One day before $85 billion worth of automatic, across-the-board cuts to domestic and defense programs kicked in, a panel of five policy experts painted a dire picture of the effects on communities of color, including Latinos, Native Americans, Asians and African Americans.

One specialist, Ellen Nissenbaum, senior vice president for Government Affairs at the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities in Northwest, said sequestration could have been avoided.

"This is absolutely a man-made creation. We didn't ever foresee sequestration which is the victory of their goals," she said of the Republicans in Congress who refused to come to an agreement with President Barack Obama and their Democratic counterparts. "Everyone agreed to 10 years with a hammer. But the hammer is so attractive to some representatives."

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At an event hosted by the Northwest-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, titled, "The Impact of Sequestration on the Health and Well-Being of Communities of Color", panelists said minority communities who depend on federal assistance programs will be disproportionately affected.

"While most Americans will feel the impact of the sequestration, it will have a devastating effect on communities of color as the budget axe falls on programs that many low-income people rely upon to stay healthy," said Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center at the March 1 discussion. "To pull the rug out from under them would not be wise. Without investment today, we will pay a higher price down the road."

Read more at The Washington Informer.

For more than a year, Americans have heard a steady drumbeat about the dangers of the proverbial fiscal cliff from politicians, pundits and others.

When the clock strikes 12 on December 31, we've been told, an economic and financial time bomb will be triggered that will drag the country back into recession, cause stock markets to tumble, unleash another layer of unemployment and saddle middle-class Americans with thousands of dollars of additional taxes each year.

While dramatic, this scenario is unlikely to play out as forecast, said one local economist.

"On January 1, we will have started down a path where a range of people in a wide swath of life will suffer. We're expecting a hatchet on January 1 and everyone will be bleeding but it won't work out that way," said Wilhelmina Leigh, Ph.D., a senior research associate on economic security issues at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Northwest. "I think there are some clear, negative likely implications if we go off the fiscal cliff. Lights wouldn't go off but people may have to burn lights six hours a day and eat two meals instead of three. All the cuts will be spread out over the next decade so you won't see its effects instantly. This might have been done for people to buy time or it might have been the least painful way – if you have to suffer, it's better to spread it out."

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Following the first debate between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, talk show host Bill Moyers said: "Romney was widely lauded as the winner of the first presidential debate. The loser, many agreed, was the truth..."

Both men clashed at the University of Denver on Wednesday, Oct. 3, offering their prescriptions on domestic and economic issues before moderator Jim Lehrer.

Jill Sheppard-Davenport, and her husband Lee, joined more than 100 people at a debate watch party at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Northwest.

"I enjoyed watching it and definitely approved of Obama's concentration on substance," said Sheppard-Davenport, a mental health specialist who has lived in the District for two years. "Romney engaged the audience but I got a little frustrated because it's not easy to look at a guy and say the things he did wrong, but I heard a lot more of that from Romney than what he would do going forward."

Conservative commentator and talk show host Armstrong Williams and Steve Walker, deputy national political director of the Democratic National Committee, who engaged in a mini-debate before the telecast, summarized the strong points of the candidates and explained what each needed to do to be deemed successful.

Read more at The Washington Informer.