Walk of life or dance of death?

How obvious does it have to get? We Americans get it, at least partly. The military is sucking up all the oxygen in the Budget Room, and yet, and yet (!) Congress has before it right now, this week, a vote that will give the Pentagon not 45, not 50, not 55, but 57 percent of all federal discretionary spending next year (even worse than the pictured WRL pie chart as drawn from the proposed budget last winter), as analyzed now by Just Foreign Policy. Oink. Burp.

What a great idea. More $ for war and death, while food stamps and education are cut, cut, and cut again. Dollars for dismemberment and disaster and less for infrastructure and health care. How can we possibly turn their Congress--that is, the representatives of war profiteers--into what the framers envisioned, into what an informed electorate should have--how can we reclaim what should be our Congress?

Just one "little" example is the F-35 fighter plane, an outrageous instance of war profiteer welfare at the expense of our children now and their children in the future. More than $400B for a series of contracts that eclipse any possibility of moving from debt to social good, from poverty to prosperity?

Start with a call. 1-202-224-3121. That is the Capitol switchboard and you just ask for your rep's office. Urge support for any and all of these proposed amendments:

• Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) and Barney Frank (D-MA) amendment to cut $1.1 billion (a freeze at FY12 levels) from the military budget;
• An amendment to cut $7 billion to align the bill to spending caps under the Budget Control Act;
• Barbara Lee amendment to cut $19 billion, corresponding to program cuts proposed by Project on Defense Alternatives and the Cato Institute.

I just finished mine and it took less than 120 seconds of my time. Or create an email message automatically routed to your representative. Let's take back this democracy.