Cole Leystra: we have to act now to seize the opportunity.

Robert,

The Republican answer for averting the "sequester" -- a huge glut of indiscriminate cuts to military spending and critical public services -- is to restore all military funding and cut programs like Social Security and Medicare to the bone.

There is absolutely no justification for making any cuts to the benefits hardworking American families have earned or are earning. But the Pentagon budget is full of wasteful programs that exist in large part because a defense lobbyist pushed for them.

We can help turn the self-made dysfunction of Washington, D.C. into a blow against utterly wasteful defense spending. But we have to act now to seize the opportunity.

Join our friends at USAction, and sign our joint petition to Congress. Tell legislators to cut wasteful Pentagon spending -- not Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits.

It has to make you wonder when members of Congress continually focus on slashing earned benefits for ordinary Americans, including our most vulnerable citizens, while refusing to cut a dime of wasteful defense spending.

The Pentagon budget, bloated by two expensive wars over the last decade, has been stuffed with special giveaways to corporate contractors, who have successfully shielded their pork-barrel projects with lavish campaign contributions -- over $26 million from defense interests in the last election alone.

But that shield won't protect them from the scheduled sequester cuts. That gives us more leverage than we have under normal conditions.

If we build enough pressure, we can take the lid off a needlessly sanctified -- and pointlessly wasteful -- portion of the federal budget.

Sign the petition to Congress: Cut wasteful Pentagon spending, not crucial benefits from Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

Thanks for uniting as a progressive,

Cole Leystra
Executive Director
Progressives United