ABCD Calls for Congress to STOP SEQUESTRATION

Says automatic, mindless cuts are “dangerous and irresponsible”

ABCD President/CEO John Drew today asked Congress to act quickly to repeal the reckless legislation - the Budget Control Act of 2011 - that is putting America on the path of sequestration cuts totaling $1.2 trillion over ten years with no regard to the programs and people - both domestic and military - that those cuts will harm.

"This is the most dangerous and irresponsible piece of legislation I have ever seen," said Drew.

Drew said the mindless and extreme budget reductions due to kick in on March 1 will cause 70,000 low-income children to be cut from Head Start early care and education programs. Also facing drastic cuts are Meals on Wheels for seniors, food and drug safety interventions, medical research, air traffic control, housing and homelessness prevention programs and more. The nation's military effectiveness will be dangerously reduced.

"Sequestration will put our most vulnerable citizens at risk," he said. "These are people who did nothing to cause the nation's current fiscal issues. Why should they suffer? Why should strong, solid programs that lift poor people up and provide opportunities for children, adolescents and adults to improve their lives and give back to their communities be devastated? Why should frail seniors lose the supports that enable them to live in dignity in their later years?".

Drew called on Congress and the President to develop a long-term debt reduction plan with entitlement cuts and tax reform that increases revenue. "Debt reduction should NOT increase poverty or exacerbate hardship for families struggling to make ends meet," he said.

He also pointed out that the cuts will cost tax payers far more down the line. "More people will fall into homelessness, costing government huge amounts to house them in shelters and motels. Children may do poorly in school, without the early education and care that puts them on the road to success. Seniors will go without heat and food and fill our emergency rooms. These cuts reflect backward thinking of the worst kind."

Following are examples of the devastation the cuts will wreak on struggling families and all Americans in just the first year of implementation. If the cuts continue over 10 years, as planned, these programs will be eliminated or severely jeopardized.

• Head Start: 70,000 fewer poor children will receive comprehensive early childhood education services in Head Start, the program applauded as a pathway to a better life for low-income children and their parents;
• Senior Nutrition: 17 million fewer meals will be delivered to low-income seniors;
• Fuel Assistance: 1,332,000 households will lose Fuel Assistance, leaving seniors to choose between heat, food and medicine and young families to shiver before dangerous space heaters;
• Housing and Homelessness: 3,017,226 families will lose Section 8 housing. Public Housing Authorities will have funding cut with deterioration of housing developments. Many families - already on the edge economically - will be homeless and on the street.
• Women's Health: Hundreds of thousands of low-income women will lose essential health maintenance and illness prevention services that keep them healthy and save tax payer' money. Breast cancer screening, HIV testing and much more will be lost.
• Medical research will be cut - condemning people to disease and loss of essential treatment;
• Coast Guard air and surface rescues will be reduced by 25 percent.
• Embassy security, in the wake of the horror at Benghazi, would absorb a cut of $168 million.
• Federal aid to states and cities will be reduced, severely impacting schools and services;
• Environmental protections and food inspection will be cut back;
• Air traffic controllers will be laid off, making the skies far less friendly for all of us.
• AND MUCH MORE...

Send Email to Stop Sequestration

This post is from our friends at Coalition for Human Needs.  In addition to signing the STOP THE SEQUESTRATION petition, please see below to email your Members of Congress and Senators!

On March 1, new federal cuts will begin to take effect.  If nothing is done, many hundreds of thousands more will be hurt by across-the-board cuts to education, job training, home heating assistance, public health, and social services, to name only a few areas.  One example:  450,000 600,000 young children and moms will lose WIC nutrition aid, even though we know WIC is associated with better child health and development.  Other examples of the impact of cuts are in this White House press release.  Such as:  70,000 children won't be in Head Start; 373,000 seriously mentally ill adults and children will go without treatment.

Tell Congress to do the right thing and stop mindless, harmful cuts.  

Your voice is needed. Click here for a simple way to be heard.

Remember the new year's fiscal showdown?  Congress acted at the last minute to replace two months of these cuts with a combination of revenues and other spending reductions.  That's why we're now facing the March 1 deadline.

Stark Choices. The President and Senate leadership want new revenues from corporations and wealthy individuals to play a big part in replacing the mindless cuts.  They - and we - don't want to substitute other harmful cuts to Medicaid, SNAP/food stamps, or other vital programs.  To those in Congress who say "no more revenues," we must ask "Is protecting every single tax loophole that benefits corporations and high-income individuals a higher priority than preventing cuts that will affect health, education and job opportunities for millions of Americans?" 

To those who would protect every Pentagon program, we must ask "Would you keep funding costly and outdated weapons and equipment while cutting job training, housing, college aid, and child welfare or mental health services?" 

The public made clear in November and beyond that they believed people at the top should pay more of their share to resolve the nation's fiscal problems.  Because public opinion was so strong, Congress increased revenues.  That public will is still there - a new poll commissioned by Americans for Tax Fairness shows two-thirds of voters say the richest two percent and large corporations should pay more in taxes, and oppose cuts in vital programs.

