Today’s Good News: True Majority Tackles Federal Budget Priorities - with Panache
True Majority, in case you haven’t heard, was founded by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s to agitate for a re-ordering of our nation’s budget priorities. They advocate that we take just 12% of the Pentagon’s budget and apply that money to more important things, including K-12 education, job training, and energy efficiency. So far so good. Few on the left ever talk about where we might get the money for progressive government programs. Even more of a no-brainer than taxing the rich is looking at our current budget for re-allocation. I’m sure most Americans have no idea how much more we spend on military than on social welfare projects, or how much of military spending is utterly wasted.
As I understand it, the 12% that TM wants to shift represents what we spend on Cold War-era weapons that are totally obsolete (and probably never worked anyway). So it’s a good idea, and quite moderate, embodied in the Common Sense Budget Act which they are working to build support for.
It’s the “panache” part that gets me even more excited. TM has made a little animated video where Ben takes a bunch of Oreo cookies, each representing $10 billion, and moves them from the giant Pentagon stack to the much smaller education, jobs, etc. stacks. He points out how many more cookies we spend on military than Russia or China, who are ostensibly allies now in any case, or the “Axis of Evil.” Not only that, but you can buy your own set of Oreos and other study aids should you want to make the presentation yourself in a live setting. You can also get a watch whose face is their adjusted budget pie (”What time is it? Time to get our national priorities straight!”) I love what these guys are doing.
Oh, and they have a sister group called FaithfulAmerica - for people of faith, don’t you know - in concert with the National Council of Churches.
Learn more here.
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