Voice of Revolution

Another $578 Billion for Pentagon

End All War Funding!
Increase Funding for Social Programs Now!

President Bush signed the fiscal 2009 Pentagon budget into law on October 14, 2008. It hands over $512 billion in public funds for “military readiness” and $66 billion for the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the total, for one year, to $578 billion. The bill passed the Democrat-controlled House by a vote of 392-39. It passed the Senate, with a vote of 78-12, with 9 not voting, including Senators John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

The $578 billion for war does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Pentagon budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance, and production ($9.3 billion, which is in the Department of Energy budget), or Veterans Affairs ($33.2 billion). The U.S. government is currently spending at the rate of approximately $1 trillion in public funds per year for war.

Above and beyond the $800 billion-plus the Pentagon will receive by the end of 2008 in supplemental funding for the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, it has also received about $770 billion more than was planned for it in 2000. The base Pentagon budget, used as a starting point for each year's budget and then usually increased, has itself increased — in inflation-adjusted dollars — from $370.8 billion in 2001 to $518.3 billion in 2009. This is a 40 percent increase. Comparing actual Pentagon base budgets to the base budgets planned at the start of the first Bush administration (for the years from 2001 to 2009) means an added $770 billion — for war and the massive destruction and civilian deaths it brings. Another $770 billion that is taken out of the economy, which greatly harms it.

In early 2001, the Army alone anticipated a budget of about $720 billion for 2001 to 2009. Instead, an extra $387 billion has been appropriated for Army participation in the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. As well the Army’s base budget was increased by $191 billion to $911 billion. The Army budget is now at an all time high. Despite these increases, soldiers are still not properly equipped and trained.

Also in early 2001, the Navy anticipated a budget of about $900 billion for itself and the Marine Corps for 2001 to 2009. In addition to an extra $95 billion in war funding for the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, the Navy-Marine Corps base budget was increased by $174 billion to $1.07 trillion. Since early 2001, the Air Force has received more than $200 billion above what was then planned for its base budget. The large majority of funding goes not for the troops, but to the military monopolies for notoriously overpriced ships, planes, helicopters, tanks, bombs and other war material. For example, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that from 2000 to 2007, major system costs escalated by $295 billion.

Government Funding Weapons Monopolies

In 2000, the Defense Department planned to buy 458 V-22s for the Marines for $38.1 billion (unit cost: $83.2 million). In 2007, the same 458 V-22s cost $54.2 billion (unit cost: $118.3 million).

In 2000, 30 Virginia class submarines were going to cost $65.7 billion; today, the same 30 will cost $92 billion. Unit cost increased from $2.2 billion to $3.1 billion.

In 2000, the Air Force was to get 341 F-22 fighters for $61.9 billion ($181.5 million each). Today, the estimate is $64.5 billion for 184 aircraft ($350.5 million each). Program costs went up 4 percent. Unit cost went up 185 percent. The inventory to be bought shrank by 46 percent.

In 2000, the Navy projected 12 LPD-17 amphibious assault ships for $10.7 billion ($891.7 million each); today, nine LPD-17s will cost $14 billion (about $1.6 billion each). Program costs went up 33 percent; unit cost went up 179 percent; inventory went down 25 percent.

In addition, the national missile defense program alone has cost the United States more than $110 billion since President Ronald Reagan unveiled his Star Wars plan 25 years ago. Today, the missile defense effort is the Pentagon’s single biggest procurement program. It has meant massive and unending funds for the war monopolies involved for a system that still does not work and is not expected to.

In 2000, 1,449,000 active-duty personnel cost $100.5 billion in constant 2009 dollars for pay and benefits in the Pentagon’s military personnel account. In 2009, 1,445,000 active-duty personnel, a reduction of 4,000, are expected to cost $128.9 billion, an increase of $28.4 billion, or 28 percent.

Bring All U.S. Troops Home Now! End War Funding! Invest in Social Programs!

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Pay the Teachers Not the Banks!

States Threatening Devastating Cuts

California, New York and Massachusetts are among the states threatening yet more devastating cuts in the face of the current economic crisis. State revenues depend largely on sales and income taxes, all of which are down. Growing unemployment, increased job insecurity, foreclosures, sky-rocketing food, housing, health and gas costs, equal increasing hardship on families. And because states rely on sales and income taxes, it also means revenues are down right when need is greatest. The conditions facing the people is then compounded by state actions to further cut services, like healthcare and daycare.

