Tonight (Tuesday) at the Orange County commissioners meeting, I will be requesting that the commissioners pass a resolution urging our senators and congressional representatives to oppose any further Afghan War funding and look for ways to defund the war.
Orange County has pressing local needs including education, infrastructure, social services, health and small-business support, just to name a few. We continually are forced to wrangle over restricted budgets that pit important local needs against one another. Meanwhile, about $2,600 per county citizen leaves Orange County annually for the national military budget. That’s a total of about $351 million.
Our current annual county budget is about $178 million. Imagine what we could accomplish for the citizens of Orange County if just 10 percent of our military contribution was retained at home for local needs. Another $35 million annually would make a world of difference for us.
Make no mistake, U.S. military spending (the U.S. spends more money on its military than the rest of the world combined) is inarguably a local issue with huge local impacts.
Mark Marcoplos
Chapel Hill