Alders To Congress: Don’t Go To War

Ah yes, I'm sure that Congress will listen to the alders of a depressed north eastern city urging them not to go to war...

...never mind that there will not be a war with Iran to begin with.

I'm glad that local government proves its effectiveness yet again by focusing on the important issues facing New Haven.

If the alders want better schools and affordable housing maybe they should put their time into addressing those issues rather than passing virtue signaling resolutions that mean nothing other than to show they are part of the "resistance".

FWIW too, Pence's son is serving in the Marine Corps.

Right, because the alders have done such a great job here in New Haven where taxes keep on going up, services suck, major drug overdoses in the middle of down, and zero accountability. Don't forget the disastrous school funding/building policies, the war on landlords which keeps housing costs high and internal hiring of friends/family members to high paying jobs without oversight.

Let's get those guys to give input on how to run an entire country.

Glad to see our elected officials focused on the right priorities! Fortunately for the New Haven taxpayers they aren't concerned with the $14 million deficit or $2.0 Billion in Debt.

Title: Alders To Congress: Don't Go To War

Comment: Taxpayers to Alders: Go To Work!

"We all know that if America goes to war, it will be the sons and daughters of New Haven that will be going off to fight that war," he said. "Not Donald Trump's kids or Mike Pence's kids. ..."
Not true. Pence's son Michael is a Captain of Marines.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/13/politics/home-front-karen-pence-military-mom-interview/index.html
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/12/03/ailing-george-hw-bush-did-last-cavu-favor-pences-marine-son.html
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/09/30/pence-on-hand-as-his-hoosier-son-receives-wings-of-gold/

Folks, this is just grandstanding. We all know Trump will not read it. I have no issue with this.

@1644, @ElmCityLover

Never let the facts get in the way of a good argument.

A follow-on comment:
"It will be our brothers and sisters in New Haven who joined the military looking for purpose and opportunity who go off to fight and die in the Middle East. We cannot and should not let that happen."

I'd wager that many people who join the military, if not all, understand full well that when we raise our right hand we volunteer to fight and die in service to our country. There is already a war going on in the Middle East (two of them, if we're being charitable and include Afghanistan as the Middle East instead of Central Asia) in which many young men and women have gone off to fight. Yes, many people join the military for purpose, and just as many for opportunity - the military is still one of the few primarily merit-based organizations in the United States, where a man or woman of any background can rise to the highest offices and positions with hard work and determination. To claim that they're ignorant of the realities that they may face is the same insultingly patronizing attitude that usually follows such statements as "I support the troops but."

And, if we're being honest, New Haven's young adults will probably have far better opportunities in service to their country than by staying here.

New Haven taxpayers sent $160 million to the US military in 2018, when the Pentagon budget was considerably lower than today's 69% chunk of what Congress allocated to weapons and war in December. Anyone think that is petty cash? Anyone think that New Haven can't use that in our city.

That could buy 11500 children healthcare AND 3400 veterans healthcare AND create 700 jobs rebuilding our city's infrastructure AND pay for 377 elementary school teachers, all in ONE year. OR It could pay for 1600 jobs in high poverty neighborhoods for ONE year. Or it could be used to lower our taxes.

The reason our Alders were asked to take a little time to vote on this resolution is because our 2 senators and 5 members of the House from Connecticut handed Trump and the Military Industrial Complex $738 billion to wage war in 2020. That's far more than all of our potential adversaries combined along with a whole bunch of allies. Congress is not protecting us in New Haven with that fortune. It's protecting the bottom line of the manufacturers of weapons, the banks and the oil giants.

This is a bipartisan scam providing jobs for a handful of people in every congressional district and hundreds of billions in profit to a few rich corporations. And the world is more wicked, more polluted and more dangerous for it. CT is one of the richest states in the richest country in world history. All of its cities are poverty stricken, not because every city council member and mayor is corrupt, but because citizens and taxpayers are being pickpocketed every day to enrich the billionaires.

Congratulations to the New Haven Board of Alders for stepping up. For sending a message to the seven members of Congress who have no plan for getting us out of war, out of debt.

