Lehigh Valley Live – 07/29/2020 – Letter to the editor, by Nancy Tate

Last week 93 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 22 members of the U.S. Senate supported amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have cut 10% of the funds for the Pentagon, designating those funds instead for use in poorer communities for education, health care, and other pressing human needs.

While I am grateful that Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey was one of the 22 senators supporting this amendment, I am deeply disappointed that none of our other local representatives supported the amendment — not Reps. Susan Wild, Brian Fitzpatrick, Matt Cartwright or Tom Malinowski, and not Sen. Pat Toomey.

At 74 years old, I am impatient that we are still refusing to even cut $74 billion from the bloated military budget of $740 billion.

That $740 billion supports bullying actions from our 800 military bases around the world. It is way past time to get to the important work of creative diplomacy to resolve international differences without violence.

Why are we always able to find infinite amounts of money for guns — whether personally at the gun store, or for local policing, or for the greedy war profiteers — while we plead “no more money” to defeat the virus and deal with its impacts, to provide housing, to enact a Green New Deal, for Medicare For All, for a living wage for all workers, for childcare and education, for food assistance?

Nancy Tate

Riegelsville

View the letter on Lehigh Valley Live’s website: https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/2020/07/as-domestic-needs-pile-up-bloated-military-budget-keeps-growing-letter.html