By Laurie Gagne
Editor’s note: Laurie Gagne is the retired director for Edmundite Center for Peace and Justice at St. Michael’s College.
Investment in education, anti-poverty programs, and other human needs are essential to keeping our communities safe. My faith community, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, has worked in Vermont for decades on issues that affect our community. We are deeply aware of the importance of investment in people, which is why I am urging our federal legislators to cut our country’s obscene spending on weapons and war, and instead fund programs that bolster human wellbeing.
Our neighbors in Vermont face many threats to their wellbeing. About 77,000 Vermonters have student loan debt, 1 in 7 children in the state face hunger, and over 19,000 people weren’t covered by health insurance in 2021.
None of these problems can be solved by bombs, warplanes, or more military spending, but you wouldn’t guess that by looking at the federal budget. Despite the enormous threats posed by economic insecurity, hunger, and public health crises, the federal government continues to spend our taxpayer dollars on weapons and war instead of solving human problems.
Last year, the average Vermont taxpayer paid $1,615 for the military and $726.05 of that went to corporate military contractors. Compare that to the $501 per taxpayer spent on education, or the $235 for housing and community building. The budget spent inordinate amounts of money on violent solutions to conflict, but under-invested in the most pressing problems we face today, including poverty, hunger, and public health.
Our country is about to make the same mistake with the budget for 2023. President Biden’s request included $813 billion for weapons and war, a $31 billion increase over this year’s budget. And some members of Congress are pushing for an even higher level of spending on the military, despite many arguing that less expensive efforts to fix things like child poverty or the formula shortage cost too much.
Our political leadership needs to rethink our national budget, and ensure that it’s prioritizing the things that build sustainable wellbeing for our communities. This is a popular approach — a recent poll found that 56% of U.S. adults would support taking money out of the Pentagon, and moving it into spending on housing, healthcare, and education.
I am grateful for Vermont’s legislators, who have supported this position in the past. Senator Sanders regularly leads efforts that would make exactly these kinds of reinvestments. Senator Leahy and Rep. Welch have both voted to support cuts to the Pentagon budget and reinvestment into communities experiencing high levels of poverty.
This year, I urge them to continue the effort to cut the United States’ bloated spending on weapons and war, and to reinvest that money into our communities.
