Center for Campus Organizing Challenge The Lie$: New Priorities Campaign '97

REFERENCES TO THE LIES SERIES, UPDATED 2/14/97

Note: Many of these facts may also be cited from other, more mainstream sources.
  1. The $265.6 figure for 1996 was cited in "U.S. Military Spending, 1945-1996," fact sheet prepared by Martin Calhoun, Center for Defense Information, April 2, 1996. This figure includes military spending for nuclear weapons under the authority of the Department of Energy. The War Resisters League came up with an even higher estimate for 1996 by including funding for the CIA and half of the funding for NASA.

    In 1991, General Colin Powell was quoted, "We no longer have the luxury of having a threat to plan for." Below are the military budgets of all the countries the Pentagon defines as potential adversaries, as listed in the report World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1995:

    Iraq3 billionSyria3 billion
    Libya1 billionCuba0.3 billion
    North Korea6 billionIran2 billion
    Total : $15.6 billion

    Multipled by 17, this comes to $265.2 billion, still less than the United States military budget.

    Cutting the $265.6 billion figure in half would free $132.8 Billion. Of that figure, $80 billion could be used to cut the deficit in half. According to the House Budget Committee, April 1996, the deficit for 1996 was $160 billion. This would leave $52.8 billion. After doubling the $26.7 billion budget for Housing Assistance in 1995 cited by the Statistical Abstract of the U.S, we would have $26.1 billion left. This would more than double federal spending on student aid. 1994-5 student aid spending included approximately $8 billion in grants and work-study, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2, 1996. We estimate the amount of federal money spent on subsidizing student loan programs to be $5-$10 billion per year, out of an annual loan volume of approximately $25 billion.

  2. For information on congressional control of Congress, see "Armed for Profit," The Boston Globe, special 12-page report. Feb. 11, 1996. According to a July update by Washington, DC-based 20/20 Vision, military contractors gave $8.5 million in 1993 and 1994 to congressional campaigns.

  3. See Weiner, Tim. Blank Check. New York: Warner Books, 1991. $28 Billion estimate is from Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. The Eisenhower quote is from his farewell address, as printed in the New York Times, January 22, 1961.

  4. Based on an estimate by William Hartung on page 6 of "Welfare for Weapons Dealers: The Hidden Costs of the Arms Trade," Arms Trade Resource Center of the World Policy Institute, New School for Social Research, 1996. Hartung estimated subsidies to be $7.138 billion in FY 1995, plus almost $500 million for promotion. 1996 figures are expected to be about the same, since the policies have not changed significantly. A good article on military companies building weapons overseas is contained in "Armed for Profit," op. cit. The point about U.S. troops facing U.S-made weapons is based on a point made in a speech at the Peace Action national conference made by executive director Gordon Clark on May 18, 1996.

  5. The less than 2% figure for AFDC is based on dividing the $22 billion AFDC budget, as quoted in the Boston Globe, 2/95, into the total federal budget, which is approximately $1.5 trillion. The social security shortfall is based on statistics from chief actuary of the Social Security administration, Harry Ballantine. He said in a conversation with Hans Riemer of Save our Security that, averaged over the next 75 years, the current SSI deficit is 2.17% of payroll and the ceiling on wages subject to social security tax is $62,700. If you removed the ceiling, so that SSI tax became a "flat tax," without increasing benefits for wealthy people, the SSI deficit would only be 0.22% of payroll. Hans Riemer can be reached at 202-624-9558.

  6. See article by William Hartung in The Nation, 6/19/95, and the followup article, "Pumping Up the Pentagon," Dollars and Sense, May/June 1996.

  7. See Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2, 1996, p. 16 for the $32.7 billion figure for generally available aid, 1994-5. Approximately half of this figure comes from the federal government; $8 billion was for grants and work-study in 1994-5. We estimate the amount of federal money spent on subsidizing student loan programs to be $5-$10 billion per year, out of an annual loan volume of approximately $25 billion. For Pentagon funding, see "U.S. Military Spending, 1945-1996," op. cit.

  8. Baker, Dean, and Todd Schafer, The Case for Public Investment. Washington, D.C., Economic Policy Institute, 1990, p. 4.

