A Day In The Strife

By Guest Contributor, on May 7th, 2012

Cross-posted from the Fair Budget Coalition Facebook Page

When faced with the impossible choices that many DC residents have to make, what would DC Council members choose? Pay rent or buy groceries? Buy a metrocard to get to work or school supplies for your kids? Over the last few years the Mayor and DC Council have cut funding to safety net programs like affordable housing, homeless serivces, TANF, Child Care and more. This year millions more in cuts to these programs are on the chopping block. Meanwhile, DC residents are forced to make impossible choices to make ends meet. Join us as we fight CUTS to the safety net and show the Councilmembers what it’s really like to live in poverty. A DAY IN THE STRIFE: A Tour of Life on the Poverty Line Thursday, May 10th: 10:00am-Noon At the Wilson Building 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW Lunch will be provided Bring your ID to enter the building And BRING AN EXTRA SHOE to carry along as we tour! We want to ask Councilmembers to picture what it’s like to walk a mile in our shoes. For more information contact 202-328-1262 or makeonecitypossible@gmail.com To learn more about the campaign, visit: www.makeonecitypossible.com This event is organized by the Fair Budget Coalition @FairBudgetDC www.facebook.com/FairBudgetDC

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Divided Congress, Divided Nation

By Liane Scott, on January 5th, 2011

Joint Session of Congress

And so it begins. It’s a new year and we have a new congress. Unfortunately the 112th promises to be as divisive as any session before it. Can we expect better? Unlikely. So far, House Republicans who align themselves with Tea Party activism have promised to either repeal Obama’s health insurance reform or refuse to fund it. They are also planning to cut $100 billion worth of domestic spending from the budget in an effort to bring down the deficit but have no intention of raising taxes, this despite the fact that tax rates for all income levels have reached lows that we haven’t seen since the 1950s. My personal favorite is the promise to read the Constitution aloud on the House floor as a reminder to elected officials of the Founder’s rules regarding limited-government. I’m not certain those rules are as explicit as conservatives think, what with a preamble that charges the government with such broad authority as promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty, but that may be a matter of interpretation.

Does a rejection of health care reform (well, health insurance reform) and deficit reduction without raising revenue represent a mandate that the electorate demanded when they voted the Democrats out of the majority last November? Should we thank the Tea Party that isn’t really a party for this? Will they be happy with the results?

I suspect that Tea Party activists may be no happier about the results of the 112th Congress as the New Left, energized by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, was with the 110th or even the 111th Congress. I say this because all of the hip hip hoorays that are chanted when we’re in office and they are out (it doesn’t matter if the “we” here is the Left or the Right) inevitably turns into the same sorry refrain, a refrain that goes something like, “Hold the phone there partner, that’s not what we asked you to do.”

Two years ago, the Left made it clear that we wanted, among other things, health care reform and an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What we got was health insurance reform and although we’ve pulled back to a certain extent in Iraq, there can be no doubt that a US military presence will remain in both Iraq and Afghanistan for a long, long time. Last year, when the Right demanded that elected officials stop spending beyond our means, as so many of us have been forced to do in these hard economic times, were they expecting cuts to unemployment and food stamps? According to the latest 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, 61 percent of Americans favor increasing taxes on the wealthy as a way to reduce the deficit while 20 percent prefer cuts to the Defense Department. If we extrapolate those poll numbers, less than 20 percent of the American public has any interest in cutting entitlement programs or social services. [It’s actually much less than that if you read the poll carefully.] Given the choice to increase taxes on the wealthy or increase cuts to programs that benefit the poor and middle class, what do you think the 112th Congress will do?

Behind all of the complaints that we threw the bastards out and the new bastards aren’t any better is one inescapable reality. The new bastards and the old bastards have more in common with each other than they do with any of us.

The nation is divided, perhaps as divided as the Congress. We are divided by race; we are divided by political ideology; we pretend not to be divided by class, but in reality that is probably our most potent divide. To the never ending advantage of the elites in power, the electorate will forever blow out of proportion all the little things that make us different and ignore the issues in which we should be able to find common ground.

