Published: March 12, 2008 11:11 am      

WAND to host authority on federal budget

Bobbie Wrenn Banks, education director of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND), headquartered in Boston, will be in Elkhart and St. Joseph counties through Monday as part of a 10-state tour designed to open the eyes of American citizens to the nation’s checkbook and how the federal government spends the citizenrys’ money.

“Ms. Banks will point out that the Pentagon consumes over a billion dollars a day and that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is costing $12 billion a month over and above that,” said Karen Jacob, president of WAND of Northern Indiana. “We have arranged a series of meetings where federal budget priorities including healthcare, education and other domestic services can be discussed. Constructive dialogue will be built toward redirecting excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs.

“The women of WAND focus their message on high-tech weapons systems designed to fight the Soviet Union during the Cold War. These expensive systems now do little or nothing to make us safer, yet claim billions of tax dollars while millions of Americans lack health insurance, bridges are collapsing, investment in alternative energy is needed, and our national debt stands at $9 trillion and growing.

“War costs are another concern. According to the National Priorities Project, taxpayers in Goshen have paid $36.4 million for the cost of the Iraq War thus far. That money could have provided health care for 17,249 children, or 4,883 scholarships for university students, or 381 affordable housing units, or 898 public safety officers.

“We can change this.”

Jacobs said that the meetings are nonpartisan and are open to men, as well as women.

Itinerary