american pie

Ben & Jerry's chair ben cohen was on washington journal this morning to talk about the company's american pie, which advocates shifting some nuke weapon spending to education, children's health, reducing poverty, &c.

here's what i copied from their website:

Ben & Jerry's Thoughts on...
...Federal Spending and American Pie

America stands first in nuclear defense capabilities and first in nuclear defense expenditures among industrialized countries. And it's not even close!

But America ranks only...
14th in efforts to lift children out of poverty;
18th in the percentage of children in poverty;
And last (yes, last!) in providing health insurance for all children.

It might make you wonder if something is out-of-whack with the U.S. federal discretionary spending pie. Perhaps some slices are too big, while others are too small?

Consider these facts: The United States spends nearly $30 billion annually on nuclear deterrence, including strategic and tactical nuclear weapons and missile defense systems. That's about the same amount we spent, on average, during the Cold War that ended sixteen years ago.

Our nuclear stockpile today includes nearly 10,000 warheads. Their destructive force would stack up against 150,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

Meanwhile, according to the experts, as much as $13 billion could be cut from U.S. nuclear spending each year without compromising our national security or our standing as the world's strongest nuclear power.

We think those funds would be better invested in programs that benefit America's children.

Just $1 billion a year would be enough to fully immunize every two-year old who has not already been vaccinated against preventable childhood disease.
$2 billion annually could provide health insurance for 1 million of America's 9 million uninsured children.
$5 billion a year would allow us to cover Head Start for every eligible child not currently enrolled in the program.

It's as easy as pie to visualize the possibilities...

We believe there's ample opportunity in the Federal budget to do what's right for America's kids.

Don't you?

Tell Congress to...

• Step up and deliver a budget that supports our children as well as our national defense.
• Re-order Federal spending priorities to ensure that America's children get a bigger slice of the pie.

Speak your piece. Take action at the Children's Defense Fund

Thanks to our friends at the Children's Defense Fund, the Center for Defense Information, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Priorities Project for helping us gather the information used in this position paper.

just to give you an idea of a typical right-wing response, the last caller of the program segment said [quoted as best i can from memory]:

for 40-odd years, liberals have whined about more money for education. in that time, the quality of schools has gone steadily downhill. what do you have to say to that?

gee, how 'bout: looks like the libs might've been right!?