You can show that constituents not only hold those beliefs, but will tell Congress about them.  Just send this email to your senators and rep - not a heavy lift, but pretty important!

Thanks so much.

Sequestration Begins March 1, 2013

John J. Drew, President/CEO,
Action for Boston Community Development

We all breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. Congress passed The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 on January 1, 2013, and immediate “sequestration” budget cuts were avoided. But that relief was short-lived.

Now community action—and many other federally-supported programs—once again face the threat on March 1 of $110 billion in automatic budget cuts per year over ten years, or “sequestration.” (The January 1 “fiscal cliff” deal pushed this deadline ahead from the original January 2 date.)

If Congress and the administration do not find a way to avoid sequestration, immediate, automatic cuts to our programs will take place. The government talks about 5.1 percent budget reductions for this current fiscal year, which will be squeezed and magnified into the remaining 7 months. Then, for each of the 9 more years, these indiscriminate, across-the-board, cuts will continue until $1.1 trillion is slashed from the federal budget.

This cut will apply to the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), Head Start, Fuel Assistance, Child Care, Housing, Health Services and many other interconnected programs and services that we provide. This type of government by automatic pilot is dangerous, especially to the most vulnerable in our nation.

Elected officials need to go on the record if they choose to remove poor children from Head Start programs, if they decide that elders must go without heat in the winter, if they make decisions that cause people to go hungry or fall into homelessness. They need to take responsibility for their decisions. The automatic cuts poised to fall on the most vulnerable in our far less than equal society will decimate those already 50 yards behind who are hurting and hungry and homeless through no fault of their own.

Right now the March 1 cuts are real and automatic and will take an enormous toll on the lives of the people served by community action programs in Massachusetts and across the nation. The cumulative effect is that millions of households will be devastated. The safety net that protects so many Americans will be destroyed, along with opportunities to move up the ladder of economic opportunity and pursue the American dream.

Community action and non-profit programs are not the only ones to suffer if these cuts take place. Medical research, air traffic control, food inspection, environmental protection and the national infrastructure of highways and bridges are just a few of the key programs and institutions that will experience huge losses.

We continue our strong advocacy for the people we serve and for the economic policies that will enable their lives to improve and our important work to continue. We must do all that we can to push the government to swerve again from the fiscal cliff and avoid terrible pain for people across the nation, especially those in need.

Danger! A Countdown to Calamity

John J. Drew, President/CEO, 

Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. 

On January 1, 2013, the U.S. Congress passed The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, swerving to avoid the “fiscal cliff” at the last moment. Did you breathe a sigh of relief? If so, that was premature. In the next ninety days, Community Action—and many other federally-supported activities—face three more life-or-death challenges. We need to negotiate each one successfully to ensure that the country’s fragile recovery continues—and to build a real foundation for future prosperity.

There are three opportunities for budget-cutters to make critical choices— bad choices could be devastating not only for poor people, but for all Americans.

1. First is the deadline for $110 billion in automatic budget cuts, or “sequestration,” which is coming up on February 28. (The “fiscal cliff” deal pushed this deadline back from the original date, January 2.)
2. The second is the brewing battle on increasing the federal debt ceiling, the maximum dollar amount imposed by Congress on the spending and borrowing by the U.S. Treasury.
3. The third is the need to vote on a so-called “continuing resolution” — allowing federal programs to keep spending money—before March 31, when the current funding runs out. You may remember that when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, deadlock on that vote caused a government shutdown.

Each of these votes will be a fight to determine which federally-funded programs survive.

What we need right now is for grown-ups to get into a room and work out an agreement where Congress and the Administration will come up with carefully thought out solutions to be implemented over the coming years rather than make a quick fix of cuts, cuts, cuts that will cause mass chaos and suffering.

A Fight for America

And this fight is much bigger than just Community Action. Clearly we have to fight sequestration cuts leveled at CSBG, and that must be our first priority. But we can’t afford to gut education, when even now too many poor children are headed for failure by the third grade. We can’t afford to hamstring medical research, especially when epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are disproportionately killing poor people and people of color. We need to insure that there will be government traffic controllers so that planes don’t bang into one another, food inspectors so that rotten meat doesn’t hit store shelves, doctors to combat the next flu epidemic, meteorologists to warn us about the next big storm, and border patrol agents to prevent illegal crossings.  We must continue—and expand—efforts to rebuild the national infrastructure, because the economy of the future depends on it.

These are all investments that get lumped into the 40% of federal spending called "discretionary". But the fact is that discretionary doesn’t mean "optional". These things affect everyone’s welfare—but when they are cut, poor people suffer most. And wholesale cuts in domestic discretionary spending are likely to send the country into another tailspin of recession. Those of us working in Community Action know that you can’t help communities rise out of poverty when the nation is in economic crisis. It is absolutely crucial that we don’t fall into the trap of pitting our interests against other domestic programs which represent the social compact that holds us together.

