Budget Brinksmanship is Back
Government funding runs out tomorrow and the Republican leadership is holding the budget hostage to try to pass poison pill riders on issues from blocking Syrian refugees to stopping the president’s climate change initiatives.
Please ask Congress to pass a clean appropriations bill with no destructive policy riders.
This brinkmanship is a symptom of wider problems with budget politics. October’s temporary budget deal narrowly averted a government shutdown and first-ever US default. But we are not out of the woods of the disastrous austerity politics that have plagued Washington—and the country— since passage of the Budget Control Act (BCA) in 2011.
Republicans are still insisting on adding destructive “riders” that would strike down environmental protections, undermine labor rights, gut consumer protections and the few shreds that still remain of campaign finance reform.
There is still time to tell your Members of Congress you want a budget without “gifts” to powerful interests that will hurt the environment, widen the income gap between the super rich and the rest of us and increase funding for weapons, war and nuclear overkill.
Tell Congress to pass a clean appropriations bill with no poison pills. Peace Action has joined with a coalition of national organizations in a People’s Budget Campaign to push for a budget that funds human needs and cuts Pentagon pork. This budget plan was written by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and provides a realistic alternative to current budget politics which favor runaway military budgets and tax cuts for the rich over the needs of our communities.
Our immediate goal is to pass “clean” appropriations bills without these damaging policy riders in order to avoid the risk of another devastating government shutdown. In the long term we want to build support for a budget that truly invests in the well-being of our communities and cuts unnecessary defense spending.
Tell Congress to stop playing politics with the welfare of the American people!
Special thanks to Jon Rainwater and Cole Harrison for their work on this alert
And each time, Democrats agree to target more of the poor, while middle class liberals breath a sigh of relief. Democrats began 2015 with agreeing to virtually end food stamps to the elderly poor and the disabled (monthly allotments cut from roughly $115 down to $15). Liberal media immediately responded with… well… I’m sure someone said something.
Reblogged this on Wobbly Warrior's Blog.