National Priorities Project: Unified Security Budget Would Make U.S. Safer, Save Taxpayer Dollars
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2007
12:01 AM
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CONTACT: National Priorities Project
Pamela Schwartz, Communications Director
413-584-9556 (o)
413-219-5658 (c)
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Unified Security Budget Would Make U.S. Safer, Save Taxpayer Dollars
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Northampton, MA - April 26 - As Congress puts the final touches on its Budget Resolution for Fiscal Year 2008, a new report by the Task Force for a Unified Security Budget lays out a plan that would increase national security while cutting wasteful military spending.
Crafted by a non-partisan task force of military, homeland security and foreign policy experts, the report argues that security spending is seriously out of balance. It points to the Bush Administration's budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2008, which would allocate 90% of national security spending to the military, 6% to homeland security and 4% to all other non-military tools, including diplomacy, foreign aid and nuclear nonproliferation.
"As the cost of the Iraq War climbs to half a trillion dollars, the urgency for reordering our security spending priorities couldn't be greater," said Anita Dancs, a member of the Task Force and research director of the National Priorities Project. "Right now, it's clear that taxpayers are spending an extraordinary amount of money for less security."
The report, A Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY 2008, to be released by Foreign Policy in Focus on April 26th, makes the case for reductions in military spending on outdated or unproven weapons systems totaling $55.9 billion. The U.S. government is about to deploy to Iraq, for example, the V-22 Osprey, a hybrid plane-helicopter, which is over-budget, years behind schedule and fraught with performance problems. The task force argues it should be canceled instead. The Unified Security Budget recommends a total $49.7 billion increase in non-military security spending on homeland security, foreign assistance and other non-military programs and institutions.
An embargoed version of the full task force report is available at: http://ips-dc.org/reports/070426-unifiedsecuritybudget.pdf
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National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels. For more information, go to www.nationalpriorities.org.
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