Four different rallies will take place in Pennsylvania’s First District on Friday to draw attention to MAGA Republicans who are refusing to increase the debt ceiling while being aware of the disastrous financial repercussions it will cause.
The United States will run out of money on June 1 and has never before defaulted on its debt.
“Congress voted for annual budgets, and it is the height of irresponsibility to not pay our bills,” said Laura Rose of Indivisible Bucks County and organizer of the Langhorne event.
Rose added that Republicans had no difficulty raising the debt ceiling during Donald Trump’s presidency and described the MAGA outrage as artificial.
Karen Rodriguez of Indivisible Bucks County and organizer of the Bensalem event believes the far-right GOP is holding the nation’s economy hostage.
“They are refusing to fulfill their responsibilities, and our nation cannot afford these games,” Rodriguez said. “They are using this situation to pursue drastic and unpopular cuts to services for kids, seniors and veterans, and we will not be silent in the face of their inhumane plans.”
In exchange for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans are proposing budget cuts that would undermine medical care for veterans, slash funding for schools with low-income students and students with disabilities, eliminate preschool and child care for hundreds of thousands of children, strip nutrition assistance from millions of women, infants, and children, eliminate Meals on Wheels for more than one million seniors, raise housing costs for hundreds of thousands, scale back rail safety inspections, cut Medicaid by introducing work reporting requirements, among other things.
“This [Republican] bill is vague by design—but that doesn’t obscure the fact that it will force devastating cuts that will hurt millions of people, damage our economy, and undermine our national security,” noted a White House press release.
“Brian Fitzpatrick and the GOP at large have voted to make life harder for some of the most vulnerable folks in our community,” said Connor O’Hanlon, co-organizer of the Doylestown rally, chair of the Doylestown Democrats, and host of the Greater Society Podcast. “By voting to cut vital support for seniors and veterans, they have shown what their priorities are – and they most certainly aren’t working to help average folks like us.”
In an attempt to ensure the United States does not default on its debts, Pennsylvania Representative Brendan Boyle (D-PA02 ), the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee, filed a Discharge Petition on Wednesday. If enough signatures are gathered, the petition will force a vote on the House floor to raise the debt ceiling. The petition serves to increase pressure on “moderate” Republicans to sign onto the petition to force a vote as the default day nears.
For years Representative Fitzpatrick has billed himself as a “moderate” and with only two weeks until the default deadline, organizers of Friday’s event are encouraging constituents to call his office and demand he sign onto the petition.
Locations and times of the events are staggered and include One Summit Square in Langhorne from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m., New Street parking lot (across from Dock Street), New Hope from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., 55 East Court Street, Doylestown from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m., and Bensalem Plaza Shopping Center parking lot on Street Road, Bensalem from 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
A large mobile billboard with compelling graphics will be traveling to each event to highlight the impending crisis and draw additional public attention to the need for raising the debt ceiling.
Local grassroots activists, along with Indivisible Bucks County, Elders Indivisible, and Indivisible Lambertville/New Hope organized the multiple events.
Additional information about the MAGA Default Crisis Week of Action is outlined on the Indivisible National website.
