Sequestration In Harlan County
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Suzy Khimm has some terrific reporting about the horrible effects of the sequester in rural Appalachia. A teaser:
But sequestration—a series of across-the-board spending cuts that many Tea Party Republicans have come to embrace—and other austerity measures have accelerated the economic free fall. Unemployment benefits to laid-off miners are shrinking; fewer meals are getting delivered to homebound seniors; and there’s less money to help workers retool for new jobs. Beginning Friday, food stamps will be cut by an average of $36 per month for a family of four.
It’s yet another blow to struggling Appalachian mining towns like Harlan, where the mayor estimates that 15% of the town’s residents have moved out in the past year, searching for work elsewhere.
The whole thing is very much worth reading. I wish I was more hopeful that more voters in districts like this would recognize that even if their own GOP representative opposes the worst policies a vote for Republican control of the House is a vote for a war on the poor.