I’ll give a listen to anyone who wants to cut the Pentagon budget!

PORTSMOUTH — Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream co-founder Ben Cohen is putting all his scoops in one cone: getting a 2008 presidential nominee who will cut the Pentagon budget and shift the money to social programs.

Reallocating the federal budget is the goal of Cohen’s nonprofit organization, Business Leaders for Sensible Practices. The group has started grassroots campaigns in New Hampshire and Iowa, and Cohen was in the city Thursday to spread the message of “common’sense budgeting.”

“People in New Hampshire are socially liberal, fiscally conservative and anti-tax. This is a perfect campaign for them. It meets all those social needs, but it doesn’t raise taxes,” Cohen told the Portsmouth Herald editorial board.

The group’s PrioritiesNH campaign wants to cut 13 percent — or $60 billion — from the Pentagon budget and use the money to fund education, health care, deficit reduction, job training and energy independence.

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From the Business Leaders for Sensible Practices Website:

Setting the Priorities Straight
The Priorities campaign believes that America can solve, or start to seriously address, many of the most difficult problems we face. We can create a national budget that is responsive to domestic and international needs. And we can do it without raising taxes or creating new ones.

How? By insisting that Congress create sensible budget priorities. By reducing government waste and using the savings to strengthen American families and communities.