Well if our city govt can't: balance the budget without seeking "new revenue sources" (e.g. more fees and taxes); can't improve education without blaming others (e.g. inadequate PILOT, bad Superintendent); can't clear snow effectively; can't sweep streets more than once a month; can't phase out traditional, non-sustainable, un-affordable, budget-busting pensions and replace with 401k--like most non-govt entities have done; can't allow residents to contact police non-emergency without hearing a lengthy menu--then I guess we'll divert attention to Iran. Fortunately, judging by Tweets of dissidents in Iran (who risk their lives posting such) any war there will be among Iranians themselves, during a civil war to overthrow the current autocratic, corrupt regime. Oh, and BTW: did that last full Board meeting (during which this anti-war proposal was passed) begin "with an acknowledgment that identifies the original indigenous inhabitants"? (Cf. Page 20 of Transition Team Recommended Goals). At least that was one of the very few Recommended Goals that won't cost anything--and therefore won't add even more to the city's looming $50Million deficit.

@HenryCT,

I'm curious - where did you get the claim of $160m directly to the Department of Defense? Are you basing that off of Federal individual and business taxes? For the sake of argument, let's accept that the $160m went directly to the DoD, and bypassed the entirety of the Federal government. If the DoD received a lot less funding, do you think that the $160m would be returned to New Haven somehow? Would your idea of swords to plowshares suddenly lift New Haven out of its crippling debt and inability to self govern, or would the Federal government find something equally fruitless to throw the money away on?

For the record, I agree that the Department of Defense receives a tremendous amount of funding, and there is more than a little opportunity for fraud, waste, and abuse of public funds. I would like to see the DoD be forced to work with an actual budget (they haven't had one in a literal decade) and embrace civilian "lean" principles to save taxpayer money and increase return on investment.

I suspect we'd disagree on almost everything else you said, however. "Trump" doesn't drive the military industrial complex - in this case, he's basically a figurehead, and has already told the DoD to trim the fat and reexamine some bad contracts. The so-called "military-industrial complex" is instead directly tied to the state's Representatives and Senators. Sen. Blumenthal and Sen. Murphy are some of the most egregious in that regard, despite what they'll say in public. Connecticut relies heavily on Electric Boat and the Navy to stay afloat, pun intended.

In this case, the Board of Alders "sending a message" has all the impact of a wet fart. Sure, they did something, but was it worth it? Is this time that could have been better spent on helping craft a vision of a functional city, or planning ways to trim the budget and return money back to the city's residents, who are rather severely burdened by some of the highest property taxes in the country?

@ManOnThePulpit Thanks for asking. The $160 million is New Haven's portion of the 2018 $712 billion Pentagon budget. It and the other numbers come from the National Priorities Project <nationalpriorities.org>. And you are right: CT's reps along with nearly every other member of Congress keep the military budget afloat to the great detriment of spending on what we need in our cities and country. It's jobs, but the wrong jobs. It's national security for the billionaire's bottom lines, not for the 99%. We rely on EB, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky because our country's development policy is a war economy. All the complaints that resound in the comments that stuff isn't getting done in New Haven ignore the vast treasure that every year goes to preparing for and fighting wars that don't do anything positive for the people we are killing, wounding, displacing - our own sons and daughters and those our armed forces and mercenaries target. Those who complain that nothing can change ignore history. Those who complain that all local problems can only be solved locally ignore where their federal taxes go. As Martin Luther King stated 53 years ago: "The recently revealed misestimate of the war budget amounts to ten billions of dollars for a single year. This error alone is more than five times the amount committed to anti-poverty programs. The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Vietnam explode at home. They destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America." Just substitute a few other countries for "Vietnam:" Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, etc. The neverending wars are a boon for the merchants of death. Not for us. MLK spoke 53 years ago. And it's truer today. The Board of Alders is waking us up to what we have to do to change that.

HenryCT: So, where do you get the figure for total income and other unfenced/designated taxes paid by New Haven residents? BTW, your link seems to use figures from 2015, pre-Trump tax changes, which altered both individual and corporate tax codes.

