Ellen Barfield of Veterans for Peace in Baltimore, Md., said that there is no legal way for taxpayers to withhold the tax money that goes to war or military, but that there is an effort to pass a bill every year to allow it. Sue Udry of United for Peace and Justice said that Rep. Nydia Velasquez has passed a bill to allow people to require that the portion of their taxes that would go to occupying Iraq instead go to certain useful programs.
One sharp questioner asked why Congress should listen to this assembled group now, when it hasn't for 5 years. Frankel said that the people did stop the Vietnam War and can stop this one. Moore said that the local officials gathered here are listening to the people, and that Congress needs to get out of the bubble it lives in, for its own good. Chuck Turner from Boston, Mass., said the people's voices are getting louder. In Boston, he said, they are witnessing the planned destruction of public housing. Federal programs for youth in those housing projects have been eliminated. Washington has pushed for the privatization of public housing. The housing authority no longer has the funds to provide people with electricity for a full day.
Some of this would sound familiar to residents of Baghdad.
We're off to march to the White House!
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