In light of recent events, Roots Action helps you tell your Congressfolk to move money away from military spending and toward the kind of spending -- on education, science, fighting pollution, et cetera -- that actually sustains a civilization. Reps. Lee (D-CA) and Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have proposed moving $350 billion and Sen. Sanders (I-VT) has proposed moving $74 billion, and in a nation that spends more than half of its discretionary budget on its military, either proposal would do us all a lot of good. If your Tea Party uncle retorts with we ain't free without soldiers, remind him that the above-described proposals don't zero out military funding, and that military spending is, really, a band-aid solution to problems that smarter investment in our future -- as investing in education and clean air/clean water regulations most assuredly is -- could have prevented in the first place. Yes, ensuring that good Americans get the good services they deserve from their own tax money does prevent a lot of problems. Certainly it's better than dreaming up ways to convince us that giving more of our tax money away as corporate welfare is somehow good for us.
p>Meanwhile, despite taking over a year just to form a government, Israel still schemes to annex about a third of the West Bank, and our government plans on helping them in this nefarious end. (If you fly into a rage whenever someone criticizes Israel, just navigate away from this page. Seriously! I have no time for people who see everything as an opportunity to start a pissing match.) Naturally, our Congressfolk would like to help Israel out via S. 3176, though Americans are fairly ambivalent toward Israel these days and Israel's let's-get-tough act sure hasn't made it secure. Could the failure of Mr. Netanyahu to form a government for over a year signal that Israelis themselves are more than ready for real change? Possibly from a potential leader who isn't merely Netanyahu-Lite like Benny Gantz is? I like to be optimistic, but, you know, I've been disappointed before. Hence Jewish Voice for Peace helps you tell your Congressfolk to reject Israeli annexation of Palestine by rejecting S. 3176. I don't know who ain't got the memo yet, but Americans ain't putting up with the limited choices Our Glorious Elites have been offering anymore. And that'll be true even if our President gets re-elected.Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to reject our Administration's so-called "Eagle" plan to give Americans money today in exchange for reduced Social Security benefits in the future, then Social Security Works still helps you do that. I bet you know someone who says so what? Shouldn't we let people make their own decisions? You need only answer that question with another question: "so if a burglar breaks into a house and offers one of the residents a few bucks in exchange for letting them steal stuff from everyone, we should just let them make their own decisions?" The "Eagle" plan would give some people a little money now in exchange for reduced benefits later, but where's this "now" money coming from in the first place? It's coming from us, just like those stimulus payments ultimately came from us, just as (by definition!) all taxpayer money comes from us. If they ultimately decide to take that "now" money right out of Social Security Trust Fund or via the payroll tax cuts our President won't STFU about, well, that'd just be icing on the cake, wouldn't it? Let's act now, so we're not thinking about all that when we're 80 and living in a cardboard box.
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