Senate Hearing Room Erupts into Chant: ‘We Are the 99 Percent!’
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Today’s National Day of Action, called by Rebuild the Dream, the Alliance for Retired Americans and embraced by members of the Occupy movement, took an unlikely turn on Capitol Hill, as working and retired Americans joined together to tell lawmakers not to balance the budget on the backs of the 99 percent, as a joint congressional committee has threatened to do through proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
In a packed hearing room at the U.S. Senate, participants in a “Jobs, Not Cuts!” rally, keynoted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), erupted into the chant that has come to identify the Occupy movement: “We are the 99 percent!” Most of the chanters bore little resemblance to the stereotyped image of an Occupy protester—many were senior citizens, and the young people in the audience bore a distinctly clean-cut look.
It all served to prove Sanders’ point that mainsteram American wants the wealthiest Americans to pay more taxes, and they want Congress not to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Sanders said: Read the rest of this entry »
Massachusetts Workers Mobilize as Deficit Deadline Looms
AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this report.
As the congressional Super Committee’s deadline for a federal deficit reduction plan nears, more than 2,600 teachers, ironworkers, construction workers, nurses and others took to the streets in Massachusetts in recent days with a single message: no cuts.
Labor leaders and workers across the state have petitioned Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to pledge to protect America’s workers from devastating cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and have been making their voices heard—through postcards, forums with their members of Congress, resolutions and even an electronic billboard or two.
“We’re here to say no cuts to Social Security, no cuts to Medicare, no cuts to Medicaid, no cuts to the Postal Service,” Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman told thousands of workers and seniors from across New England at the Wang Theater in Boston,
and we want it for you, we want it for us and we want it for our children and grandchildren.
Tell Congress ‘No’ to Super Committee Cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid
The AFL-CIO is launching a campaign and gearing up its 700,000 online activists to tell Congress that the proposals by both Republicans and Democrats on the federal budget deficit “Super Committee” to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are “simply unacceptable,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a telephone press conference this morning.
He told reporters that the union movement will:
continue to mobilize in communities to ensure that working Americans aren’t asked to bear even more of the brunt of Wall Street greed. Now is the moment to restore balance in our economy. The absolute wrong way to do that is to take a machete to the safety net that we’ve spent years building.
You can join the action to fight the proposed cuts to these essential middle-class provisions by texting DEBT to 235246 to send a message to your lawmakers.
Trumka: Proposed Super Committee Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid Unacceptable
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today reaffirmed that the AFL-CIO opposes any cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits or to the federal contribution to Medicaid and he criticized Senate Democrats on the “Super Committee” for proposing—according to news reports—hundreds of billions of cuts.
He says that while Republicans proposed even bigger and more harmful cuts to these essential middle class benefits,
these Super Committee Democrats have put all their concessions on the table up front in the vain hope that the Republicans might reciprocate. But it doesn’t work that way. In this political climate, concessions beget more concessions—not a workable compromise.
To join in the fight to opposes cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid text DEBT to 235246.
AFGE, Allies Rally Against Social Security Administration Budget Cuts
Today, AFGE members who work for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and their allies are staging informational pickets outside some 140 Social Security offices around the nation. They are protesting huge proposed budget cuts that would severely impact services to the elderly, disabled and children.
Joining the AFGE members are activists from the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Strengthen Social Security campaign and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
The cuts would mean many of the agency’s 1,500 field offices would be forced to close, phone calls would go unanswered and benefit applications and other critical workloads would become seriously backlogged, resulting in delayed and incorrect benefit payments. Says Witold Skwierczynski, president of AFGE’s Council of Field Operations Locals:
Cutting Social Security’s budget at a time that record baby boomers are seeking benefits is another example of bad Washington politics. These cuts will only punish Americans who count on Social Security and Medicare by adding to backlogs and limiting assistance for our seniors, the disabled and families that have lost a parent or spouse. Read the rest of this entry »
Workers Urge Sen. Kerry to Strengthen Social Security, Not Cut It
AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this report.
With the deadline looming for members of a congressional “supercommittee” to decide how to cut the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion, local labor, religious and progressive activists took to the soapbox this week to petition Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the only member of the supercommittee from New England, to oppose any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Labor leaders in Worchester joined the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and Rep. Jim McGovern for a forum this week that outlined the serious toll that proposed changes to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would take on ordinary Americans. McGovern emphasized that the programs are essentially solvent, and that Social Security would pay out 100 percent of its obligations through 2036.
Paul Soucy, a representative from the United Steelworkers (USW), explained that raising the eligibility age for Social Security would endanger the lives of workers in hazardous occupations.
Seniors Head to Capitol Hill to Protect Social Security, Medicare
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The congressional Super Committee formally begins its work today and hundreds of seniors are fanning out over Capitol Hill to deliver a message to their members of Congress: Keep your hands off Social Security and Medicare.
Members of the Alliance for Retired Americans will take the afternoon off from their annual legislative conference to make sure the Super Committee does not slash these vital safety nets for America’s seniors.
Under the debt ceiling agreement Congress reached in August, the Super Committee is charged with recommending at least $1.2 trillion in budget cuts that Congress must approve by Christmas. If it doesn’t, the difference would be made up by automatic spending cuts, divided evenly among defense and many domestic programs.
Jobs Plan Must Be ‘Big, Bold,’ Groups Tell Obama
In a letter to President Obama, 70 progressive groups urge the president to use tonight’s address to the nation on jobs and the economy to present a plan that is “big, bold and creates jobs directly.”
With 25 million Americans out of work, or only able to find part-time work when they want and need full-time jobs, aggressive action is needed.
They also say that “tax cuts and incentives for corporations have repeatedly failed to put Americans back to work.”
It is time to move beyond these half measures designed to appeal to a narrow ideological minority who have repeatedly shown their unwillingness to negotiate and disinterest in real solutions.
Click here for the full letter.
Meanwhile, the Strengthen Social Security coalition is calling on Obama to stand firm against cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The group is mounting an e-mail petition campaign demanding the president spare those vital programs from cuts as he and the so-called budget deficit Super Committee negotiate.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are the foundations of our economic security. Social Security does not contribute a penny to the deficit. Its benefits should not be cut, including reducing the Social Security COLA. Medicare is a sacred trust. Medicaid is crucial for seniors, women, children and people with disabilities.
Click here to sign the petition.
Seniors to Lawmakers: Protect Social Security, Medicare
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With Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid possibly on the budget cutting block, members of the Alliance for Retired Americans will celebrate the organization’s 10th anniversary this week by doing what they have done for a decade: fighting for for America’s seniors.
As part of the Alliance’s annual legislative conference which began this afternoon and runs through Sept. 9, hundreds of seniors will converge on Capitol Hill Sept. 8, just hours before President Obama’s address on jobs, to tell their representatives and senators to keep their hands off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Calling on Obama to Protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
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Social Security Works has put together a video to urge President Obama to stay true to his vision of the American Dream and not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
You can take action now. Sign the petition here asking the president to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The video (above), “The America We Want,” includes a montage of the president defending Social Security and Medicare. In one of his speeches, he says we want an America that cares about others.
