HomeMy WebLinkAbout037-R-1741l4/2017
37-R-17
A RESOLUTION
Urging the United States Congress to Move Our Tax Dollars from
Militarism to Human and Environmental Needs
WHEREAS, President Trump proposes to move $54 billion from human
and environmental spending at home and abroad to military spending, bringing military
spending to well over 60% of federal discretionary spending; and
WHEREAS, to help alleviate the refugee crisis the United States should
be ending, not escalating, wars that create refugees; and
WHEREAS, President Trump admits that the enormous military spending
of the past 16 years has been disastrous and made us less safe; and
WHEREAS, fractions of the proposed military budget could provide free,
top-quality education from pre-school through college, end hunger and starvation on
earth, convert the U.S. to clean energy, provide clean drinking water everywhere it is
needed on the planet, build fast trains between all major U.S. cities, and double non-
military U.S. foreign aid rather than cutting it; and
WHEREAS, one hundred and twenty-one retired U.S. generals have
written a letter opposing cutting foreign aid; and
WHEREAS, a December 2014 Gallup poll of 65 nations found that the
United States was considered the largest threat to peace in the world; and
WHEREAS, by providing clean drinking water, schools, medicine, and
solar panels to others the United States would be more secure and face far less
hostility around the world; and
urgent; and
have; and
37-R-17
WHEREAS, our environmental and human needs are desperate and
WHEREAS, the military is itself the greatest consumer of petroleum we
WHEREAS, economists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
have documented that military spending is an economic drain rather than a jobs
program.
NOW BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
EVANSTON, COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS:
SECTION 1: The foregoing recitals are hereby found as fact and
incorporated herein by reference.
SECTION 2: The City of Evanston, Illinois, urges the United States
Congress to move our tax dollars in exactly the opposite direction proposed by the
President, from militarism to human and environmental needs.
SECTION 3: Copies of this Resolution shall be transmitted to the
President of the United States, the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of
the U.S. House of Representatives, members of the U.S. Congress representing
Evanston, and any other appropriate elected officials.
SECTION 4: This Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and
after its passage and approval, in the manner provided by law.
Eliz th B. Tisdahl, Mayor
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Attest*
R6dney Gr 7ne,
City Clerk
Adopted:�%l �� ► , 2017
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37-R-17