 Hi, my name is Carly Town and I'm the co-director at CodePink. Many people agree that our budget priorities are completely out of whack. We spend way too much money on the military and not enough on healthcare, good jobs and green infrastructure. But what can we actually do about it? First, let's talk about military spending in the United States. In 2021, we will spend $740 billion on the Pentagon budget, which means this year alone we will spend $1 million a minute on the military. So where does all that money go? Well, more than half goes directly into the pockets of private companies that contract with the federal government to turn a profit to prepare for war. Those same companies turn around and donate to politicians to make sure that when it comes time to approve military spending every year through the National Defense Authorization Act, our politicians are beholden to the corporate interests that propelled them to victory. Not surprisingly, a recent study by the Security Policy Reform Institute showed a positive correlation between members of Congress who received campaign contributions from defense contractors and voting to increase the Pentagon budget. This vicious cycle plays out year after year, which is one reason why despite broad public support to defund the Pentagon, our politicians continue to siphon our tax dollars into an increasingly bloated Pentagon budget. Thankfully, there's something we can do about it. If we want our politicians to start listening to popular public opinion, we have to stop allowing them to be bought and sold by the war industry. You can bring the Codepin pledge to stop taking campaign contributions from the top five weapons manufacturers to your congressional representatives and demand that they commit to defunding the Pentagon budget and investing in human needs. This past summer when our representatives had the opportunity to approve a 10% cut to the Pentagon budget, every single member of Congress who signed the Codepin pledge to divest from war also voted to cut the Pentagon budget. If we want our representatives to defund the Pentagon and invest in human needs, we have to follow the money. Go to codepin.org slash divestcongress and ask your representative to sign on to the Codepin pledge to divest from the war machine.