"Amidst Hurtful Budget Cuts, CBC Chair Says 2012 Election is Ultimate Hope
By Hazel Trice Edney
WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) – U. S. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) is clear about the doom he sees in current budget cuts being orchestrated by Congressional Republicans and could be voted on by the U. S. Senate as early as this week:
“There are few areas of life that will not be adversely affected by the continuing resolution that made its way to the Senate. Those cuts will be devastating for vulnerable communities, minority communities,” Cleaver says. “People will feel the pain because health center funding will be cut nationally, job training programs in all 50 states will be dramatically and drastically cut. At a time when we are trying to compete with the Chinese, we’re cutting back not only with Pell grants, but with the federal funding of public education. We’re seeing devastating cuts in the funding for low income heating. That means people who are already among the millions of unemployed Americans who are struggling just to exist cannot expect any help with the high utility bills.”
The House bill, passed last month, cut more than $60 billion from domestic programs and foreign assistance. President Obama’s bill aims to trim $6.5 billion. Neither bill will likely pass.
In a telephone interview with Trice Edney News Wire, Cleaver, Congressional Black Caucus chairman, said budget cuts to social programs that fill needs in Black communities will be so riveting that they will no doubt capture the attention of Black voters in the fall of 2012.
Republican leaders argue that their deep cuts are for the purpose of reducing the $1.5 trillion deficit. They believe that was a mandate from voters when the Republicans took over the House Nov. 2. Cleaver argues that the cuts they’re trying to make have little to do with the deficit.
“The elections in 2012 may be dramatically different than what we saw a few months ago because I think people will see this preoccupation with the deficit,” Cleaver says. He said there is little hope under the current mindset of House or Senate Republicans who seem blinded by that one word - deficit.
“We’re having fact-free debates,” Cleaver said. “I tell you, it is a very painful experience each day to go over to the chamber to vote or into the committees to debate and know that we’re going to lose. It’s not like we might win. We will lose.”
He noted that Republicans have not even listened to Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke who warned against drastic cuts that could further upset the economy.
He warned against “taking badly needed money out of the economy” to fix a deficit, Cleavage said. He recalled the Fed chair saying, "'We need to take a long-term view', But, nobody’s listening to him.”
In the short-term, Cleaver says writing letters to Republican representatives may influence them, but that's not likely since lawmakers believe voters have sent them. Other alternatives include citizens’ pressure on local and state representatives to fill in where federal cuts have been made.
“People are scared and they ought to be,” Cleaver said. But, many will be taken by surprise, he said. “Most vulnerable people don’t know enough about it to be scared.”
Cleaver says it is clear to him that Republicans are only playing politics in attempt to win the House again in 2012 unless those hurt by the cuts go to the polls.
"When you don't vote, there's a price to pay." He concluded, “All of these cuts we’re talking about, they don’t even make a dent is the deficient reduction. They’re not even measurable.”