efforts on the millions of additional coronavirus tests and tens of thousands of additional contract tracers we will need, as well as covering treatment costs, developing therapeutics, and distributing future vaccines…. We encourage you to constrain defense spending during this pandemic so that we can defeat the greatest threat to our nation – the coronavirus,” Lee and Pocan write in their letter.
We need to ensure that we get as many members of Congress to add their names in support of the Pocan/Lee letter. Please call your Representative today and demand they add their name.
1. Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121
2. Ask to be connected to your representative’s office
3. Once connected, say:
Hello, my name is (your name) and I am a voting constituent from (your city). I am calling to urge the representative to add his/her name to the Pocan/Lee letter calling to pass a Pentagon budget this year that’s reduced from last year. America needs a coronavirus cure, not more war. We need more testing, not more bombs. In order to reopen our nation in a safe manner, we need to focus our spending efforts on the millions of additional coronavirus tests, as well as covering treatment costs, developing therapeutics, and distributing future vaccines. I look forward to hearing the representative’s response to my request.
*Please note, you may only have an opportunity to leave a voice message, and not speak with a congressional staffer. Be sure to do so!
Then reply to this email, tell us that you made the call, and give us any updates you heard.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley is an original sponsor of this letter. If she is your Congresswoman, please thank her for initiating it!
We need to remind Congress that they are accountable to us, the people, and not Trump, not the Pentagon, and NOT arms dealers. There is a real and immediate need out there for things that will actually make us safer and more secure. We need more N95 masks, not more F-35 jet fighters. Those are useless against the tremendous threat to our security we find ourselves in. We need more masks, more ventilators, and more nurses. We need assistance for the tens of millions of people that have lost their jobs. We need aid for communities that were already struggling before the pandemic. America needs a coronavirus cure, not more war.
Please call your representative today!