That’s as enthused as I can get. There must be a Republican in the White House. Is there? Oh yeah. Well, maybe that explains it. Or maybe the CPC is just sticking with last year’s budget despite this year’s additional insane increases in military spending and decreases most other places.
In any case, past “people’s budget”s have been truly pathetic. With the U.S. government depriving the U.S. public and the world of basic needs to fund a trillion-dollar-a-year military, in past years the “progressives” in Congress have proposed to INCREASE military spending at a slower pace than others. This year they propose to slightly cut it. That’s progress, I guess.
Open this year’s document and scroll to page 34. You’ll find a cut of $41 billion from “Overseas Contingency Operations” (the mass murders formerly known as wars) plus a $43 billion cut from the Pentagon’s budget for . . . well, wars, but it’s called its “base budget.” Considering that Congress actually, in reality, increased the U.S. military budget by $82 billion last month, this $84 billion cut could be seen as putting this world’s-largest-ever organized criminal enterprise back where it was last year minus a whopping $2 billion, which is less than the $6 billion cut proposed in one past CPC budget that dared to suggest a then-1% reduction in the Department of War.
This year’s document also goes so far as to mention in its earlier pages that it is making these tiny cuts to the military budget. That, too, has to count as progress. In the past, this little item that makes up 60% or so of discretionary spending has gone virtually unmentioned in the CPC budget presentation.
That being said, you could still read this “people’s budget” on which no people ever voted and miss the military were it not for the obsession with dumping money on services for veterans, rather than for all people. The document does not read as an enlightened view of the world, even if it can claim the title of “progressive.” And, given that it is not a serious proposal but a dream vision from people in a minority and seemingly happy to stay that way, its weakness remains glaring.
Still, we can now say that there was in fact a limit, there was some level of militarization of government that the CPC would consider too far and be willing to publicly state needed to be reversed. Take encouragement where you can. Take leadership outside the beltway. Get active for the far larger steps still required.
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Original: http://davidswanson.org/the-progressive-caucus-budget-just-got-slightly-better/
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
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