The following is an open letter to California’s congressional delegation:

Soon, Congress must tackle the budget process for a country beset by job losses, financial uncertainty and divisive partisanship. We ask you, our elected representatives, to work with all your powers on four key priorities:

* Nearly 14 million Americans are unemployed. We urge you to invest in programs that will create jobs and build the infrastructure and human capital of our future.

* Two wars and runaway military spending were responsible for more than half of the added discretionary spending since 2000, the last year there was a budget surplus. We urge you to end these wars and roll back the Pentagon budget to 2000 levels.

* Tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations accounted for much of the rest of the vanished surplus. We urge you to restore our tax policy so that the richest Americans and corporations pay their fair share.

* Programs that care for the elderly (Social Security and Medicare) and children, the poor and those with disabilities (Medicaid) are threatened with major cuts. We urge you to protect the lifeline these programs provide for the most vulnerable.

Polls show that a large majority of Americans share our hopes for a budget built on these priorities. We count on you to stand up against the lobbyists for the wealthy and the corporations. We urge you instead to heed our call for a budget that bends the arc of justice toward a brighter future for all Americans and others throughout the world who look to us for leadership.

David Markham

Clerk, for Davis Friends Meeting, Davis

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