SEARCH
Alliance Members Generate Summer Heat on Social Security, Medicare
 |
With Labor Day approaching, the Alliance for Retired Americans is wrapping up more than 70 actions in more than two dozen states around the country this summer. The events have ranged from celebrating the anniversaries and successes of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to holding accountable presidential candidates and lawmakers.
In Las Cruces, N.M., Alliance members told Rep. Steve Pearce (R), who wants to privatize Medicare and force seniors to pay for health care with an underfunded voucher program, that if he really believed in privatization, he should drop his taxpayer-funded, government health coverage he receives as a member of Congress.
On the other hand, Alliance members, including Brenda Kelly Nelum from Dale City, Calif., joined House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to celebrate Medicare’s 46th anniversary. Said Nelum:
I just thought the public should know that this was the anniversary of a program that, as far as I can see, has been a success. If we didn’t have it, I don’t know if we could even afford our medicines….We would like to see the program there for younger people.
When Rep. Todd Platts (R-Pa.) went home to York, Pa., for the August congressional recess, Alliance members were there to protest his moves to privatize Social Security, cut benefits or raise the retirement age. To mark Social Security’s 76th anniversary, Alliance members and their allies delivered a piece of birthday cake to Platt’s office. Said Tony Eisenhour:
It’s not just about us, it’s about preserving it for future generations.
In San Francisco, several hundred Alliance members and other activists rallied outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D) office to urge her to forcefully come out to strengthen Social Security. Said California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) President Nan Brasmer:
We’re here today to ask Sen. Feinstein to tell us, her constituents, that she will support and champion Social Security, and fight against cuts and proposals to privatize the program by Congress, the Super Committee and even by the president, who keeps tossing it out on the table.
Just this past week, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, were told in no uncertain terms what Alliance members thought of their schemes to raise the Social Security retirement age, cut benefits or privatize the program.
Perry’s photo op at a New Hampshire pastry shop went a bit off his staff’s planned tracks, when Alliance members demanded he defend his bizarre claim that Social Security is unconstitutional. He refused.
Romney told a New Hampshire town hall meeting that he was a big supporter of Social Security. But after tough questioning by Alliance members, he admitted he supports raising the retirement age or cutting benefits as opposed to asking all taxpayers to pay a fair share to strengthen Social Security.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
10 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
“Alliance For Retired Americans” sounds like another phony “swift Boat” monacker to hide the real intent of the organization!
Representative Steven Pearce is so full of it, Medicare is ALREADY privatized … which is a dishonest term for “commercialized” medical pseudo-care! There is no difference between commercialized Medicare and Medicaid today and the commercialized U.S. Post Office, they both work to the detriment of the public, where once they were a great benefit to the public!
As I have said, over and over again, we need to replace dishonest Medicare and Medicaid with the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System as was promoted to Congress in 1993! And that means we must get Congress to reverse its out-lawing of Universal Health Care so we can get honest public medical care funding WITHOUT whoring itself as the Medicare System does to the INSURANCE-PHARMACEUTICAL-phony HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION-COMMERICIAL HOSPITAL CORPORATIONS, and instead, directly fund the clinics and physicians who DIRECTLY serve the public with REAL — not FOR-PROFIT COMMERCIAL CONSPIRACY — public health care!!! The corporations ALREADY SUCK 60% OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING RIGHT OUT OF MEDICARE, funding that could be used for REAL health care that will GENUINELY CURE people as well as do something Medicare does NOT do — KEEP PEOPLE HEALTHY IN THE FIRST PLACE !!!!!!!
