Cellphones Bigger than a Backpack (Or Why Universal Preschool Isn’t a Priority)

VHS tapes, 8-tracks, a computer bigger than your car. Some things are better left in the past.

Huge Pentagon budgets should be one of them. Although we are supposed to be ramping down efforts in Afghanistan, Congress continues funding the U.S. military at historically high levels: In 2016 we will spend $19 billion on nuclear weapons alone, and less than half that -- just $8 billion -- on Head Start.

Our priorities are clearly out of whack. We sink more than a half trillion dollars annually into a highly privatized global “defense” system, yet we have no paid parental leave, free or affordable child care, or universal health care. Our families deserve better than this.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can bring our nation’s budget into the 21st century and make the world we want to see. Each year, the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget introduces a federal budget proposal that would fund universal preschool and start to dismantle wasteful Pentagon spending. This proposal is known as the People’s Budget and it is worthy of our consideration.

The Mad Men era is over. Both male-dominated workplaces and nuclear weapons have had their day. Let’s bring our kids up in a country that values families over destructive and pointless weapons projects. Families never go out of style. Contact your member of Congress and let them know your priorities.