{"id":888,"date":"2025-03-13T02:46:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T02:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/?p=888"},"modified":"2025-03-13T05:57:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T05:57:46","slug":"dc-dems-maga-republicans-two-sides-of-the-same-coin-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/888","title":{"rendered":"DC Dems, MAGA Republicans: Two Sides of the Same Coin?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On December 17, 2024<\/a>, the DC Council gave final approval to the Downtown Arena Revitalization Act<\/a>, locking in over half a billion dollars in taxpayer-funded renovations for Capital One Arena. The deal ensures the Washington Capitals and Wizards stay in DC through at least 2050.<\/font><\/p>\n

That means the Mayor and your City Council members (all Democrats or \u201cindependent\u201d Democrats) signed off on this massive capital investment for a billionaire\u2019s play space<\/a>\u2014just weeks after Donald Trump was re-elected. Your tax dollars on corporate welfare layaway, <\/b>and they\u2019re not done yet.<\/font><\/p>\n

With the new year and 2025 inauguration,\u00a0Mayor Bowser<\/a> and several high-profile Councilmembers<\/a> kicked off a tour cheering on the return of the Washington Football Team to a revitalized RFK Stadium<\/a>\u2014a project that could cost DC taxpayers hundreds of millions, if not a billion dollars, to fund yet another luxury sports venture.<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

Then in February, the U.S. President demanded DC city officials address the growing “unsightly” tent encampments. DC Mayor, Muriel Bowser acknowledged Trump's directive<\/a> and on <\/b>March 7, 2025, she sent in bulldozers to destroy encampments sheltering DC residents already displaced by the city\u2019s worsening affordability crisis\u2014giving unhoused residents just one day's notice to vacate, a clear departure from the city\u2019s usual 14-day policy.\u00a0 She then turned those machines on Black Lives Matter plaza that has really upset Jamie Foxx<\/a> <\/font>among others<\/a><\/font>.<\/font><\/p>\n

And now, that same DC Mayor and the whole gaggle of DC City Councilmembers stand before a Republican-controlled<\/b> federal government<\/a>, pleading for mercy\u2014asking Congress not to slash $1 billion<\/b> from DC\u2019s local budget, warning of devastating impacts to human services and vital programs.<\/font><\/p>\n

The gaslighting feels staggering.<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

Year after year, DC\u2019s leaders prioritize giving away public property and financing to construct stadiums, luxury condos, and high-end hotels\u2014while barely maintaining scraps of funding for truly affordable housing. Worse yet, they continue to annually flirt with cutting housing vouchers, emergency rental assistance, and critical social services that working-class and poor residents rely on for survival, including the most recent legislation making it easier for slumlords to evict struggling working DC families<\/a> from their homes (warning: link to gov spin website).<\/font><\/p>\n

Democrats, Republicans\u2014two sides of the same coin?<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Chris Otten<\/div>\n

— <\/span><\/p>\n

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DC for Reasonable Development
(202) 854-8327\u202c<\/span>
www.dc4reason.org<\/a><\/div>\n
fb.me\/dc4reality<\/a><\/div>\n
twitter.com\/dc4reality<\/a><\/p>\n

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On December 17, 2024, the DC Council gave final approval to the Downtown Arena Revitalization Act, locking in over half a billion dollars in taxpayer-funded renovations for Capital One Arena. The deal ensures the Washington Capitals and Wizards stay in DC through at least 2050. That means the Mayor and your City Council members (all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59,58,60,61],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates","tag-dc","tag-dc4rd","tag-development","tag-displacement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}