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Activists Protest Federal Budget Cuts To Poverty Programs

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- The poor - and those who work to help the poor - held a large noontime rally in the Loop to protest what they say are federal budget cuts that will leave them in the lurch.

In the crowd - sitting on the front row - was 54-year-old Janet Edburg of Chicago, who is an advocate for the unemployed and is herself without a job.

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"I've been unemployed for a little over two years,'' she said. "I was working for 32 years over at a company and haven't been able to find work."

Edburg says she is not able to help her mother.

"And my mother is by herself. And it's hard to see a family go through this. Sorry, but I get emotional... I don't even know what I'm going to do. All I can do is just keep fighting."

Edburg says Congress can find the money.

"They just don't want to have to take it from the rich."

Several hundred people were at the rally in the Thompson Center auditorium with an overflow crowd of as many outside.

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