What crawled up your shorts & bit you on your butt? look if you want to find something negative, you’ll find it, sure enough, but give the devil his due. This Alliance has been helpful to many folks out there & hopefully will continue to be. And what’s up with the slam to the Post Office? It’s countless benifits to the elderly(for instance- carrier alert), the poor& Hungry( for instance-stamp out hunger food drive which has collected Millions of pounds of food across the USA) the point is that there is an awful lot of positive action going on. I believe you may better serve your objective by embracing the positive while working to improve that which needs to be improved. If ya ain’t part of the solution ya may be part of the problem.~~~~In Unity
Dear Mr. Libris Fidelis,
While I AGREE with your basic premise–Universal (not-for-profit) National Health Care for All…STILL…I take personal exception to your opening statement:“Alliance For Retired Americans” sounds like another phony “swift Boat” monacker to hide the real intent of the organization!
I cannot speak for anyone other than R.U.F.F. (Retirees Unite For the Future)…better known locally in Savannah, GA. as “The RUFFians”. We are “allied” with the national organization…Alliance for Retired Americans and as President of the Savannah Chapter I can assure you we ARE NOT phonies. In point of fact The RUFFians” are a group of kick-ass and take names individuals predicated on activism and mutual assistance of present retirees and future retirees as well. WE BELIEVE that there are ONLY 2 types of people in the world—those that are retired AND those that wanna be!
Mr._Union, you need to do some research on the 1993 Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System that Congress rose up in ire over and insulted the Hawai’ian governor and Hawai’ian U.S. Senator over. Then you will know what you are talking about.
If you want to do that, you’re going to have to dump Obama for 2012, and get a real Democrat in there, someone like Kennedy or FDR. Everyone knows this jerk is just a puppet for Wall Street, who used the names of great visionaries like FDR, King, and Lincoln, to destroy their legacies. He put the cuts on the table, and gave the Republicans more than they even asked for. Now with this Supercongress, they and Obama will be working together to kill the poor, sick, elderly, underemployed and unemployed, while the Fed pumps backdoor bailouts to cover the gambling debts of Europe. Dump this fraud now.
MR L F .. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I AGREE WITH YOU .. IT IS NOTHING MORE THEN A BIG PHONY GAME BY THE PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST PARTY .. ASK YOUR SELF WHY DID THEY TAKE OUT 2.7 TRILLION FORM SOCIAL SECURITY AND WHERE DID IT GO ? DO WE GET THE SAME INTEREST BACK AS THE STIMULUS MONEY BORROWED 775 BILLION AT 350 BILLION INTEREST ?
OBAMA HAS TO GO .. DO YOU REMEMBER SAUL ALINSKY ? YOU CAN FIND HIM ON SEARCH SITES .. HE WAS OUT OF CHICAGO ! HE WROTE A BOOK ” RULES FOR RADICALS ” , MC CARTHY ERA , THE COMMUNIST PLAYED A ROLE IN THE CREATION OF THE “CIO” THE “PROGRESSIVE” COALITION OF THE INDUSTRIAL UNIONS – LED BY JOHN L. LEWIS … THE COMMUNIST PARTY WAS THE MAJOR POLITICAL FORCE ON THE AMERICAN LEFT ! ALINSKY SAW THEM AS POLITICAL ALLIES , IN 1969 IN HIS BOOK CALLED AFTERWORD , TO HIS BOOK “REVEILLE FOR RADICALS” .. MANY AMERICANS ARE AWAKE TO THERE HISTORY AND DIRECTION THERE TAKING AMERICA AND SO SO MANY AMERICANS ARE NOT LOOKING TO THE FACTS AND HISTORY .. WE DONT HAVE 2 PARTYS IN AMERICA .. WHAT WE HAVE IN THE COMMUNIST CALLING THEM SELF THE PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST FAR LEFT WING DEMOCART PARTY … THEN WE HAVE THE AMERICAN BORN CITIZENS WHO FOR THE LAST 40 YRS LISTEN TO CRIMINALS IN WASHINGTON SCREW THEM . WHAT NOW IS TO REPEAL OBAMA CARE FIRST AND THEN MOVE FORWARD WITH HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA … WE MUST LIVE BY A CONSTITUTION AND A BILL OF RIGHTS NOT THE WILL OF OBAMA .. OBAMA IS A FAN OF ALINSKY AND HE TOUGHT ALINSKY TEACHINGS IN CHICAGO AND WAS HEAD OF IT , THERE SAYING WAS “THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE , THE ISSUE IS ALWAYS THE REVOLUTION “, IN OTHER WORDS THE CAUSE WHETHER INNER CITY BLACKS OR WOMEN – IS NEVER THE REAL CAUSE , BUT ONLY AN OCCASION TO ADVANCE THE REAL CAUSE WHICH IS THE ACCUMULATION OF POWER TO MAKE THE REVOLUTION . THAT WAS THE ALL CONSUMING FOCUS OF ALINSKY AND HIS RADICALS ..
