With Over 120,000 Petition Signatures, the People’s Budget Earns Its Name

 In Pentagon Budget, Trump Administration

Washington, D.C. — June 7, 2017 — At a June 7 press conference entitled, “The People Support the People’s Budget: A Roadmap for the Resistance,” representatives of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and a host of grassroots advocacy and social justice organizations announced the delivery of over 120,000 petition signatures to Congress in support of the CPC’s People’s Budget.

President Trump’s budget proposal includes massive cuts to government programs ranging from education, healthcare, and social security, to international diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and more. It also includes a significant increase in military spending. The People’s Budget offers an alternative plan for how to keep Americans safe and secure, and how to meet the needs of the American people.

Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots peace organization, is one of the many groups supporting the People’s Budget. At the press conference, Paul Kawika Martin, Senior Director for Policy and Political Affairs at Peace Action, made the following remarks:

“Every year, Peace Action endorses the People’s Budget because it invests in critical programs that Americans support while cutting Pentagon bloat and funding smart solutions to world conflicts. Once again, the Congressional Progressive Caucus shows us a positive vision for the United States. A vision that takes care of the less fortunate, creates jobs, protects the environment and takes long term steps to a more peaceful and secure world.

“Voters are tired of endless wars and Pentagon bloat and want a smarter approach to security. If money could solve our security challenges, then the five trillion dollars spent on the so-called Global War on Terror since 9/11 and the trillions more in long-term costs should have made the world a safer place.

“The People’s Budget listens to the electorate and supports the troops by blocking more U.S. combat forces in Syria and by funding military health care. It will prevent wars in the first place by increasing funding for diplomacy and strategic humanitarian aid. It supports decommissioning of our Cold War-era nuclear weapons by including Senator Markey’s and Representative Blumenauer’s SANE Act, a bill named after Peace Action’s former name Sane/freeze.

“Peace Action urges Congress to support the People’s Budget, which will help all of us, and make us and the world safer, because clearly the Trump budget will do the exact opposite.”

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Founded in 1957, Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States’ largest peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 36 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights and support nonmilitary solutions to international conflicts. The public may learn more and take action at http://www.PeaceAction.org.

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