skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Where are Your Federal Tax Dollars Going?

play audio
Play

Tuesday, April 15, 2014   

CHICAGO - As they put their taxes in the mail today, some Illinoisans will join others across the world for a Global Day of Action on Military Spending. According to Mary Zerkel, co-coordinator of the Wage Peace campaign of the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago, 57 percent of all U.S. discretionary dollars go to the Pentagon, while critical human service needs such as education and health care are underfunded.

"We all pay taxes because we want to have a safe and secure society for us all to live, in so we pay taxes to make sure that we have the things that we need as a community," Zerkel said, "but I think people are increasingly starting to reflect, 'Where are those hard-earned tax dollars going?'"

According to the National Priorities Project, in 2013 the average taxpayer in Illinois paid more than $12,000 in federal taxes, with more than a third of it going to fund the military. In Illinois, a Tax Day educational event will be held at the Evanston Post Office, one of dozens of events nationwide bringing attention to federal budget priorities.

Zerkel said the sequestration process put caps on both domestic spending and the military budget. While human services suffered from the cuts, she said, money continued to flow to the military through the Overseas Contingency Operations Fund, which is exempt from spending caps.

"While those wars are actually winding down, that amount of spending has actually gone up because what they're doing is transferring money from the base budget of the Pentagon on things like operations and equipment and they're putting it into this OCO, this Overseas Contingency Operation fund," she charged.

Zerkel said billions of tax dollars are going to the Pentagon that could be used to strengthen communities and help those Americans in need of food or shelter. She declared that there is too much wasteful spending, including that on the F-35 warplane, which has cost $1.5 trillion, double the original price, and is ten years behind schedule.

"Let's stop these budget gimmicks, let's stop all this wasted money, and let's start moving that money from spending it on wars and huge expensive weapons systems and use it to start funding things that we need for true security in our communities," she said.

It's estimated that in 2012, global military spending amounted to $1.75 trillion.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021