A senior Democratic lawmaker and two prominent Democratic mayors blamed recent riots in Baltimore partly on a lack of government spending.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a member of the Democratic House leadership who is running for election to the Senate, told CNN that Republican spending cuts would exacerbate urban problems that have shocked the nation in the past week.
GOP budget proposals “will make poverty worse in places like Baltimore,” he said, adding “The child tax credit … helps millions of Americans. The proposal in Congress would scale back the child tax credit and put millions more Americans in poverty.
“We’ve got proposals to improve investments in child care, in early education, and also expand the earned income tax credit — something Republicans say they are for but have not put the money into the budget to address.”
CNN’s Michael Smerconish noted that Baltimore and other cities with some of the worst problems are governed by Democrats, but discussion focused primarily on the economic conditions.
Mayor Michael Nutter, of Philadelphia, said, “What we are really talking about is long term unemployment and under-employment especially in communities of color and especially African-American young men and boys.”
Mayor William Bell, of Birmingham, Ala., who is president of the African American Mayors Association, added, “This is not an African-American problem. This is not a Baltimore problem. This is an American problem. What we’ve got to do is come together at all levels of government to restore the social safety net that ensures that everyone gets a decent education … a decent job. That safety net is not there.”
