Dear John,

In the wealthiest country on the planet, poverty is a policy choice. Every dollar invested in war, every tax break for billionaires, and every dollar “saved” by cutting social programs is choosing to continue poverty.

But we can make different choices.

This month, as lawmakers wrestled over the fine print of their budget deal, hundreds of people from more than 30 states joined the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, DC to strategize, study, and walk the halls of Congress to demand more for poor and low-income people in this country.

Activists with the Poor People’s Campaign are demanding more investment in solutions to poverty, full voting rights and solutions to systemic racism, the end of environmental degradation — and the end to war and the culture of militarism that threatens to bankrupt our morals just as much as our federal coffers.

This is a powerful movement, and stands to gain more power the larger it grows. According to new fact sheets we produced with our colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies, poor and low-income people make up more than 40 percent of the population in 13 states: California, Mississippi, New Mexico, Florida, Hawaii, New York, Georgia, Alaska, Louisiana, Texas, Nevada, Arkansas, and North Carolina.

When activists with the Poor People’s Campaign walked the halls of Congress this month, they made their case using these fact sheets — one for every state — to every member of Congress they met with, to illustrate the extent of our problems and to put forward solutions.

Among others, here are some of the solutions championed by the Poor People’s Campaign, taken from National Priorities Project data:

A ten percent reduction in the current $920 billion military budget could cover Medicaid for all of the 15-18 million adults now at risk of losing their health insurance.
In 2023, taxpayers will give $26 billion for deportations and border control, a sum that could instead cover the cost of subsidies for more than 3 million public housing units.
The $40 billion going to the biggest weapons contractor, Lockheed Martin, could pay the salaries of more than 440,000 schoolteachers.

With lawmakers gearing up to fight over funding for war and deportations versus social programs in the coming months, it’s critical that they hear from real people about the priorities that will really make our society strong.

In solidarity,

Lindsay, Ashik, Alliyah, & the NPP team

TRADEOFF: MILITARY VS. MEDICAID

The end of pandemic policies that expanded Medicaid access is putting millions of Americans at risk of losing their health care — including over 5 million children, 6.6 million white people, 4.6 million Hispanic/Latino people, 2.2 million Black people, and over 500,000 Asian and Native people.

Meanwhile, a ten percent reduction in the current $920 billion military budget could cover Medicaid for ALL of the 15-18 million adults now at risk of losing their health insurance. Check out our state-by-state fact sheets with more tradeoffs.

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https://www.nationalpriorities.org/blog/2023/06/28/peek-poor-people-campaigns-moral-poverty-action-congress/

A PEEK INTO THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN MORAL POVERTY ACTION CONGRESS

If there’s one thing the Poor People’s Campaign knows how to do, it’s energizing a room full of people with hearty music and mesmerizing messages.

Starting on Juneteenth, hundreds of people assembled for a multi-day Moral Action Poverty Congress, including organizer trainings and a panel discussion about the poverty crisis, including why being poor and low-income is one of the major leading causes of death in the U.S.

On the second day, we learned about the policy choice of poverty using the new fact sheets that NPP co-created. Hundreds of the same advocates then visited House and Senate offices, with fact sheets in hand, and urged lawmakers that a Third Reconstruction is necessary. The final day culminated in the reintroduction of the resolution for a Third Reconstruction, a bill led by key lawmakers Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Barbara Lee, to end poverty.

Read more on NPP’s blog.

REPUBLICANS WAGE CULTURE WARS
AROUND MILITARY INSTITUTIONS

It’s NDAA season — and while it’s alarming enough that this annual military policy bill keeps unaccountably ballooning the Pentagon budget year after year, this year Republicans are using this bill to intensify their crusade against trans rights and racial justice.

In the House Armed Services version of the National Defense Authorization Act that recently passed with a $874 billion budget request, Republicans want to codify a newly enforced Pentagon ban on drag shows, further stigmatizing LGBTQ+ people, and going after diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts that are meant to support people of color.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court just issued a 6-3 decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions — with one key exemption for military academies. The decision reverses a policy that for decades has allowed Black and brown students in the United States more opportunities to participate in society, yet the exemption makes it so that diversity only matters when it comes to who is expected to risk their lives for this country.