Chris Matthews: 'Women Are Going to Die This Week' Because of Sequester Shelter Cuts
Liberal anchor Chris Matthews on Monday suggested that sequester cuts impacting shelter and housing funds could result in "some women" "dying this week." Matthews brought on the former National Organization for Women Chairman Kim Gandy to warn of impending death.
(The Hardball host didn't identify Gandy's work for the very liberal NOW. Instead, he described her as the President of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.)
Matthews derided, "How do you get the members of Congress to say, look, some women are going to die this week because these shelters are closing their doors to them?" The anchor introduced the segment by reminding, "We've put a spotlight on the people and the organizations taking the brunt of this arbitrary, across-the-board, spending cuts known as sequester."
He continued, "Today, we focus on something pretty scary. It's cuts to funding of victims of domestic violence."
A partial transcript is below:
06/10/13
5:53
CHRIS MATTHEWS: We've put a spotlight on the people and the organizations taking the brunt of this arbitrary, across-the-board, spending cuts known as sequester. It's still going on, by the way. And as you might imagine, it's the most vulnerable among us taking the hits.
MATTHEWS: Today, we focus on something pretty scary. It's cuts to funding of victims of domestic violence.
...
MATTHEWS: Let's talk turkey, Kim. How do you fight this? Who do you have to talk to? Is there anybody that you have been able to find -- we used to call it in wrestling, I guess, pressure points. I imagine these things. I didn't wrestle. But you look for the way to pin the person. How do you get the members of Congress to say, "look, some women are going to die this week because these shelters are closing their doors to them"?
KIM GANDY (Natl. Network to End Domestic Violence): Well, that's exactly the message that we're giving. We had the state executive directors from nearly every state in the country, along with their shelter advocates here in Washington just last week, on Capitol Hill, meeting one by one. Illinois, I know met with 18 different members to say what is happening to them, what is really happening out there. One member of Congress referred to the amount of money at stake here as budget dust. It's such a small amount of money. The program, Family Violence Prevention Services Act, program that funds the core services for most of the shelters in the country is authorized at $175 million. It's being funded now at $121 million. And even that's being cut. The difference, $50 million, lives, many lives. Lives of our neighbors, our friends, and our family members. And $50 million in this budget is nothing.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
