Seniors rally to save Medicare, Social Security

(Editor's note: The following is from the Alliance of Retired Americans, whose contact information appears below. The Alliance is a nationwide membership organization organized under Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c) (4) and dedicated to educating all Americans about and advocating on behalf of retirees and seniors.)

Last Friday, the U.S. House approved a draconian 2012 budget that ends Medicare as we know it, provides a roadmap for eliminating Social Security, and cuts $1.4 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years. Meanwhile, in the Senate, there is a major bipartisan initiative to raise the retirement age or cut Social Security benefits in other ways.

With Congress in recess until May 3, Alliance members are using this time to tell members of the House and Senate, the media, and supporters that Congress should keep its hands off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid! “Our goals are to ensure that: Social Security not be included in a deficit-reduction deal; Medicare not be turned over to insurance companies; the eligibility age for Medicare benefits not be raised to 67, from 65; and severe cuts to Medicaid be blocked,” explained Barbara J. Easterling, President of the Alliance.

The Alliance is teaming with “Strengthen Social Security” and other groups with rallies, advertisements, and grassroots lobbying campaigns to defend Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security from the proposed cuts. Retirees across the country will be showing the effects of what diminishing retirement security legislation means to “real people” by dressing up in work clothes and demonstrating what it means to “Work ’Til We Die.”

This past Monday, New Hampshire Alliance members donned hardhats and crutches on Tax Day to tell Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) that his vote last week in favor of the plan of the House Budget Committee Chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) – a proposal which would replace Medicare with a voucher system and raise the retirement age – would keep people working much too late in life. A group of twenty retirees and workers using wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches gathered at the Manchester Post Office to challenge Guinta's vote. Then they marched to Guinta's office [http://bit.ly/gvmvY6] and gave his staff a long list of grievances stemming from the vote.

To learn about upcoming, similar Alliance events around the country, planned for next week, go to http://bit.ly/eelptA. To see the “Don’t Make Us Work ’Til We Die” video from “Strengthen Social Security,” go to http://bit.ly/i7cfe9. To see video of Rep. Ryan being booed at a town hall for defending tax breaks for the wealthy while suggesting major Medicare and Social Security cuts for the middle class, go to http://bit.ly/eOvG0Y.

Meanwhile, this from The Washington Post:

“Despite growing concerns about the country’s long-term fiscal problems and an intensifying debate in Washington about how to deal with them, Americans strongly oppose some of the major remedies under consideration,” according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll [http://wapo.st/fL85oV].

The survey finds that Americans prefer to keep Medicare just the way it is. More than half say they are against small, across-the-board tax increases combined with modest reductions in Medicare and Social Security benefits. Only President Obama’s call to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans enjoys solid support. The Post-ABC poll finds that 78% oppose cutting spending on Medicare as a way to chip away at the debt. Only 34% of Americans say Medicare should be changed along the lines outlined in the Ryan budget proposal.

A separate Washington Post article, at http://wapo.st/fZWyX7, looks at the Ryan budget and the senior vote. In 2010, seniors turned out in big numbers, and Republicans carried voters over 65 by 21 points — by far their biggest margin among any age group. “The 2012 budget proposed by Rep. Ryan and passed by House Republicans on Friday would privatize Medicare and shift most of the entitlement’s future costs onto seniors,” the article states. The piece then questions whether the trend of seniors voting with Republicans can continue.

Alliance for Retired Americans
815 16th Street, NW Fourth Floor · Washington, DC 20006
202-637-5399 (main)
Join the Alliance:www.retiredamericans.org/about/join-the-alliance