April, 14 2009, 02:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Taxes Going to Military Spending
CAROL KIGER ALLEN
Rev. ROBERT MOORE
Allen is a retired economist and is on the board of the Coalition for
Peace Action & Peace Action Education Fund in New Jersey. Moore is
executive director for the group.
WASHINGTON
CAROL KIGER ALLEN
Rev. ROBERT MOORE
Allen is a retired economist and is on the board of the Coalition for
Peace Action & Peace Action Education Fund in New Jersey. Moore is
executive director for the group.
Allen said today: "Tomorrow, we'll be administering our 'Penny
Poll.' People approaching the post office, many to mail their tax
returns by the deadline, will be handed ten pennies and invited to
distribute them among five tubes proportionate to how they would like
to see their federal tax dollars spent. The five choices will include:
military, environment, education, housing and health care.
"For many years, the Penny Poll has had hundreds of participants
throughout the region with strikingly similar results: the vast
majority of respondents wanted the majority of their federal tax dollar
spent on education and health care. Next were environment and housing.
By a large margin, the least popular category of spending was for the
military."
Moore said today: "Yet in the Fiscal 2009 Federal Budget, 54
percent of the discretionary budget (which Congress can allocate how it
wants, and thus excludes trust funds like Social Security) is for
military spending, counting the cost of past wars. Less than 5 percent
goes for each of the other priorities poll takers have shown, by a
large margin, to be the places they want their federal tax dollars to
go. The only way these distorted budget priorities will change is if
we, average citizens, put enough pressure on our elected officials to
insist that it change."
Background:
The War Resisters League's "Where your Income Tax Money Really Goes"
World Public Opinion's "U.S. Budget: The Public's Priorities"
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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