Move the Money

The most efficient way to reduce military emissions is to reduce the military.

The Move the Money campaign is a grassroots campaign promoting activists to urge their local  city, town, or council/board of supervisors to endorse a Move the Money Resolution, which will be sent to their Members of Congress (MOC) and the U.S. President (POTUS). 

The resolution, which should be revised to pertain to your local government, instructs that POTUS and their local MOC(s) move significant funds away from the military budget in order to fund social services, fight and adapt to the climate crisis, etc. It also should call for public hearings to inform the public how the basic needs of local residents are unmet because of wasteful government funding of the Pentagon.

This local initiative is in support of the People Over Pentagon Act, which calls for reallocation of $100 billion from the Pentagon (https://peopleoverpentagon.org/bill/ ). “The $100 billion figure references a 2021 CBO report that demonstrates how this money could be cut from the Pentagon without impacting security. The bill exempts troop pay and the Defense Health Agency.” 

Some examples of this campaign are:

 

For an entertaining campaign description Watch Uncle Devin's Move the Money rap on YouTube and SHARE IT.

Template of resolution is below and can be downloaded (_______). Revise it as you wish but keep your resolution short, no more than one page. 

 

*********************************************************************

Downloadable Template

 

Move the Money Resolution – _____Date______

BY COUNCIL MEMBER _________

 

RESOLUTION CALLING ON CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT TO MOVE SIGNIFICANT FUNDS  AWAY FROM MILITARY BUDGET TO FUND SOCIAL SERVICES AND WELFARE 

Whereas, In 2023 the President Biden administration submitted a Department of Defense budget request of $842 billion for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 which Congress increased to $886 billion – more than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, and Ukraine combined; and

Whereas, the Pentagon budget nears $1 trillion, the Department of Defense announced it has failed its 6th audit and can’t account for half of their assets; and

Whereas, according to the National Priorities Project, cutting $100 billion from the Pentagon budget could pay for: the clean energy and childcare provisions in the Build Back Better initiative; power every household in the United States with solar energy; hire one million elementary school teachers; furnish free tuition for 2 out of 3 public college students in the U.S.; and could send every household in the U.S. a $700 check to help offset effects of inflation; and

Whereas, U.S. Representative [your local MOC & district] and U.S. Representative [your local MOC & district] are cosponsors of the People Over Pentagon Act of 2023 (H.R. 1134), which removes $100 billion from the Department of Defense budget; and 

Whereas, In June 2017, the United States Conference of Mayors, including your mayor if he signed, unanimously passed a resolution calling upon all cities to hold public hearings on the ways that the federal defense budget hampers local spending on essential social services [replace with your local mayor]; and

Whereas, residents of _____ have a right to know and publicly comment on how their tax dollars are spent and which services they want funded and prioritized; and

Whereas, _____  would benefit if the federal government spent less on the military and more on transportation, education, housing, healthcare, environmental protection, and public goods and services,

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of _____ calls on Congress and the President to move significant funds away from the military budget in order to fund social services, and to hold in-depth public hearings on the basic human needs of City residents that are unmet because of government appropriations for the Pentagon.

 

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

“A nation that continues, year after year, to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

secret