Duluth City Council backs effort to reduce military spending [View all]

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http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/253211/group/News/



Minnesota Arms Spending Alternatives Project leader Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer speaks to supporters outside Duluth City Hall on Monday evening before city councilors took up a resolution calling upon the federal government to cut spending on defense rather than social programs.

Duluth City Council backs effort to reduce military spending
By: Peter Passi, Duluth News Tribune
Published December 19, 2012, 12:00 AM

Duluth has joined a group of city governments calling on Congress to reduce military spending and increase its focus on domestic programs as the nation moves closer to the so-called fiscal cliff.

Unless Congress can agree on a plan to substantially reduce the federal deficit, a set of across-the-board budget cuts and tax increases will automatically kick in at the end of this year.

On Monday night, the Duluth City Council asked the federal government to take a more targeted approach to taming the deficit, with an emphasis on reduced military spending. The council voted 5-3 in support of a resolution similar to one already passed by St. Paul and Minneapolis. Des Moines, Iowa, also is on tap to take up a similar measure, and like-minded resolutions have been signed by city councils in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Hartford, Conn.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a University of St. Thomas professor and former Senate candidate, said the idea also has taken hold in Oregon and Massachusetts, where other local government units have asked the federal government to rein in military spending, too.