Jacob Cohn Photo
Stephen Monroe Tomczak (left) and other demonstrators at Rosa DeLauro’s office.
“Don’t let them default on the American dream.”
That was the message the American Dream Movement, an alliance of left-leaning organizations, wanted to send to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro at a gathering at her downtown New Haven office Tuesday afternoon that drew around 30 demonstrators. It was one of a series of demonstrations at Congressional offices nationwide aimed at influencing last-minute action on the federal debt ceiling.
The group wanted to “say, ‘Thank you so much for standing firm for social security, Medicare, Medicaid and the hard-won gains made by working people,’” said Stephen Monroe Tomczak, co-coordinator of the New Haven council of MoveOn.org, who led the demonstrators into DeLauro’s office for a meeting with staff assistant Jennifer Lamb. Te group also wanted to encourage her to stand firm with her colleagues on the House Progressive Caucus in opposition to spending cuts.
The protest came one week before the deadline for a deal on raising the debt ceiling; if the ceiling is not raised, the federal government may default on its debts. Monday night saw dueling addresses by President Barack Obama and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner making their cases to the American public. The group gathered at DeLauro’s office rejected Obama’s rhetoric of compromise as well as Boehner’s defense of a plan to “cut, cap and balance.”
George Levinson, a semi-retired consulting engineer, said he wanted to encourage DeLauro to “stand firm for no cuts in Social Security and Medicare.” He said he sees default as a strong possibility but that it might have some positive results.
“The powers that will suffer need to come down to earth,” Levinson said. “It’s time for their wealth to take a kick in the ass.”
Henry Lowendorf, chair of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, said that DeLauro’s votes on both foreign policy and economic concerns have been “contradictory” and that she declined to support the budget proposed by the Progressive Caucus, instead endorsing Obama’s proposal.
The group wanted to “show people support positive things Rosa’s voted for and are against the negative things,” Lowendorf said.
DeLauro has spoken on the House floor against the Cut, Cap and Balance Act proposed by House Republicans and voted against it, as did all but five House Democrats.