GDAMS Tax Day Action Guide

8/7/2019 GDAMS Tax Day Action Guide

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www.newprioritiesnetwork.orgwww.demilitarize.or

ORGANIZING A TAX DAY EVENT

No Taxation without Demilitarization!

The Global Day of Action on Military Spending takes place on April 12, just days before thedeadline for Americans to file their taxes. The federal government is facing a huge deficit. Congressis calling for cuts in social services. States and cities are being forced to cut back.

But one sector continues to grow. The Obama administration is requesting a 3% increase inPentagon spending for 2012: $553 billion in baseline spending. Military spending accounts for 58%of discretionary spending and 20% of the federal total.

Most Americans don't realize that so much of their tax dollars go to the military. On April 12, youcan connect with people around the United States and around the world calling for reductions inmilitary spending and the transfer of those funds to fight the real threats of hunger, disease, andclimate change.

Here's an easy three-step event that you can do in your community. It doesn't require a lot ofpeople. But the more people who turn out, the better. It is designed to attract the press and alsoactively involve people.

Step One: Planning the Event

a) Choose a time and a place on April 12 for you event. It should be a well-trafficked spot city hall,

a downtown park, a major intersection.

b) Go to our MeetUp.com site (http://meetup.com/gdams) to sign up and establish a place whereparticipants can register to get involved. Send the MeetUp link to all your friends and contacts.

c) Design a press release you can use our template here and send it to your press contacts. Sendus an email and let us know what your plans are so that we can publicize them too as part of ournational and international promotion.

Step Two: Choosing the Visual

We want our events to attract attention from the media and from people on the street. Here aretwo eye-catching ways of showing military spending. We recommend that you start out the event byholding up these signs and make sure that you have them up when the media shows up.
http://newprioritiesnetwork.org/http://demilitarize.org/http://meetup.com/gdamshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/49105057/GDAMS-Tax-Day-Media-Advisoryhttp://newprioritiesnetwork.org/http://demilitarize.org/http://newprioritiesnetwork.org/http://demilitarize.org/


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a) Make 10-20 posters that represent discretionary spending in the United States.

Military spending 10 feetHealth and human services 1 foot, 2 in

Transportation 1 foot, 1 inVeterans 9 inchesState Department 9 inchesHousing and urban development 8.5 inchesEducation 8.5 inchesHomeland security 7.7 inchesEnergy 4.7 inchesAgriculture 4.6 inchesEnvironmental Protection Agency 1.9 inches

More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

b) Or make 10-20 posters that represent global military spending, according to the chart below. Themore colorful these are, the better: using the country's maps is ideal. Holding these signs up in apublic place will draw attention and the press.

United States 10 feetChina - 1 ft, 5.9 inUK - 1 ft, 0.5 inFrance - 1 ftRussia - 11 inGermany - 8.6 in

Japan - 8.5 inSaudi Arabia - 7.1 inItaly - 6.7 inIndia - 6.6 inSouth Korea - 4.9 inBrazil - 4.9 inCanada - 3.7 inAustralia - 3.6 inSpain - 3.5 inTurkey - 3.4 inIsrael - 2.6 in

Greece - 2.5 inNetherlands - 2.3 in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget%20http://newprioritiesnetwork.org/http://demilitarize.org/


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Step Three: The Interactive Part

Print out these two handouts. Two sheets are blank pie charts with the categories of discretionaryspending. They can be printed back-to-front. The second is the breakdown of the 2010 budget. Itcan be printed along with our Tax Day one-pager on the other side.

Set up a table in your public location, hand out the blank pie chart sheet, and invite people to guesswhere their tax dollars are going. If you choose the U.S. military budget visual, make sure that youdon't have these signs up as you do the exercise, or you'll e giving always the answers! Explain thatour taxes fund these discretionary categories that totaled $1.368 trillion in 2010. Explain that thegovernment also has mandatory spending, which totaled $2 trillion in 2010, and these go to socialsecurity, Medicare, and Medicaid (which are taken out of our paychecks and matched by ouremployers).

Then give them the handout with the real breakdown of discretionary spending.Now ask them to fill out the other blank pie chart. How would they divide up discretionaryspending?

Sometimes people are in a hurry, particularly if you set up during rush hour. So be prepared to workin two modes. For people in a hurry, give them the handout with the budget breakdown and TaxDay information. For those willing to take a few minutes, encourage them to take part in theexercise at the table.
http://newprioritiesnetwork.org/http://demilitarize.org/

Documents

GDAMS Tax Day Action Guide