Overspending on military causes drastic cuts in important social programs like education and housing, according to community members at a meeting of the Fenway Community Development Corporation on Saturday.
Supporting the meeting’s theme of ‘too many guns, not enough butter,’ speakers argued that too many taxes are going to military spending at the expense of programs like subsidized housing, health care coverage and schooling. At the same time, citizens continue to pay heavy taxes to finance increased military spending.
The Fenway share of the military budget is close to $30 million, which could be used for 118 units of affordable housing or six new community centers and 478 new teachers.
Combined with Bush’s tax cuts, which the CDC said favored the rich, this escalates to increased taxing of the poor and decreased programs for the poor, according to main speaker Mike Prokosh, member of United for a Fair Economy.
‘There is an increasing pattern of services being cut, while the burden of taxes is being shifted to poorer people. This means that the poorer are getting more of the tax burden, but getting less for it,’ Prokosh said.
The poor would also suffer since they will have weaker safety nets with the decreased spending. In addition, immigrants would be disadvantaged because in mobilizing for the war, ‘racial scapegoating will occur.’
‘In short, everybody’s losing because even the wealthy depend on services the community provides,’ said CDC member Sonya White.
Prokosh said Bush’s domestic policies paralleled those of Ronald Reagan, whose presidency Prokosh called a ‘sharp break from what was happening before.’
‘The belief in the ‘Reagan Revolution’ was that there was too much intervention,’ he said. ‘The government was meant to protect you and your property, and provide no social programs.’
This outlook resulted in a sharp increase in military spending with many tax cuts, then leading to ‘enormous deficits,’ according to Prokosh.
‘It’s like maxing out your credit card while the boss is cutting your hours,’ Prokosh said of Reagan’s domestic policies. Prokosh used Reagan’s housing cuts to demonstrate how national policies can affect local communities.
‘The cuts were class-targeted and racially targeted too, since a disproportionate amount of those living in poorer communities are people of color,’ he said. ‘If you’re wondering why there’s no affordable housing in the Fenway, this is a big reason.’
Prokosh said Bush has also cut Medicare and student loans, and states now have a greater burden to finance social programs since they will no longer have incoming federal funds.
Prokosh said Americans are willing to sacrifice valuable programs in the name of defense out of ‘fear of terrorism or being attacked.’ The public is too caught up in the war to remain aware of federal budget cuts, he said.
‘War is a weapon of mass distraction,’ he said.
The Fenway CDC is an organization formed to unite the residents of the Fenway area and provide various services to those needing it. The CDC owns community centers and is proposing to build a school exclusively for the Fenway community.
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