Audio Archive from Rallies to Restore Honor and Reclaim the Dream

Riley Abbott’s report on Glenn Beck’s controversial Rally to Restore Honor and Al Sharpton’s response The Rally to Reclaim the Dream makes it clear that in fact there are a number of things upon which the Right and the Left agree. It also points out that neither side seems aware of this reality.

Audio Report from One Nation Rally

Alyssa Schimmel’s report on last October’s One Nation March highlights the demands the Left expected the Democratic Majority . . . → Read More: Divided Congress, Divided Nation

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Austerity Measures in the District of Columbia

By Liane Scott, on December 15th, 2010

Not so much written by the Coordinator, as posted by the Coordinator. This piece was actually written by Ben Parisi of Empower DC

On Tuesday, December 7, 2010, the DC Council voted on a last-minute measure to close a $188 million deficit in the fiscal year 2011 budget. On the chopping block were nearly $50 million in services for DC’s low-income residents. Among these critical services were affordable housing programs, child care subsidies, interim disability assistance, HIV/AIDS screening, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits, and more.

Thousands of residents demanded a simple solution of the DC council: a 1% tax increase on income over $200,000. This would have affected only 5% of DC’s wealthiest residents, most of whom have not seen any of their city services cut and have not felt the crunch of this recession as low-income people have. This tax, as small as it is, would have raised more than enough revenue to allow the Council to make the better choice by restoring all the proposed cuts to safety net programs.

A group of 100+ people and organizations, led by Empower DC, DC Jobs with Justice, Save our Safety Net, DC We the People, and H St small businesses, met at the Council Building that morning to voice their protest over the proposed cuts and to call on their elected representatives to make the better choice. Since the council gave only one opportunity for public comment, announced right before Thanksgiving, many of those residents who stood to be impacted by the cuts did not have ample opportunity to voice their opinions. Because of this, a People’s Hearing was planned to take place outside the Council Building that morning, giving spokespeople from an array of safety net programs the opportunity to address the impact of these cuts. Due to the fact that temperatures outside were sub-freezing and there were small children present, the group took its hearing inside, to the fifth floor outside the chamber where the Council would vote in a matter of hours. Immediately, security descended upon those who had gathered to raise their voices to their elected representatives. Spokespeople agreed to whisper, and the audience gathered closely around them. Still, security intervened, claiming that rules forbade gathering. With no other option, the group entered the hearing room, filling all the seats, and waited for the hearing to begin. When it did, individuals stood up and made their statements directly to the Councilmembers on the dais, since they had been given no other chance to speak with their elected representatives.

Ten individuals stood to call upon the council to make the better choice and not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. All ten were powerful voices and represented thousands of residents struggling with similar circumstances. All ten were thrown out of the building by security.

Despite all this, 5 councilmembers heard the call for progressive income taxes to save the safety net that these groups had been making for months. They stood on the right side of this struggle, but their other 8 colleagues voted against their proposals and brought the ax down on critical programs in DC that save lives. As a result, thousands of low-income residents of our nation’s capital will suffer an especially cold holiday season.

If this angers you, turn your anger into a plan! Join Empower DC and get organized! Give us a call at (202) 234-9119, and get involved! In making these cuts, the Council was led by Chairman Vincent Gray, DC’s mayor-elect. When he is sworn in as mayor in less than a month, one of the first things he will do is draft a budget for fiscal year 2012. Let’s be prepared to make sure it turns out differently this time! (202) 234-9119

Post Script,

For the record, those who voted for a more progressive tax code were At-Large Councilmember Michael Brown, Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham, Ward Five Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr., Ward Six Councilmember Tommy Wells and Ward Eight Councilmember Marion Barry.

Those opposed were, Council Chair Vincent Gray, At-Large Councilmember David Catania, At-Large Councilmember Kwame Brown, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson, Ward Two Councilmember Jack Evans, Ward Three Councilmember Mary Cheh, Ward Four Councilmember Muriel Bowser, Ward Seven Councilmember Yvette Alexander.

Be sure to send your councilmember words of encouragement or otherwise. We are also hoping the above video will go viral, at least here in the District of Columbia. Please feel free to post it on blogs and Facebook pages at . . . → Read More: Austerity Measures in the District of Columbia

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