Friday, November 18, 2011

Deadline Approaching, Pressure Increasing, Medicare Still in Trouble


It's Time To Act

DO NOT DELAY:  Please contact your Senators and Congressman and tell them you want them to leave Medicare and Social Security alone -- that is, you want Medicare and Social Security protected for now and for future generations.  Today, our corporations and politicians take the short view -- immediate profits, immediate political advantage.  We, as Americans, need to take a longer view -- to see that we have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren, to pass on a better world and a better America.  That means Social Security and Medicare will be there for them.  The aged and disabled of today and tomorrow depend on us and what we do today.

Also contact the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and tell them how you feel.

Tell Congress: No Cuts to Medicare Benefits

ANOTHER WAY YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:  "Democrats on the so-called Super Committee are caving to Republican demands and pushing a plan that would make drastic cuts to Medicare.  This is bad policy and bad politics.  Cuts like these are the worst possible way to reduce the deficit.  They protect the status quo for the richest 1 percent while the 99 percent are expected to sacrifice vital healthcare that they need to survive in tough economic times like these -- and they'll hamstring Democrats running for reelection in 2012."  Tell Congress: No cuts to Medicare or Medicaid.

We talked about this yesterday.  This is just one reason why you need to contact your elected officials in Congress.  Maybe the public pressure is getting to Rep. Pelosi.

Pelosi to GOP: Leave Medicare Alone

"With just six days left until the Super Committee deadline, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) acknowledged Thursday that the panel is unlikely to agree on the sort of broad deficit-cutting bargain she and other Democratic leaders have pushed for.  And she made a strong case that the GOP’s allergy to taxes is the reason her expectations have diminished."

Pelosi said, "As I said before we already have gone down this path a half a trillion dollars in savings to strengthen Medicare in the past.  And one of the reasons to address the entitlement issue is to strengthen them.  To prolong them.  But if your goal is to eliminate them -- if the goal of the Republicans is to say … that the Bush tax cuts must be extended … if the plan is to extend the Bush tax cuts and to repeal the Medicare guarantee for our seniors -- well that’s not balance, and that’s a place we can not go."

Finally, the Democrats are standing up the way they should have from the start.  We need to encourage them to continue.

GOP Still Against Pre-Paid Benefits

"Super committee Republicans proposed a deal last week that includes only $300 billion in revenue increases, all in the form of deduction eliminations, a paltry concession that was vastly outweighed by the massive tax cut for the rich the plan also included.  While the proposal was an attempt to make Republicans look like they were actually considering revenue increases as part of a deal, it was quickly dismissed by Democrats." 

"... with Democrats rebuking Hensarling’s comments as 'unhelpful,' and even some Republicans agreeing that the party may need to concede on taxes, Hensarling has walked back those comments, suggesting the GOP would consider new revenues in exchange for deeper concessions -- in the form of entitlement cuts -- from Democrats"

More About the Joint Committee



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