  9. See Waldman, Steven, "How Washington Tries to Strangle Even the Best Idea," Washington Monthly, Jan./Feb. 1995. For prison statistic, see Covert Action Quarterly, Fall 1995, p. 58.

  10. This information is from "Pulp Fact," from Otherwise, April 18-May 1, 1996, p. 4. This newsletter is published in Boston, from the offices of Tax Equity Alliance of Massachusetts, 617-482-2484. Prison information is from the Mass. Dept. of Corrections.

  11. Bryants and Wilhite survey quoted in "The Myth of Military Economic Opportunity," flyer by Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO), 655 Sutter #514, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-474-3002.

  12. For background information on balanced budget targets, see the web page of the U.S. House Budget committee, located in the House web-site at http://www.house.gov.

  13. Troops spending statistic is from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September/October 1995, p. 40. For the aid statistic, we the calculation follows:

    From the Statistical Abstract of the US, 1995, Table 285:
    1980 Pell Grants: $2.39 billion, 2.7 million recipients.
    1980 Work Study: $0.66 billion, 819 thousand recipients.
    1980 totals: Funding of $3.047 billion, 3.07 million recipients.

    $993 per recipient, $1831 in 1995 dollars

    From the Statistical Abstract of the US, 1995:
    1993 Pell Grants: $5.68 billion, 3.54 million recipients.
    1993 Work Study: $0.81 billion, 908 thousand recipients.
    1993 totals: Funding of $6.49 billion, 3.95 million recipients.

    $1,644 per recipient, $1733 in 1995 dollars

    Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2, 1996, p. 14
    1995 Pell Grants: $5.65 billion, 3.7 million recipients.
    1995 Work Study: $0.76 billion, 713 thousand recipients.
    1995 totals: Funding of $6.41 billion, 4.13 million recipients.

    $1,551 per recipient, 1995 dollars.

  14. The figure for $3.2 billion in UN funding for troops and forces used for "peacekeeping" in 1995 is cited in "United Nations Peacekeeping: A National Security Bargain," a fact sheet by the Project on Peacekeeping and the United Nations, Council for a Liveable World, Washington, DC, August, 1996. Of this amount, $1 billion comes from the U.S. State Department budget; zero comes from the U.S. DOD budget.

  15. See Blowback, by Christopher Shea.

  16. See Leasing the Ivory Tower by Larry Soley. Also Cowan, Rich, "Academic Unincorporated," Z Magazine, February 1990.

  17. from "Warning: Joining the Military is Hazardous to..." flyer by CCCO, 655 Sutter #514, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-474-3002. Based on information from the Veterans Administration of the U.S. government.

  18. See Table 11 in Anderson, Marion, Greg Bischak, and Michal Oden, "Converting the American Economy," available from Employment Research Associates, 968 Roxburgh Ave., E. Lansing, MI 48823-3131 for $8. Also recommended: "Running Up the Down Escalator: Young People in the American Economy," for $4.

  19. See "Here We Go Again," Steven Brower and Jennifer Krieff, The Nation, Aug. 26/Sept. 2, 1996. Professor Richard B. Du Boff, Dept. of Economics, Bryn Mawr College, letter to Rich Cowan, 3/30/95.

  20. See flyer by Zoltan Grossman, "US Military Intervention 1945-1990". The economic critique of US intervention can be found in the work of Michael Parenti. See Against Empire, City Lights Books, 1995. The Smedley Butler quote is often referenced; it appeared in an article by Gore Vidal called "The End of History," Nation, September 30, 1996, p. 16.

  21. For more information contact the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network at (202) 328-3244.

  22. See Scapegoat Generation, Common Courage Press for information on causes of teenage pregnancy.

  23. Boston Globe statistic was cited earlier. Budget Statistics are from Professor Richard B. Du Boff. of Bryn Mawr, in 3/30/95 letter to CCO, from 1995 Economic Report of the President, Table B-1 and B-2.

    Assumption: 55% of work-study recipients receive pell grants, as was true in 1992-3. Inflation rates adjusted using the Consumer Price Index from in the Statistical Abstract of the U.S.


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