February, 18 2010, 02:01pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Paul Kawika Martin, Peace Action, 951-217-7285, pmartin@peace-action.org
Largest Peace Group: Biden Speech Right Direction on Nukes, But Funding Weapon Upgrades Wrong
WASHINGTON
In response to today's speech on nuclear weapons by Vice President Biden at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, Peace Action's - a group founded in 1957 to abolish nuclear weapons and the largest grassroots peace organization - policy director, Paul Kawika Martin, stated the following after attending the speech:
"Peace Action applauds the Obama Administration's vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. In his speech, Vice President Biden rightly focused on negotiating and ratifying a new START treaty, ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), increasing funding to secure nuclear weapons and moving towards a treaty to ban fissile materials.
"Despite independent analysis that the U.S. stockpile is secure and reliable, Biden wrongly stated the need to 'modernize' nuclear weapons facilities. Instead of spending $7 billion on facilities to upgrade nuclear weapons, that money would be more wisely spent on increasing the rate of dismantling the U.S. stockpile. Fewer nuclear weapons makes Americans safer and sends the right message to the rest of the world.
"We hope the President takes advantage of the upcoming nuclear security summit and the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review conference to start negotiating an international agreement to finally rid the world of nuclear weapons. Tens of thousands of people from around the world will be at the NPT call for just that."
Peace Action is the United States' largest peace and disarmament organization with over 100,000 members and nearly 100 chapters in 34 states, works to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs and encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights.
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Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
Dec 12, 2024
Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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