There is an alternative. The states must demand that the more than $1 trillion in public funds being handed to the rich instead be utilized to provide for the rights of the people. They must refuse to pay war taxes and debt payments and utilize these funds instead for social programs.

With the current economic crisis, the difficulties facing the states are being further compounded by their difficulty in selling their bonds, the common means to secure funds until tax time in April. States issue what are called Revenue Anticipation Notes (RANS) that private banks usually finance, at interest rates favorable to them. Banks are refusing. As an official for California Governor Schwarzenegger put it, the bank “window is shut, and if it stays shut, we are in deep trouble.”

California's State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer, said that without a sudden influx of funds by the end of October the state’s coffers would be dry, making it impossible to pay teachers’ salaries, finance law enforcement, and continue funding a significant portion of the public infrastructure and other state-supported services. One of the upcoming payments likely to be missed is a $3 billion outlay to more than 1,000 school districts across the state.

Schwarzenegger has asked for the federal government to purchase $7 billion worth of state bonds, but so far the government has refused. The situation facing Californians, like people in New York, Massachusetts and elsewhere, is not considered an emergency requiring immediate funding, like that given the most powerful financiers.

Hands Off Our Pensions

Schwarzenegger, far from refusing to make debt and war payments to the federal government as a means to secure funds, instead is calling to raid the teacher’s pension funds. Democratic state senator Dean Florez, for example, proposed using the California Public Employee’s Retirement System, (CalPERS), the largest pension fund in the U.S, to purchase the debt. State Treasurer Lockyer has proposed taking funds from both CalPERS and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. This means that teachers and other public employees will pay their own salaries out of their own pension funds! We say hands off the pensions!

The federal government must guarantee the pensions of all and take action now to assist the states. This can be done by canceling state debts, just as many of the toxic debts of the banks are being canceled by the government buy out. New York State debt alone, of $53 billion, would secure funds for social programs for New York and 28 other states.

California, New York and Massachusetts already made massive cuts in their budgets this year. New York has made a second round of cuts and is now planning a third. For California, the budget cuts included a large-scale rollback in services for the state’s most vulnerable residents, coupled with tax reductions for large corporations and the wealthy.

The enacted budget included a $2.9 billion cut in education spending, a $950 million reduction in public transit services, a 10 percent cut in state Medi-Cal benefits, and the elimination of cost of living adjustments for Supplemental Security Income payments to the elderly and disabled. Schwarzenegger also vetoed a tax rebate program for low-income elderly home renters and a $500 million grant to fund HIV/AIDS research. These cuts along with others equaled a total reduction in state spending of $7.1 billion.

In return for a two year suspension of certain tax credits, big businesses will receive an estimated $1.2 billion each year through the refunding of taxes from previous profitable years and the transferring of tax credits among their respective corporate divisions, which will have the effect of decreasing the companies’ total tax liability.

The alternative is to Stop Paying the Rich! There is money available — the federal government just “found” more than $1 trillion for the rich and almost $600 billion for the Pentagon. Putting this money into the economy would do far more to stabilize the economy than continued payments to the rich

Massachusetts Also Making Cuts

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is threatening to cut 1,000 jobs from the state’s 45,000-strong workforce and make close to $1.4 billion in cuts from the budget. These attacks include:

• $5 million for infant immunization programs

• $1 million for Head Start pre-school programs

• $3.9 million for senior home care

• $9 million for workforce training

• $24 million for the University of Massachusetts system and between $500,000 to $1.9 million for the state’s other colleges

• $27 million cut to adult mental health services, including $3 million for state facilities for the mentally retarded and $1.9 million for the Department of Mental Retardation

• $1.5 million for AIDS prevention and treatment services

• $611,000 for suicide prevention

• $5 million for drug addiction treatment facilities

• $285,000 for a teen pregnancy program

• $368,000 for a beach preservation program

The health and well-being of the people, as the producers of the wealth, is the foundation of any economy. States can no longer claim there is no money when it comes to social services. On the contrary, it is their responsibility to demand $1 trillion in funding for social programs now!

