Congressional Black Caucus: Give us $1.5 billion or our constituents will riot

Another shakedown of the American taxpayer:

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and others on Thursday said unemployment rates in the inner cities are well above the national average and could lead to violence by inner-city youth during the hot summer.

They said their $1.5 billion jobs bill should be approved as "emergency" legislation, which would negate pay-as-you-go rules stipulating that bills must be offset with other spending cuts or revenue-raisers. The legislation has already been approved by the House, but is stalled in the Senate.

"We all want to reduce the deficit — we understand that and we get that," Lee said at a press conference. "Many of us supported pay-go, but we also supported it understanding that the provisions for emergency spending were there if such a designation were made. And this is an emergency."

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said youth violence had already begun but would likely escalate over the summer after school lets out and the young are turned out onto the streets with no job to keep them out of trouble.

"This is an emergency," he said. "If we don't act quickly, we will regret it sometime over the middle of the summer."