" ...Current spending on the military is four times as much as the government spends on housing, education, job training, community development, and the environment combined. It is sixteen times the amount spent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the main federal welfare program, which consumes just one percent of all federal outlays.
"...Recent public opinion surveys indicate that a majority of Americans are opposed to increasing military spending. They regard the military budget as an appropriate target for cuts to reduce the deficit.... A smaller U.S. military force structure based upon a more realistic assessment of security threats could produce budgetary savings of more than $500 billion below the spending plans of the President and the Congress over the next seven years."
(Publisher's comment: I highly recommend that you subscribe to this important journal. This particular issue has a "Guns vs. Butter" section which vividly illustrates what Michio Kushi means when he writes about "unhealthy" minds. Here is just one item: "For the total cost of the Clinton Administration's proposed FY 1996 military budget ($258 billion)...you could pay the operating costs for most of the nation's 6,500 hospitals for one year or fund Aid to Families with Dependent Children at its current funding level for 16 years.")
Center for Defense Information
1500 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 862-0700; fax (202) 862-0708
e-mail: cdi@igc.apc.org