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New York State Budget

Governor Agrees to Pay Wall Street While Imposing Another Round of Massive Cuts to Social Programs

Buffalo Forum, Local Publication of USMLO

Governor David Paterson recently announced that he is going to call the state legislature back into yet another “special session” on November 18, after the elections, to enact an additional $2 billion in cuts to social programs serving millions of New Yorkers.

Paterson and the legislature have already cut billions of dollars in funding for social programs for this fiscal year. In August alone, months after the passage of the budget in April, the governor and legislature enacted another $1.2 billion in cuts for this and the following fiscal years. Healthcare, education, prisons, parks, and other programs were hit hard by the cuts and will again be on the chopping block in November.

Paterson claims that the state’s budget and economic conditions have worsened as a result of the recent financial crisis on Wall Street. Wall Street, says the governor, has opened an additional $1.2 billion hole and next year’s “deficit” will exceed $8 billion. Thus, according to the governor, it is necessary to act quickly to minimize worsening “deficits.” He claims that if he and the legislature do not make deep cuts soon then Wall Street will give the state a lower credit rating. Paterson is submitting to this blackmail, despite the demand of New Yorkers and people across the country: No Bail Out for Wall Street, Send Them to Jail! Far from showing any concern for assuring the people of New York that their growing needs will be addressed, Paterson instead assured Wall Street that he wants to address “their concerns as quickly as possible, letting them know that in spite of the difficulty of these times, New York State is going to attack this problem.” He made clear that he was prepared to “risk some friendships” to enact the next round of cuts. This is a backhanded way of saying he will likely go after teachers and healthcare workers statewide.

Paterson, who is expected to run for governor in 2010, also said he would take the unusual step of submitting an executive budget more than a month early — in mid-December instead of late January. He claims this too is to placate Wall Street and their blackmail of lowering New York’s credit rating.

Lowering the credit rating is Wall Street’s way of forcing the state to pay even more in debt financing — already one of the highest in the country. The state has already increased debt by more than $10 billion through the new fiscal year. That is on top of the $53 billion the state already owes. In addition, nearly $5 billion alone is spent in this year’s budget in interest payments to the banks. Paterson and the legislature refuse to even consider demanding that Wall Street cancel the debt it holds. Why should yet more public dollars be turned over to the private Wall Street monopolies — monopolies that have shown a total disregard for the economy and the rights of the people.

An April 25 press release from the State Comptroller’s office states: “This budget significantly increases state debt and continues to use debt to fill budget shortfalls, adding to New York’s already high debt burden. The state’s current debt of $53 billion is projected to exceed $67 billion by 2012-13. Debt service payments are estimated to cost the state $7.6 billion annually by 2012-13, a 50 percent increase.” This makes debt service one of the fastest growing budget areas.

In New York State, ninety percent of state debt has been obtained illegally because it has not been approved by voters, as required by the constitution.

Buffalo Forum calls on Buffalo, Erie County and New York State representatives to refuse to pay the debt, debt that has been obtained illegally. By simply canceling debt service for one year, New York State could avoid cuts to social programs. By canceling the entire state debt of $53 billion, it would be possible to eliminate budget “deficits” — totaling $48 billion — for New York and 28 other states nationwide. Wall Street has been stealing wealth from the states for years and using debt financing and the blackmail of a lower credit rating to steal even more. State and local governments should stop spending public monies to finance these criminals!

Billions of dollars could also be spent on social programs by ending all state funding for the war on Iraq. To date, New York State has spent more than $50 billion on the war. Erie County alone has spent more than $2 billion. In 2009 New York State will pay $1 billion for proposed ballistic missile defense. For the same amount of money, the following could be provided: healthcare for 192,430 people for one year, or 1,953,587 homes with renewable electricity for one year, or 15,891 Music and Arts teachers for one year, or 5,932 affordable housing units.

End All War Funding!
Cancel State and Local Debts!
Increase Funding For Social Programs!

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Nearly 30 Percent of U.S. Families Forced to Live on Poverty Wages

The Working Poor Families Project recently released their report on conditions facing working families: “Still Working Hard, Still Falling Short.” The report documented that more than 28 percent of American families with one or both parents working are living in poverty. Low wages are a main factor. In 2006 there were more than 29 million jobs in the U.S. where monopolies paid wages below the official poverty level — defined as $9.91 an hour for full-time labor. This is an increase of nearly 5 million poverty-wage jobs from 2002.

