What: National Town Hall Forum on Jobs in America and the Military Budget
When: Broadcast, 8:30-10:00 PM ET (7:30-9:00 PM CT), Thurs 07/18/2013
Who: Miriam Pemberton, Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Robert Pollin, University of Massachusetts; Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell
Radio Stations hosting: KPFT Houston TX; KBOO Portland OR; KGNU Boulder CO
Washington DC – A collaborative broadcast on Thursday, July 18, will create a national, town hall forum in which citizens will have the opportunity to listen to experts on the subject of the military and how to transform the job creation landscape. The town hall will be broadcast on three community radio stations, KPFT Houston TX, KBOO Portland OR, KGNU Boulder CO, and allow for listeners to call in or listen live online.
Speakers at the town hall broadcast include: Miriam Pemberton, Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Robert Pollin, University of Massachusetts; and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret), former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“Addressing the nation’s economic failures, energy needs and climate change challenges and completely dysfunctional government, comprise perhaps the most critical mission our Republic has ever shouldered – making the challenges of WWII or the Cold War pale in comparison,” said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (ret), one of the speakers at the town hall.
“You don’t need to get into the details of the many reasons to question these figures to recognize the big flaw. Cutting military spending will only cost jobs if nothing else is done with the money,” wrote Miriam Pemberton, a speaker at the town hall, in her article Top 10 Myths of the Jobs Argument Against Military Cuts. “As economists from the University of Massachusetts have shown—findings recently corroborated by economists at the University of Vienna—military spending is an exceptionally poor job creator. Taking those cuts and investing them in other things—clean energy, education, health care, transportation—will all result in a net gain in jobs. Even cutting taxes creates more employment than spending on the military.”
The nonprofit organization Article V Convention for Our Children’s Future (AVC4OCF), is co-producing the town hall, with radio partners from Oregon to Texas. The collaborative broadcast will create a forum in which citizens all over the country will have the opportunity to listen to experts on the subject of defense (or economic) conversion, creating jobs without increasing military spending. Congressional representatives are also receiving invitations from AVC4OCF requesting their attendance in this town-hall meeting.
This broadcast is part of a planned series of similar events by AVC4OCF that they are calling their National Campaign for Jobs in America. The nonprofit’s primary goal for their campaign for jobs is the enactment in Congress of jobs and energy legislation that is based on a citizen-created blueprint developed by citizens in these town-hall meetings.
The town hall will be simultaneously broadcast from the studios of KBOO in Portland, Oregon, KGNU in Boulder, Colorado, and KPFT in Houston, Texas, and will also be streamed (audio) from the websites of these stations. Citizens anywhere in the United States or the world will be able to participate in the town hall by calling one of these stations using their 800 number.
LISTEN to broadcast online – CLICK HERE
To participate, call 1-800-737-3030 during broadcast or e-mail DJ@KGNU.org.
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Article V Convention for Our Children’s Future’s mission is to ensure that Congress does NOT succeed in denying We the People and states OUR constitutional right (Article V) to amend OUR Constitution ~ AND engage the American people in this historic opportunity to restore our republic.
The Institute for Policy Studies is a think tank celebrating its 50th year of turning ideas into action for peace, justice, and the environment.