HILLARY CLINTON MET SAUL ALINSKY 1N 1969 AT WELLESLEY COLLEGE, THE YEAR THEY REISSUED ALINSKY BOOK “REVILLE FOR RADICALS” SHE DID A 92 PAGE THESIS FOR HER PROJECT, HER TITLE ” THERE IS ONLY ONE FIGHT ” SHE HAD TAKEN OUT ALINSKYS MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE RADICAL CAUSE, WAS ” HIS EMBARCE OF POLITICAL NIHILISM ” ” THE ISSUES IS NEVER THE ISSUE , THE ISSUE IS AWAYS THE REVOLUTION ” THERE OUR ALL STUDENTS TO THE ALINSKY TEACHINGS AND ALL HIS ADVOCATES .. TO ME AND MANY OF US THERE ARE BRING DOWN AMERICA .. LOOK AT BILL WITH HIS NAFTA AND THEN 17 COMMITTEES OF PROGRESSIVE CONTROL THE EPA , THE ENVIORNMENTALIST , AND THE LIST GOES ON .. I COULD GO ON WITH MUCH FACTS AND NAMES AND DATES ..
IS IT 2012 YET ?
This Labor Day we should be out in force. Lets go back to parades, rallies, and may be a gaint picnic, where all are families can show are power
All the programs are going broke. What to do? Nothing? socialist programs always go broke. Look at Greece,Spain. Its a sure thing that it will fail.
THAT isn’t what happened SwearTo–WHO ????
If you’d pay attention to the news and stop formulating fantasy scenarios, you might learn something. I’ve already described in previous postings how the phony-financial-crises originated and fooled governments around the world! And your use of “socialist programs” really is way off-base! Societies who take care of their populations in a Democracy-manner always thrive! Just like our country once did before our government became “corporatized”, which “corporatization” you prefer obviously by your ranting mis-directed propaganda!!!!
The failure comes when the elite get all of the benefits and society is made to wallow in the gutter on its belly!
As a unionman, IBEW Local 134, and baby boomer I am furious that biggest group of Americans is being taken advantage of. It is the first U.S. generation that was asked to not only pay for the current retirees, but also thier own retirement. This is because in the beggining of the U.S. social security program there was 15 to 16 workers paying for every retiree. But now with the horrible U.S. free trade policy, outsourcing and H1B visas to give away as amany U.S. jobs from Americans the ratio is closer to 3 workers for every retiree. And looks to get worse.
I have written the strongest lobbying force in the U.S. : AARP. Because seniors show and vote, and fight for their rights and benefits. Not this lie of entitlements, or greedy seniors. But even the AARP seems to only care about current retirees and is willing to allow future baby boomers to get screwed and do little to fight this.
There is a war on future seniors on their rights and benefits, to cut now before the U.S. can no longer afford to pay for the benefits. Benefits that where taken out payroll taxes. Somehow all of a sudden now future seniors should sacrifice. With the age to collect every rising, reduction in cost of living increases (colas).
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has said that the Congressional budget office estimates if the social security tax cap was raised from $106,000 to $250,000 it would save social security for 75 years.
But it is too much to ask the well to do pay their fair share.
If it is a hot summer now with senior rallies wait until there is millions more angrier seniors getting shafted. And future generations will see that they will be asked to give more in retirement benefits!