On Tuesday, Washington CAN! and our allies headed to Olympia to protest the Special Session and the additional $2 billion in budget cuts that are going to be made. Tuesday’s events focused on the personal stories of those affected by the cuts, putting a face to the growing 99% movement.
Who are the 99%? Hundreds answered that question by sharing their 99% story in photo form. Take a look at the stories that were collected throughout the day! We urged our Legislators to take into account the human cost of the budget cuts and stop passing all-cuts budgets.
Our group of 300 or so marched from the Capitol Theater to the Capitol Building, chanting and holding hundreds of red 99% balloons with people’s stories attached to them. Once the crowd arrived at the Capitol Building, we tied our hundreds of balloons to the railing on the steps outside the Capitol Building, where we held a rally focusing on the importance of health care, education and social service programs to our communities. Take a look at photos from the day on our Facebook album.
Washington families and communities are feeling the pain; $10 billion in cuts to health care, education and vital human & social service programs means that people are getting by on less, when the need is greater than ever. Sharon Shaw, a Seattle small business owner shared her story at the rally:
My husband and I have been self-employed for more than 20 years, living the supposed American dream. One of the major contributing factors to our ability to stay self-employed is Basic Health. To insure my family without Basic Health would cost more than my mortgage. We cannot afford any more cuts to the budget. I am the 99%.
It’s time to end unfair tax breaks and raise revenue. Everyone needs to pay their fair share to help fix our economy.
A big thank you to everyone who joined us and everyone who shared their story. Let’s keep working together to ensure that our legislators don’t pass another all-cuts budget!
