April 25: A Historic Day to Cut the Bloated Pentagon Budget

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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/19-0

April 25: A Historic Day to Cut the Bloated Pentagon Budget
by Robert Naiman
Published on Friday, April 19, 2013 by Common Dreams

When I was an undergraduate in college - thirty years ago - I saw a poster in someone's apartment. It was a photograph of a group of kids scurrying happily about in a school playground. The caption read:



~snip~

But on Thursday of next week - rescheduled from this Friday due to the tragedy in Boston - the Holy Grail will be within reach. All we have to do to cut the bloated Pentagon budget and use the money for human needs instead is kill the "chained CPI" - the President's proposal to cut Social Security and veterans' benefits by lowering the cost-of-living adjustment.

The reason it has become this simple is that President Obama and Congress have made it this simple. The "grand bargain" that President Obama is seeking with Republicans who want to protect the bloated Pentagon budget would do three key things: 1) protect the bloated Pentagon budget 2) cut Social Security and veterans' benefits and 3) raise taxes.

If the President's effort to achieve a "grand bargain" with Republicans who want to protect the bloated Pentagon budget fails, then these three key things will happen instead: 1) the bloated Pentagon budget will be cut 2) Social Security and veterans' benefits will be spared 3) taxes will not be raised.