Facebook Users Cancel Protest to Dump Trash at Boehner's Residence
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A group of Facebook users in Washington, D.C. have cancelled a protest planned for Saturday to dump their trash outside of House Speaker John Boehner's residence after Congress struck a budget deal averting a government shutdown.
Democratic activists Jonah Goodman and Nolan Treadway, who were angry that a shutdown would have halted trash collection in Washington, had organized the protest.
"We want to thank the 8,700+ of you who joined our demands in the last 48 hours to fight for basic democratic principles of semi-self governance," they wrote. Moments ago, a very orange Speaker of the House just announced that he caved into some of our demands. This is Victory Accomplished. Ok not really but, since the shutdown has been averted, Saturday's event is CANCELED."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}More than 5,600 people had committed to dumping their trash at Boehner's residence Saturday. The organizers said their protest wasn't over a budget not getting passed in Congress, but rather the lack of control that DC's local government has over its own affairs, which would be made painfully clear during a work stoppage.
The nation's capital is treated as a federal agency and runs mostly on federal money, and a shutdown would have brought basic services like trash collection to a grinding halt.
"Fortunately, our mayor can exempt our police, firefighters and teachers but most of the rest of our local government will shut down because members of Congress won't give us autonomy to budget and spend our own money," they wrote "We are protesting at Speaker Boehner's house because he has the power to put bills on the floor of the House he controls to fix this."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Goodman identifies himself as the lead designer for the Democratic National Committee's website until December and Treadway says he is the political and logistics director for the liberal group Netroots Nation.
They asked Boehner to support three bills pending in the House that would give D.C. more control over its budget.
When in Washington, Boehner resides on Capitol Hill, but his spokesman Michael Steel responded Friday that protesters would have to travel farther.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The speaker's house is in Ohio," he told FoxNews.com.