GOP-Style Democrats Slash DC Budget: Homeless, Poor Children at Risk

http://www.truth-out.org/gop-style-democrats-slash-dc-budget-homeless-poor-children-risk/1305314246

Except for white Republicans in Congress opposed to home rule, few people outside of Washington, DC - and even some white liberals who live in the District - bother to pay much attention to Washington's local political battles.

But that changed briefly last month, when Mayor Vincent Gray and six members of the city council were arrested in high-profile protests against a Republican-driven federal budget deal that prevents the city from spending its own funds on abortions for low-income women. Congress has traditionally had authority over the Democratic-run District's budget, but rarely directly interferes in spending. "Why are we the sacrificial lamb?" Gray had asked. Progressive media outlets praised Gray for seeming to stand up to Republicans and their distorted budget priorities.

Yet Mayor Gray and much of the rest of the city council are moving on their own to make the city's disabled, youngest and neediest citizens the sacrificial lambs of the proposed new city budget, with two-thirds of the cuts targeting the poor. It's yet another troubling sign of the rightward shift of state and national Democratic Party leaders. It's a trend that can be seen everywhere, from Democratic legislators in Massachusetts voting to strip public employee unions of the right to bargain collectively to national Democrats meekly accepting GOP messaging on deficit cuts and tax breaks for the rich. Here in Washington, city services are already so strained before the proposed cuts that even families with young children seeking emergency shelter are routinely turned away, and, instead, are often given bus tokens to ride the buses all night with their toddlers and infants. As Eric Sheptock, a literally homeless homeless activist working with a donated laptop and cell phone, described a recent hearing on the crisis:

One mother cried as she explained how, that she, with her 3 children - ages five, three and less than a year old - in tow, was told by an employee of the Virginia Williams Family Intake Center that there were no shelter spaces for them and that she was given bus tokens so she could ride the city bus all night with her children in order to stay warm. Other mothers testified that they also were given bus tokens so that they could use the bus as a de facto shelter. (DC law states that, if there is no shelter space available for a homeless family with small children, then they must be put into a motel room.)

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