Activists Rally Against Fed Budget Cuts Tonight

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Federal workers are “caught between a rock and a hard place” with the looming possibility of funding cuts, AFSCME Council 26 Executive Director Carl Goldman told the Maryland Gazette last week. Federal employees represented by AFSCME and AFGE are worried that Congress will fail to make a deal before the end-of-year “fiscal cliff,” or hurriedly make a bad deal, either of which could cost thousands of people their jobs. It’s not just federal workers who would feel these cuts. Activists across the country are rallying to defend benefits like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that working families depend on and urge politicians to let the Bush-era tax cuts for the top 2% expire. This evening working family activists will gather at Congressman Steny Hoyer’s Waldorf and Greenbelt offices, and Congressman Chris Van Hollen’s Rockville office for candlelight vigils (see the labor calendar for details) to keep pressure on the two politicians to stand with working families in their state.