Iowans Tell Wisconsin Gov. Walker to Go Home
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker headed over to Iowa to raise money for the right-wing special interest group, the Heritage Foundation, union members and Occupy Des Moines protesters were there to greet him. A crowd of more than 200 filled the sidewalk outside the fundraiser: teachers and jobless Iowans, construction workers and retirees, community activists and families with children.
Joining the crowd, Iowa Federation of Labor President Ken Sagar talked with reporters about why this “Welcome Walker” protest was so important.
Gov. Walker needs to understand that we recognize what he’s done to working people and the middle class in Wisconsin and we don’t need that here in Iowa. We don’t need to destroy jobs, we need to create jobs.
Inside the private event, Iowa’s Gov. Terry Branstad seems to have been listening intently to Read the rest of this entry »
Florida Gov. Pays Just $360/Year for Health Care
Not that we want to skew the Transport Workers (TWU) contest for worst governor, but here’s a doozy about one of the contest’s nominees.
Seems Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a government-bashing, tea party follower is paying just $30 a month for health care—state taxpayers are covering the rest. Yet Scott easily handed over $73 million of his own cash to get elected.
According to Mother Jones, Scott has:
laid off thousands of Sunshine State employees, slashed their benefits, turned down (most of) the federal government’s health care dollars, and put extra financial pressure on Florida retirees and Medicaid recipients. But Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance…and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage.
Add Scott to the list of anti-government hypocrites who decry public service unless they benefit from it.
Boehner’s Budget ‘Tantamount to Class Warfare’
Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s proposed budget is ”tantamount to a form of class warfare,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). If enacted, “it could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship produced by any law in modern U.S. history.” The CBPP says the proposal:
would essentially require, as the price of raising the debt ceiling again early next year, a choice between deep cuts in the years immediately ahead in Social Security and Medicare benefits for current retirees, repeal of health reform’s coverage expansions or wholesale evisceration of basic assistance programs for vulnerable Americans.
The CBPP details why Boehner’s plan is a disaster for the middle class here. But in short, Read the rest of this entry »
Trumka: Social Security Cuts Should Not Be on the Table
Today as we hear that Social Security cuts may be on the table in the federal budget deficit talks, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other union and progressive leaders, including House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, have come out strongly in opposition to such moves. Trumka says that “at a time when retirement security remains an elusive goal for most Americans, cuts to Social Security benefits – in whatever form they take – should not be on the table. ” Further,
Social Security, our nation’s most effective anti-poverty program, has not contributed one dime to the deficit and should not be part of any deficit-related trade-offs. The AFL-CIO continues to oppose any cuts in Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits, including any cuts in cost of living adjustments. The best solution to our deficit problem is to create good jobs that will rebuild our economy. That should be our first priority.
Ed Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, which represents millions of retirees, says the organization is “troubled by an idea being floated in Washington to change a federal statistical formula to lower Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) for Social Security. ” Read the rest of this entry »
Social Security Fearmongering
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When the report by the Social Security Board of Trustees came out last week, it found Social Security is strong for the long term. But that’s not what you’d hear from some corporate media outlets. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) points out that CNN coverage has been especially egregious, with Wolf Blitzer asserting that Social Security has reached “the financial tipping point.”
Other CNN talking heads painted a similar dire picture. We know they have cushy retirement pensions—why do they want to kill retirement funding for the more than 64 percent of America’s retirees who depend upon Social Security as their sole source of income? FAIR is urging people to contact CNN’s Situation Room and tell them what we think about their coverage: situationroom@cnn.com.
Alliance for Retired Americans Re-Elects Easterling, Burks
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Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling and Secretary-Treasurer Ruben Burks were re-elected during the Alliance’s national convention in Las Vegas last week.
Easterling has served as president of the Alliance since February 2009. Prior to joining the Alliance, she was secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) for 16 years. In 1995, she took a leave of absence to serve as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
Easterling told the delegates:
You have helped improve the lives of millions of current and future retirees. We have more work to do. I know none of you will rest, and neither will I.
Burks, who has been secretary-treasurer of the 4-million member Alliance since it was launched in 2001, said:
Thank you for re-electing me. I will do everything I can do to help this unique and wonderful organization.
Burks is a former secretary-treasurer of the UAW.
The more than 400 Alliance members at the convention also passed several resolutions, including calls to better address elder abuse and report incidents of abuse nationwide, raise awareness for the annual tax credit or reimbursement for employers for prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D, pursue federal legislation outlawing the advertising of prescription drugs in both electronic and print media, and to reduce health care fraud.
Texans Rally for Reform—and Other Health Care News
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More than 3,000 union members and allies crowded the streets of Austin, Texas, on Saturday to show their support for health care reform.
The demonstrators gathered at the State Capitol to hear from workers, community leaders and lawmakers. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson got the crowd fired up, and leaders and activists from across the union movement encouraged the crowd to stay mobilized.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who voted for the House’s historic health care reform bill a week ago, thanked those present for their activism and said we need to keep fighting to pass real reform legislation. Said Doggett:
We need an engaged citizenry to say we won’t stand for anything less than genuine reform.
Doctors, Seniors Unite Behind House Health Care Bill
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| Members of CWA 3122 in Florida spread the word about the need for health care reform. | |
In a massive show of support for health care reform, the nation’s largest organization for doctors, the American Medical Association (AMA), today urged the House to pass the bill it begins debate on today, H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act.
The AMA’s historical backing for health care reform follows this morning’s endorsement of the House bill by the largest U.S. advocacy group for seniors, the 40-million member AARP. As we noted yesterday, the bill has many provisions that will immediately benefit to seniors.
The American Cancer Society Action Network also is throwing its support behind the bill, calling it “an exceptional opportunity” to improve our health care system.
These groups are joining a broad coalition, from businesses to civil rights organizations, groups for youth and for seniors, unions, medical professionals and faith groups, all asking Congress to pass this critical bill that will expand health care coverage, cut costs and put patients first. This support is critical, as the closer we get to real reform, the harder the insurance companies and their lobbyists and front groups will fight to block it through scare tactics and falsehoods.
Want to get involved? Click here to call Congress.
Trumka: Retirement Security Promise Must Be Kept
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The ability to retire after a lifetime of hard work is not just an economic issue, it’s a moral one, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking today at the Retirement USA “Re-Envisioning Retirement Security” conference.
Joining U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and an array of experts and leaders, Trumka took part in a conversation about the breakdown of the promise of retirement security and what we need to do to restore it.
Trumka called the retirement security crisis one that
threatens American workers with yet another painful consequence of the “you’re on your own” social and economic model of the last thirty years.
Drop Dead? Is That the Way Republican Reps. Talk to Seniors?
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Opponents of critically needed health care reform continue to demonstrate how out of touch they are with working America—and in a recent egregious comment by a House Republican, the opposition has also insulted the nation’s seniors.
Here’s what Florida Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite said Tuesday on the House floor:
“Last week, Democrats released a health care bill which essentially said to America’s seniors: ‘Drop dead.’ ”
Tony Fransetta, president of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, is outraged by Brown-Waite’s injudicious and downright ugly comment.
Rep. Brown-Waite’s remarks earlier this week were not only inappropriate and inaccurate, but they were a misleading and divisive attempt to scare Florida’s seniors in the current debate over national health care reform.
