News Release, For More Information, Contact:
Will Hopkins, (603) 228-0559 (office)
Arnie Alpert, (603) 224-2407 (office)
MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE — Excessive spending on nuclear weapons and other military programs is the theme of a Tax Day leaflet that NH Peace Action, NH Citizens Alliance, and the American Friends Service Committee will distribute on Monday, April 18, outside the Manchester and Concord offices of Senators Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen, and Representatives Frank Guinta and Annie Kuster.
“At a time when veterans’ health care, infrastructure repair, and other urgent programs are badly under-funded, we want New Hampshire taxpayers to know that Congress has plans to spend a trillion dollars on a new generation of nuclear weapons systems that will do nothing for American security,” said Will Hopkins, Executive Director of NH Peace Action and an Iraq war veteran.
Members of the three groups plan to assemble on the sidewalk outside Senator Ayotte’s Elm Street, Manchester office atnoon on Monday. At 12:30 pm they will walk around the corner to Senator Shaheen’s office on Wall Street. They will visit Representative Guinta’s Lowell Street office at 1:00 pm. Finally, they will assemble outside Representative Kuster’s South Main Street office in Concord at 2:00 pm.
At each location, they will offer to pedestrians a leaflet with information on the vast amounts the federal government spends on military programs. They will also present leaflets to staff inside each office.
“It’s time for a new vision of American security,” said Kary Jencks, Executive Director of NH Citizens Alliance. “The security of working families comes from decent pay in the workplace, affordable and quality health care, and secure retirement, all of which are imperiled when more than half of the discretionary budget goes to military programs,” she added.
According to the annual report on global military spending from the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, the United States spends more on military programs as the next seven countries, and “four of them are our close military allies,” said Arnie Alpert, co-director of the American Friends Service Committee’s New Hampshire Program.
“On Tax Day, we are telling our members of Congress it’s time to turn away from excessive spending on weapons and war and to turn toward education, health, and creation of good jobs in the civilian economy,” he said.
Alpert added that the activities in Manchester and Concord are coordinated with the “Global Day of Action on Military Spending.”
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