AFGE, Rainbow PUSH Coalition Protest Federal Shutdown at CDC
Michell Eloy/WABE
About 30 people picketed in front of the Centers for Disease Control today in protest of the partial government shutdown.As heard on the radio.
The small rally was organized by the Rainbow Push Coalition, one of a handful of protests held around the country and coordinated by the civil rights group headed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Rainbow Push Atlanta Executive Director Janice Mathis called on Congress to pass a clean spending bill, meaning one not tied to the Affordable Care Act.
“The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. It has spoken,” Mathis says. “The Affordable Care Act is law. And we ought not try and undo it by shutting down the government and holding not just the employees, but the American people hostage.”
Mathis says progress would take both sides sitting down to talk, but she blamed the U.S House Republicans for the current budget impasse, while chants of “shut down the shutdown” rang out from the small crowd.
Members of the southern district of the American Federal Government Employees Union also spoke at the rally, echoing Mathis’ calls for a spending plan not tied to the Affordable Care Act.
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