Van Jones Leads Protest Against Proposed Budget Cuts

By Gabrielle Pfafflin

Liberal activist group MoveOn.org rallied approximately 200 people on the Capitol lawn Thursday to protest widespread budget cuts proposed to reduce the federal deficit.

Concerns centered around steep budget cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as federal job creation programs, food stamps and affordable housing projects.

“America does not have a deficit because we helped Grandma too much,” said former White House ‘Green Jobs’ Advisor Van Jones. “We’re not in a deficit because of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”

Jones, who now operates at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, was forced to resign from his White House post in September 2009 after it was discovered that he had signed onto a petition earlier in life for a group put together by so-called “9/11 Truthers.”

“We are here today to stand up to preserve the American dream, which is turning into a nightmare,” said
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).

As she tore paper that was meant to be seen as a copy of House Speaker Boehner’s (R-Ohio) debt limit proposal, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) passionately likened the rally to Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington.

“I’m tearing this up and standing with the Constitution,” she proclaimed.