The report also found that 9.6 million households can be described as low-income or “working poor” — defined as families that earn less than twice the official poverty level. There were 350,000 more such families in 2006 than in 2002. More than 21 million children now live in low-income working families, an increase of 800,000 in four years.

Another factor is government refusal to meet the rights of the people to housing and healthcare. About 60 percent of low-income working families are forced to spend more than one-third of their income on housing, and nearly 40 percent lack health insurance for one or both parents. Families struggle under poverty conditions despite parents working long hours. According to the report, “Adults in low-income working families worked on average 2,552 hours per year in 2006, the equivalent of almost one-and-a-quarter full-time workers.” Even so,

these families “lack the earnings necessary to meet their basic needs — a struggle exacerbated by soaring prices for food, gas, health and education.”

These long hours represent about one third of all the hours that pass in a year. It is nearly twice the total yearly work hours of the average German worker, who works 1,362 hours per year, and 162 hours more per year than the average South Korean worker, according to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The report documents the sharp decline in living standards for many sectors of the working class. With the elimination of manufacturing jobs by the monopolies, poverty-level jobs are increasingly common.

Contrary to monopoly media disinformation, the majority of families living on poverty wages are not immigrants, minorities or families with a single parent. Some 72 percent of poor families, according to the report, hold jobs. More than half are headed by married couples, 69 percent have only American-born parents, 89 percent have a parent between the ages of 25 and 54, and 43 percent have white non-Hispanic parents. Only 25 percent receive food stamp assistance.

Nationally, more than one in five jobs — 22 percent — pays wages that fall below the federal poverty threshold. In eight states, more than a third of all jobs are in poverty-wage occupations.

In general, the conditions of working families are worst in the South and the non-Pacific West. Texas, for example, has the fourth highest number of working families defined as low-income, the second lowest percentage of low-income families who have a high school diploma or its equivalent, the second highest number with no post-secondary school experience, the fewest with health insurance, and the third highest family income inequality.

Additional report findings include:

• In 2006, California and Texas had more that a million low-income working families, while Florida and New York each had more than half a million.

• In 13 states, 33 percent or more of working families are low-income, while in Mississippi and New Mexico, more than 40 percent of working families are low-income.

• In 13 states, 50 percent or more of minority working families are low-income.

The report is based on data from 2004-2006 gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community and Current Population Survey. For further information see www.workingpoorfamilies.org.

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International Day of Action

No Wall of Death on US-Mexico Border

Southwest Workers Union

Calendar of ACTION

October 25
International Day of Action (Saturday) to protest the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall of Death! The date marks two years since Border Wall was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

October 26
Day of faith based action to say NO WALL.

November 2
Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) mobilizations to protest deaths on U.S.-Mexico border due to militarization, racist & repressive immigration policies and the Border Wall of Death.

November 9-16
International week of Mobilization to stop and tear down walls around the world……November 9th marks the fall of the Berlin Wall!

December 10
International Human Rights Day

December 18
International day of the Campesinos/Farm workers

• Plan and organize an action in your city (send us notice)

• Educate community about the NO WALL movement

• Join National letter writing campaign

Previous Actions Included:
August 29-Sept 1
International March to stop and tear down the border Wall of Death from Ft. Hancock to El Paso and Sunland Park/Anapra. The 60 mile march was coordinated by UTAF and local organizations.

September 14th
Press day to denounce the U.S. House of Representatives vote that approved the Border Wall of Death in 2006 by a vote of 219 –138

September 29
Press day to denounce the U.S. Senate’s approval of the Border Wall of Death in 2006 by a vote of
80 -19

October 1
Launch Campaign to stop and tear down the Wall of Death (El Paso, Texas)

October 7-12
Americas Social Forum in Guatemala/closing march No MURO!

October 12
Indigenous Sovereignty Day and NO Wall of Death borderwide Actions

Southwest Workers Union
PO Box 830706
San Antonio, TX 78283
210 299 2666 • 210 378 5699 • grulla@swunion.org

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