Double the CDC Budget
The spread of COVID-19 has exposed a rot at the center of American society: that we siphon 55% of our discretionary budget into the Pentagon — $738 billion — while we allocate only 1.5% of that — $11 billion — to the Centers for Disease Control. Tell Congress to double the CDC’s budget by cutting money to the Pentagon.
Dear Congress:
In 2018 the Trump administration disbanded its global health security team. At the same time, the Administration asked for a 10 percent budget cut to the CDC's center for animal-to-human transmitted infectious diseases in 2018, a 19 percent cut in 2019, and a 20 percent cut in 2020. As the CDC’s budget was being cut, the U.S. military budget increased by $82 billion in 2020. While we spend $738 billion on the Pentagon (even before the Trump administration, enormous military spending was the order of the day), the CDC budget is ridiculously small.
I ask to immediately double the CDC’s budget and to take that money from the Pentagon. Additionally, we must immediately remove U.S. troops from Iraq. The Iraqi parliament wants the U.S. military out of their country and the U.S. public wants the U.S. military out of Iraq. The money and resources we use for the military only feeds endless wars and wrecks havoc overseas. Now, with COVID-19, it is putting the U.S. public, and the world’s health in peril.
Thank you,