Moreover, the BoAlders isn't elected to address national issues. Our congressional delegation is. Why not deal with this issue at the DTC/ state central levels, rather than municipal government? As many commentators have noted, New Haven provides a big share of the state's Democrat vote. A resolution of no-confidnce in the congressional delegation would be noticed. Or revitalize the state's Green Party.

All should recognize that much of our military adventurism is driven by a Leftist cultural imperialism. We use force to support movements that align with our values, democracy, individual autonomy, regardless of gender, tribe, sexual preference, etc. Both Bush and Obama channel Wilson in using military force to advance and impose our values in other states.

"Our resolution today will not end American militarism or bring money we've wasted on bombs and bullets back to our communities where it belongs," new Yale/Downtown Alder Eli Sabin said from the floor as he urged his legislative colleagues to support the resolution.

No sooner did I post my comment in the story about Ward 14 Alder in which I said former Yale alder Haci Castaboglu was fond of passing meaningless resolutions that got his pic in the paper and another entry to put on his Wikipedia page did I read this! I know Yale well as an alum and this is in the local playbook: get your pic and name in a headline anywhere anytime. My prediction: google Eli Sabin in six months and see if he has a Wikipedia page.

This is comical and pathetic at the same time. With so, so many issues in New Haven, to do something that betrays an ignorance of government? The framers rightly delegated foreign affairs to the federal government, so this looks plain stupid - and it a blatant attempt to follow the Haci playbook: literally do nothing for the community, but get your pic in the paper as often as possible! His pet project? A meaningless resolution to support legalized weed. And what became of that?

This is a shame and a sham. I was hoping Eli would not follow in Haci's playbook but looks like he may.

I appreciate how many comments this article has generated: that means it's a live issue.
As a longtime tax-paying citizen of New Haven, I commend Alders Sabir, Winter, Hurt and the other 21 Alders for linking New Haven's needs to the Federal budget.
If even 30% of the money allocated to the Pentagon were applied to the needs of New Haven and cities across the US, our tax money would go to the real needs -- health, education, housing, infrastructure repair (potholes, bridges, etc.) -- and our city taxes would shrink.
Let's think about the big picture and work to change the problem at its source. Thanks, Alders, for your action. This resolution may be symbolic, but maybe New Haven can take the lead – as the Alders have helped it do before -- on urging cities across America to wake up and tackle the voracious Pentagon albatross.

MillieG says "Let's think about the big picture and work to change the problem at its
source." And the Big Picture's 'source' is lack of Term Limits. When's the last time a submarine was used in combat? Yet we keep building them because Electric Boat, its employees and their unions will keep Joe Cortney (and his Party's successor) in office. While Sikorsky's helicopters get more actual use by the Federal govt, we nevertheless keep building more than necessary because Sikorsky, its employees and their unions keep Rosa DeLauro in office. Sikorsky is owned by Lockheed Martin, which is even more nefarious. That corporation has made sure to have manufacturing facilities in approx. an equal number of 'Blue States' and 'Red States' so, regardless of which party controls Congress, the federal budget will include $Billions in Lockheed Martin military toys to keep c. 98% of incumbents in office and their supporters happy. Every 2 years voters have an opportunity to change this, yet almost invariably voters keep putting these political retreads back in office. So forget about an Alder's symbolic, photo-op proposal. >>The reality is that if YOU keep voting for the same people in November, then YOU are keeping the Military Industrial Complex going. (Nevertheless, this War Powers proposal was merely a diversion from what our city's Alders SHOULD be doing.)

Christopher Schaefer: Submarine launch cruise missiles were used against Iraq and Syria by Bush and Obama. Submarines remain very hard to detect. Further back in time, HMS Conqueror sank the former USS Phoenix, then the cruise missile equipped ARA Belgrano in 1982, causing the entire Argentine fleet to flee to port, greatly reducing the threat to the British forces. In any war with China, nuclear attack (hunter-killer) submarines would play a key role against the growing Chinese navy.
To your main point, does anyone think a candidate who did not support EB would win the 2d district? Lot's of CT jobs depend on defense spending. Voters know it, and that why they vote the same folks in year after year.