December 2013

Workers and the poor need a government that serves their needs
and a political party that will fight for them!

End the bipartisan government shutdown!

The current crisis in Washington, D.C. is a completely manufactured event. The only people it is hurting are the same people who are still suffering from the Wall Street meltdown–the 99%. Meanwhile, the 1% and their servants in Congress, and their D.C. lobbyists on the hill, merrily live high off the hog and enjoy Cadillac healthcare and wonderful pay and pensions.
First, there was sequestration that both parties agreed to because it would never happen, they said. But those $70 billion in across-the-board cuts hurt a lot of people, especially when they came on top of all the cuts that had been made in the last twenty years to public services of every kind.
Now both the Democrats and the Republicans act like the debt ceiling is an act of God or nature. The debt ceiling is a social agreement; it was made by man and can be changed by man, unlike Sandy or Katrina which were unstoppable. The world will not come to an end if the debt ceiling is reached. Instead it is being used as a weapon to make us all forget how much we have already lost through sequestration and the shutdown.

A manufactured crisis with real human costs

The Congressional Budget Office reports that 750,000 jobs were lost due to the sequestration cuts. Now 800,000 government employees have been furloughed and thousands of others are collateral damage.
Vet disability pay has been held up and the enormous backlog of VA disability claims are stacking up with no one to process them. Native Americans are suffering: BIA funds for transportation, food subsidies, school, and health clinics are stuck in the pipeline. Headstart has cut 57,000 children from its programs; staff layoffs and pay cuts are a reality; 1.3 million days of service are being lost. Funding for the federal block grant for Maternal and Child Health Services in Washington State has been cut by nearly one-half million dollars. The list could go on and on.

Enough with the Tea Party, the Republicans and the Democrats!

Who can imagine a worse political system than the one we are now witnessing? Every actor in the D.C. debacle is without honor, courage, honesty or any interest in fighting for the 99%. There has to be an alternative to voting for these jokers. A party independent of big business that will fight for working and poor people is what we need. Now is the time to come together to make such a party a reality in every local and national race.