Young People #StormCongress; Demand Fair Deal on Fiscal Cliff Negotiations [VIDEO]

Posted Wednesday, December 5, 2012 by Emily Crockett & Pratik Panda

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  • Young People #StormCongress; Demand Fair Deal on Fiscal Cliff Negotiations [VIDEO]

A diverse coalition of students and young organizers took to the Capitol on Monday, pressuring their representatives to support the middle class and reach a deal focused on the 98 percent in the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

If a deficit-reduction deal is not reached before Jan. 1, automatic across-the-board spending cuts will wreak havoc on the budgets for education, transportation, public safety, medical research, and environmental protection. Furthermore, keeping additional tax breaks for income above $250,000 could cost middle-class families $2,000 a year.

"Congress should know that young people are being educated and mobilized on this issue—in and outside of Washington," said Eduardo Garcia, the advocacy manager at Campus Progress and one of the lead organizers of the lobby day. "We're going to continue to organize our communities until Congress reaches a deal that works for young Americans and their families."

Organizers and participants of the lobby day said any deal that would extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent at the expense of the middle class and those in need would be unacceptable.

The young lobbyists, some seasoned and some there for the first time, recieved an orientation session covering the basics.

The big takeaways:

  1. Don't worry if you don't know every granular policy detail; you are the expert on how these cuts could affect your community and your family. 
  2. Split up roles—facilitator, note-taker, somebody to provide personal testimony, somebody to deliver the core message and the "ask."
  3. While talking to a congressperson (or more likely an aide), be professional and personable—but know that they might hedge or be vague, so try to get them to commit to protecting the middle class.
Kelsey Crane and Jacquie Ayana, both from Florida, spoke to one of Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Fla.) aides. Crane, who worries about being able to afford grad school if tuition goes up, emphasized the need to prevent cutting education in favor of tax breaks for the wealthy. Ayana, a Southern Energy Network staffer, who recalled standing in two feet of water post-Sandy at an intersection in Miami Beach, discussed the human costs of cutting infrastructure and environmental investment. It was a friendly exchange, but the aide didn't have much to offer aside from directing activists to the website and saying that Sen. Rubio thinks we can neither cut nor tax our way out of this.
 
"I was kind of dismissed when I was there," said University of Nevada, Las Vegas student Tathyana Edirisinghe, who said she tried and failed to get an appointment to talk to Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada. But she said the experience only motivated her: Next time, she wants to try harder and work to keep politicians like that out of office.
 
Other groups had better luck in their meetings. UNLV student Nathaniel Phillipps said Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) aides asked his group to help pressure members of Congress to sign a discharge petition forcing a vote on the middle-class tax cuts. That would be a kind of line in the sand to make lawmakers decide whether to publicly side with the middle class.
 
"We need to know which members of Congress really aren't interested in supporting the 98 percent, students, young people, people of color, working poor people—which ones only care about a small, selfish interest of those who aren't paying their fair share," Phillipps said.
 
Most of the budding lobbyists came away energized by doing their part to hold their politicians accountable.
 
"Too often people see the youth voice as the exception...but the youth vote does care and get out there," Crane said.
 

Emily Crockett is a reporter with Campus Progress. Follow her on Twitter @emilycrockett. Pratik Panda is an Online Communications Intern for Campus Progress. Follow him on Twitter at @adnap08.

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