Demo Exposes Corporate Hand Behind 'Artificial Crisis' to Force Cuts

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“All they have to do is pay their fair share; it’s time the rich do well for America!” The senior citizen had traveled down from New York City to join yesterday’s noontime demonstration outside the Hyatt Regency, where "Fix the Debt," a group of Wall Street corporations and the wealthy, were gathered for a "Common Ground Summit." Said one of the more than one hundred demonstrators, “It’s a ‘common ground’ all right, a common ground of billionaires who just want more.” As a giant corporate pig – complete with oversized cigar – inflated behind them, the crowd chanted “Save Social Security, No Cuts! Save Medicare, No Cuts!” Darlene, a DC resident, said that “While they’re swimming in prosperity, we’re drowning in poverty.” Vowed another member of Our DC, “We’re going to pull the curtain back on the corporations and individuals behind ‘Fix the Debt’ and expose their greed.” Fix the Debt and other debt scolds are trying to create an “artificial crisis” to force federal spending reductions to reduce long-term debt, according to Health Care for America Now!, one of the demonstration’s sponsors. “Fix the Debt is pouring $60 million into creating an artificial crisis with the goal of cutting Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and Social Security,” says HCAN. “They are doing this with constant fearmongering about the national debt, which top economists say is not an actual crisis.” - report/photos by Chris Garlock