Washington, D.C. — April 17, 2018 — On Tax Day, Paul Kawika Martin, Senior Director for Policy and Political Affairs at Peace Action, released the following statement:

“As people across the nation pay taxes and tighten their belts accordingly, it bares remembering that an astronomical amount of our tax dollars, roughly $1 trillion, are spent on war, while a small fraction of that pays for diplomacy and other alternatives to war. Congress appropriates more for U.S. military spending than the next eight countries combined, but year after year refuses to adequately invest in access to quality education and healthcare for millions of Americans, infrastructure spending, and alternative energy. As a result, arms industry executives make out like bandits while programs that provide essential services for most Americans remain drastically underfunded, as do development and diplomacy programs that help end wars and prevent them in the first place.”

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Founded in 1957, Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States’ largest peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 36 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights and support nonmilitary solutions to international conflicts. The public may learn more and take action at www.PeaceAction.org.

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