So what can we do? First, we need to stick together. Then, we have to take a serious look at how to manage the growth of Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. As difficult as this may be, there are steps we can take that will slow the rise in costs while preserving the safety net for the vulnerable. Without a fix to the present system, our young people won’t be able to count on adequate income for when they get old and many poor people who currently aren’t able to participate should be able to.  We also need to oppose any effort to exempt defense from the pain of budget cutting. And we need to keep revenue on the table in each of the three budget fights coming between now and April.

Above all, at a time when 12 million people are unemployed, 1 in 3 young workers are underemployed, and 1 in 4 children live in poverty, we need to raise our voices to say that any budget deal  should NOT increase poverty or exacerbate hardship for families struggling to make ends meet. Any budget plan must protect key programs that poor families depend on for housing, nutrition, heating their homes, obtaining quality child care, coping with aging issues and helping to meet basic needs during difficult times. And any budget deal must continue to invest in our shared future.

What Sequestration Means for America and Community Action

The automatic cuts, or "Sequestration", of $110 billion that was to take effect on January 2^nd, were delayed for two months to when the federal government reaches its spending and borrowing limit ("Debt Ceiling"). House Republicans are trying to tie any increases in the debt ceiling to increased spending cuts. Half of the sequester amount is to come from military spending and the other from domestic spending, but there is an effort underway by the influential and powerful to increase defense budget spending by imposing more draconian cuts to domestic programs, such as Head Start, housing, WIC, education, workforce training, LIHEAP, and so much more.

For American citizens and especially the low-income children, families and seniors we serve, sequestration will mean pain…acute pain. The immediate, automatic cuts to this year’s federal budget means a cut of 8.2 percent to most domestic programs, but because these cuts must be squeezed into the last seven months of the fiscal year, it means over a 15 percent cut to our programs.

We’re not just talking about federal agencies having to reduce costs and buy fewer military tanks or reduce office staff. Compounded over ten years, an 8.2 percent cut per year translates into many, many millions worth of budget reductions.  This means that huge numbers of the less fortunate among us – the most vulnerable in society – will lose services and programs funded by federal grants.

The 15 percent sequestration cut means that the following CAP/investment programs providing vital services and opportunities to poor Americans will be decimated:

• Head Start – At least 150,000 fewer poor children will receive comprehensive early childhood education services in Head Start, with major negative impact for the children and their families. Head Start provides low-income children with comprehensive educational, health and social services. Parents actively participate in the program, volunteering in classrooms, serving on boards and pursuing educational and career opportunities that benefit the entire family. Many Head Start children attend extended day and full-year programs that enable their parents to work and go to school. Research shows that Head Start children do better in school and life.
• Fuel Assistance – Approximately 1,332,000 households will lose fuel assistance, including many seniors and families with small children, making them vulnerable to hypothermia, danger from space heaters and other unsafe heating methods and severely impacting their lives. Increased costs to taxpayers comes from families leaving freezing homes for shelters, fires from unsafe heating methods, hospitalizations, children living in cold homes doing poorly in school, and more.
• Child Care – It is estimated that at least 150,000 low-income children will lose child care subsidies funded through the Child Care Development Block Grant. Without child care, parents will certainly lose their jobs and the affected families will be in danger of sliding into homelessness, food insecurity and other desperate outcomes resulting from loss of income. The end result will be loss of tax revenue and added costs to tax payers as once self-sufficient families must turn to government services.
• Housing – 3,017,226 families will lose Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, sending them, at huge government expense, to overflowing shelters and motels, if the states are willing to house them.  If not, there will be Dickensian squalor.  "Section 8" of the Housing Act of 1937 authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of low-income households. It is a lifeline for millions of working poor families whose income is not high enough to pay the excessive market rents that exist in so many communities.
• Women’s Health – Hundreds of thousands of low-income women will lose health maintenance and illness prevention services that keep them healthy and save tax payers’ money. Breast cancer screening, HIV testing and many other health measures will be lost to sequestration.
• Interconnected problems – cuts to one program will cause loss of a host of essential services and opportunitiescausing an even more devastating "snowball" effect. For example, if a family loses its housing and ends up in a shelter far from their original home, parents may not be able to get to work and will lose their jobs, children will be placed in new schools disrupting their education, physical illness can be exacerbated and emotional damage is often acute. Loss of child care usually means parents lose their jobs with subsequent risk of homelessness and other harsh consequences.

In addition, the U.S. Congress over the next few months will have to address additional fiscal challenges, including resolving a federal budget which began last October 1^st and expires on March 27^th; threatened changes to entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare; and significant natural disaster funding for Hurricane Sandy.

Overall, the cumulative effect of these harsh cuts is that the future of the country will be in jeopardy. Investments in education, job training, research, and technology will be sacrificed leaving millions without the knowledge and skills to move up the ladder of economic opportunity and pursue the American dream. The safety net will be destroyed, diminishing the hope of the disadvantaged to improve their quality of lives.

People from across the country must come together to fight these cuts and convince Congress, the administration and the American public that deficit reduction cannot take place on the backs of the poor. First, it is inhumane. Second, it won’t work! Cutting programs that make it possible for people to hold jobs, earn a living, stay healthy and pay taxes will NOT reduce the deficit!