For Immediate Release: Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012
Contact: Donna De La Cruz, [email protected] (202) 339-9331

Voters Proved in November That They are Against Cutting Essential Services

(WASHINGTON)—As the White House and Congress continue their fiscal cliff negotiations, they must remember the message that voters sent in November about not cutting essential services.

“Republicans are eager to use the current showdown to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, programs they have long sought to undermine,” said Mary Lassen, Managing Director of the Center for Community Change. “The White House must resist caving into GOP demands to cut services, including a chained CPI, which will result in benefit cuts to Social Security. We must also protect the current eligibility age for Medicare recipients.”

“Much of the ‘grand bargain’ talk is based on a grand delusion that the country’s main problem is the deficit,” Lassen added. “The main problem is a lack of bold investments to create the pro-growth policies we need to get people back to work – a solution which more than anything else would address our fiscal balance sheet far more effectively than slashing essential services that help people.”

To challenge the grand delusion, a broad coalition of civil rights, labor, community, environmental, consumer rights and other advocates, including the Center for Community Change, is committed to changing the conversation in America from cuts to jobs.

“Our coalition’s demand is simple: We want an agenda that can build real prosperity for all Americans. Our country needs quality jobs that pay living wages and are accessible to people looking for work right now. Public investments should be used to create millions of jobs and lay the groundwork for a stronger economic future,” Lassen said.

For more information on our agenda, go to www.prosperityforamerica.org.

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Community Change builds the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to have a significant impact in improving their communities and the policies and institutions that affect their lives. Community Change strengthens, connects and mobilizes grassroots groups to enhance their leadership, voice and power.