All the excitement from Wisconsin and Indiana is spreading to Derby City.
Tomorrow at noon, protesters will gather downtown, outside of Rand Paul’s Louisville office, to protest budget cuts, and the union-busting bills currently sweeping the country.
“We’re here today to protest Rand Paul’s support of the Republicans’ incredibly dangerous proposed cuts to the budget,” said Kelley Rouda, one of the organizers of the event.
“At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, it doesn’t make sense to cut programs that working families depend on. Instead, we should invest in America by making corporations and millionaires pay their fair share, not by punishing working Americans.”
Demonstrators plan to share their experiences in making their way through the broken economy, of how the Republican budget cut proposals would impact them, and of how unions have improved their lives.
Republicans recently proposed over $100 billion in cuts to the federal budget, which would include cutting Pell grants to 137,000 Kentucky students, funding for local school improvements, job retraining programs, school readiness programs for pre-schoolers, mental health services. community development block grants, funds for clean drinking water, public housing, and many others.
The demonstration is not only a protest, however. It is a show of support for the demonstrators in Wisconsin and Indiana, and the Democrats in both states who have walked out to prevent the union-busting bills from being voted upon. Indiana’s protests have begun to bear fruit, though the protests have not ended, according to the Indianapolis Star.
The protest tomorrow outside the federal building at Martin Luther King Jr Plaza, is a precursor to demonstrations being planned for Saturday in state capitols across the country. One such is being planned for Frankfort.
Updates will be forthcoming.
