News: Interview
Paul Newman
Working for New Priorities

Actor and businessman Paul Newman is joining with business leaders across the nation to urge a greater investment in education.

It’s lunchtime at the Daytona Speedway in Florida, and actor, businessman, and race car driver Paul Newman is in a race against time. During a small window of quiet, Newman tapes a television ad for the new national group, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, an effort led by Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen.

Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities is now launching a massive media campaign that calls for the reallocation of precious federal funds from the Pentagon to domestic programs like education and health care for children.

For Newman and other business leaders involved in the campaign, it’s time to get the message out about unnecessary Pentagon spending and the need to shift the nation’s federal budget priorities. Newman spoke briefly recently with NEA Today’s Anita Merina.

Q: Why have you joined the Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities campaign?
Because I just had my first two grandchildren. I want them to have a future filled with opportunity and the best education possible. But not every child is as lucky.

About fifty cents out of every discretionary dollar spent by Congress now go to the Pentagon budget, while just six cents go to educating our children and four cents go to health care. That’s too much for Pentagon defense contractors and too little for our children’s education and our families’ health care.

The only way we can give our children the best education in the world and prepare them for the next century is by funding the programs that serve them.

Q: Over the years, other groups have tried to lobby for cuts in military spending. Why makes you think Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities will be successful?
Just because you come up against a wall doesn’t mean you quit. I think, little by little, people are beginning to understand there’s a lot of pork out there, in almost every area.

Building weapons that we don’t need, don’t work, and aren’t necessary, and have no mission—that’s not bad politics, that’s robbery.

Q: Those who want to keep military spending high say the nation can’t afford to make cutbacks that would risk our national security. What do you say?
Retired Vice-Admiral John Shanahan, the head of our business leader committee of military advisors, is the man with the numbers. He says we have enough warheads in our arsenal to destroy every major city on the planet 10 times over.

If we reduce that arsenal so that we could destroy every major city on the planet only four times over, we’d save $15 billion a year, every year.

That could buy a lot of education for a lot of kids.

Q: What do you hope educators will do?
Continue teaching good values to all your students. Help them recognize the priorities we need to have to keep this nation competitive and strong.

Paul Newman is one of more than 500 business executives who have joined the Sensible Priorities Campaign, explains campaign staffer (and former NEA staffer) Virginia Witt:

Q: Who’s involved in the Sensible Priorities work?
Many of the top names in business make up the ranks of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, and a number of retired senior officers are part of the effort, too.

Our senior military advisors understand that we can defend our national interests, against all conceivable threats, for a lot less than we are spending now, and our business leaders know that investing in domestic programs like education will keep our nation strong.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish?
We’re out to convince the politicians and Presidential candidates that the nation needs to shift 15 percent out of the Pentagon budget for contractors and weapons manufacturers and invest this savings in education, health care, and state and local programs that support children.

For the cost of one F22 fighter plane—$188 million—we can build 20 new schools. For the $15 billion a year savings we’d gain by reducing nuclear weapons, we could enroll every eligible child in Head Start and cover every uninsured child in America.

BLSP members are using their expertise as marketers, business leaders, and military leaders to arm Americans with information and let the people know the real facts.

Q: How much military spending waste is there?
There’s a lot of waste in the Pentagon budget. It’s not just the legendary $640 toilet seat. The Pentagon cannot account for $43 billion of its budget over the last decade.

According to the General Accounting Office, the Pentagon books are so bad that they can’t even be audited. And the Pentagon continues to receive billions more than it asks for.

Q: The Sensible Priorities Campaign is targeting the public outside the Washington beltway. Why?
Because that’s where the campaign needs to be—out in the communities. This is a grassroots, community effort. It’s the people who need to raise their voices and send a message to the politicians.

Q: What can average citizens do?
Get informed. There’s a report about defense spending on our Web site, written by Dr. Lawrence Korb, former assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan. Find out what the facts are and take a stand.