Guns versus bread
Poor and working people need their money spent on human services, not war. New York City, Jan. 20, 2025.
Working and poor people in the U.S. are wondering every day about whether they can make ends meet and the added effect of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Gas prices, which are now astronomical, were one of the first things that popped in their faces. Workers are facing looming budget cuts. How has U.S. government spending — or lack of spending — affected people? How has this developed historically across the world?
The U.S. spent heavily on arming Western Europe against the Soviet Union during the period of the Cold War. Troops and weapons were spread across the continent, purportedly to deter the Soviet Union. U.S. imperialism now wants European countries to spend more on their militaries and turn the region into one big military base. Germany has spent much less on its military compared to the U.S., prioritizing cradle to grave health care and pensions for its people.
However, in Europe the population is aging faster; more time is spent collecting pensions due to longer life expectancies, making pensions cost more. As a result, countries raise taxes, cut benefits and borrow money — actions not popular with poor and working people. France will spend 3.5% of its budget to improve its military. That would require a 10% increase in taxes, including the wealth tax. France will likely cut spending for social services. Welfare spending is one-third of the French government’s budget, making things like “overhauling pensions” highly unpopular.
Europeans are now urgently demanding relief at the gas pump.
Here in the U.S., workers are also facing a crisis. Mary Kaessinger and Edward Yudelovich wrote in Workers World in 2017: “The looming budget cuts proposed in the U.S. Congress would decimate Medicaid, often a lifeline for elderly and disabled people. Loss of funding for needed services would mean a death sentence for untold numbers.” (workers.org/2017/07/32338/). The situation is far more dire in 2026. For example, right-wing capitalist politicians want to cut personal attendant services by $68 million. These funds enable people with disabilities to stay out of institutions and live in their own homes. Service Employees Union Local 1199 is among those mobilizing against this cut.
In the U.S., 6 million households receive assistance with heating and cooling bills, often from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federal aid program that President Donald Trump seeks to terminate. Instead, Trump wants to fund a larger and more expensive military: “military protection above all else” is his mantra. Overall, Trump wants to slash $73 billion next year in education, health care, childcare, food subsidies, etc., and increase the military by $400 billion. (costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/).
Eric Morrissette, former Acting Under Secretary of Commerce under the Biden-Harris Administration, explained: “In total, from October 2023 through September 2025, the U.S. spent between $9.65 billion and $12.07 billion on military activities across the wider Middle East.” This was before the current war on Iran. Morissette added, “Economists estimate that every $10 rise in crude translates to roughly 25 cents at the pump.”
This is on top of “an estimated average cost of $600 to $800 per household in 2026, with that figure rising toward $1,000 should remaining tariffs be made permanent, according to Yale Budget Lab’s analysis following the Supreme Court’s February 20th ruling on emergency tariffs.”
Morissette concluded that the cost of war “falls hardest on those who fill their tanks, buy their groceries and pay their bills: the poor, the underemployed and those least equipped to absorb rising prices and stagnant wages.” (Bay State Banner, March 26)
The seeds of an uprising are present. Let us continue to “Organize, organize, organize!”
