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U.S. Tax Day Materials
The US Congress and the President have been locked in cycles of brinkmanship over the federal budget priorities and deficits that have brought the vast and wasteful Pentagon budget into public scrutiny. The general public overwhelmingly supports cuts to military spending when shown the facts and the trade offs between human services and the Pentagon. There is a broad and growing movement of peace, community and economic justice groups pushing for new federal budget priorities. This makes GDAMS and Tax Day in the US a particularly auspicious occasion this year.
We will stand with the rest of the world to bear witness to the fact that military spending, especially the impact of US military spending stands as the major obstacle to addressing the crisis problems all of our peoples face globally.
Resources:
Tax Day Resources: National Priorities Project released a Tax Day analysis to help see where 2012 federal income taxes were spent.
In addition:
- a tax receipt for individuals to see how each personally contributed to programs ranging from WIC to nuclear weapons,
- an all-new version of Trade-Offs tool to see how much taxpayers in each city or town paid in 2012 toward a variety of federal programs – and what else that money could buy,
- and finally, an animated video If Paychecks Could Talk…because if they could, they’d explain that the taxes we pay fund programs like clean water, health care, and roads and bridges.
On April 15,Tax Day and the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, events from street corner vigils, educational forums, informational leafleting and meetings with legislators will occur in 43 countries,and in the US in 31 states, and 68 cities and towns.
Thunderclap: We are also creating a huge echo chamber online that will draw people into action far beyond our numbers at the actions across the country with aThunderclap! https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/1792-our-tax-day-not-theirs
What is Thunderclap? The Thunderclap is a tool that puts a message out on Twitter and Facebook at the same time on one day. On Tax Day, a message will be sent calling on people to contact Congress to say: “Our tax $ should go to the programs we need, not Pentagon waste.”
It takes, two shakes of a lamb’s tail to sign up here: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/1792-our-tax-day-not-theirs
Sample daily tweets/Facebook posts: below are sample Tweets to build engagement in the April 15 Tax Day actions.
April 11 - Save Social Security. Cut waste from the Pentagon first. Tax Day Thunderclap on #Pentagonwaste http://bit.ly/XqyFqk
Social Security is a necessity, is the F35? Act on Apr 15 to cut #Pentagonwaste. Go to Demilitarize.org for locations.
April 12 - Tax Day: Send Congress a message. Human needs, not #Pentagonwaste. For a demo near you go to Demilitarize.org
Sign-up for Tax Day Thunderclap on #Pentagonwaste http://bit.ly/XqyFqk
April 13 - Tax Day: a day of action for jobs, not war, #Pentagonwaste. Go to Demilitarize.org.
April 14 - Apr 15: where do our taxes go? http://bit.ly/XqA541 Go to Demilitarize.org. for a demo in your hometown. #Pentagonwaste
Have you filed your taxes? No worries, still time to file & protest federal spending on wars & weapons. Go to Demilitarize.org. #Pentagonwaste
April 15 - File your taxes and take action on Tax Day. Find an action in your community at Demilitarize.org. #Pentagonwaste
Flyers
- Our Tax Day, Not Theirs (PDF-English), (Spanish)
- No Taxes for the F35 (word document-English), (PDF-English), (Spanish)
Fact Sheets
- F35 Talking Points
- B61 Life Extension Program - Peace Action
- Sequestration State Fact Sheets 2013 - Coalition on Human Needs. Fact sheets and on the impact of sequestration cuts across all 50 states.
- Sequestration, the Pentagon and the States - NPP fact sheets for 22 states.
- Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes: U.S. Federal Budget 2014 Fiscal Year – Courtesy of War Resisters League
Training Curriculum
Peace Action and the National Priorities Project (NPP) Move the Money curriculum Move the Money curriculum resources include:
- Training Curriculum: provides a detailed blueprint for conducting the training.
- Fact sheets and backgrounders on broad range of topics
Toolkit
- How to Organize a Town Hall Meeting
- American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Invest in People, Not the Pentagon Action Toolkit includes ideas/resources to take action and fact sheets.
Social Media Tools
Memes
Banner
20 foot US Federal Budget banner – AFSCShows the US discretionary federal budget and the more than 50% that goes to the military. Order one for your public events or display on your building.
News Articles
- When Money is No Object: the Strange Saga of the F-35
- F-35 Failures Pile Up
- Is The F-35 Really ‘The Only Plane’ After All?
- GAO analyst says cost overruns, delays continue to plague F-35 program
Handouts
The Plane that Ate the Budget - AFSC
Videos
- Rolling Out the Budget (AFSC) Where are your tax dollars going?
- Catastrophic Pentagon Cuts? Not Really. (FCNL) Sequestration and the Pentagon budget, explained
- If I Had a Trillion Dollars (IHTD) Youth Film Festival – AFSC and NPP. The IHTD festival includes short films made by youth speaking out about where their communities would rather spend the $1 trillion spent on war or the Pentagon budget.
Twitter judithleblanc
http://www.peace-action.org/
http://peaceblog.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/peaceaction
