As lawmakers race against time to work out a deal on the
federal budget before the dreaded “fiscal cliff” goes into effect,
protesters on Thursday called on U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin to reject any
plan that results in spending cuts to the country’s social safety net.
More
than 100 demonstrators gathered in Federal Plaza for what organizers
described as their effort to pressure the Democratic lawmaker to stand
firm on a fiscal plan that allows the Bush-era tax cuts to expire
for the top 2 percent of Americans, or those earning more than $250,000
a year.
Protestors were also calling on Durbin, who served on President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform,
to reject proposed cuts to social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid
and Social Security, saying such a move would have a Great
Depression-style effect for the most vulnerable of Americans.
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As lawmakers continue to make little progress in their negotiations
over the federal budget, local senior rights advocates warn that
proposed cuts in spending to the country’s social safety net would
negatively affect many of the state’s elderly and most vulnerable
residents.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says the fiscal cliff can be avoided if lawmakers make the right choices and outlined a progressive plan for them to do just that. The Senate's number 2 Democrat says taxes are the first issue that needs to be addressed followed by reforming entitlements; the latter of which Republicans are adamant about tying to any deal that addresses the fiscal cliff.