"Republicans are holding the middle class hostage to their demands on behalf of the richest 2 percent of Americans,” said the AFL-CIO Executive Council in a statement from its August meeting in Washington, D.C., this week. And, the council emphasized:

There can be no excuse for giving in to their demands to extend tax cuts for the 2 percent; cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits; tax workers’ health benefits; or sacrifice middle-class jobs.

Why do deficit reduction plans always "seem to involve cutting taxes for the top 1% of U.S. income earners while cutting Social Security retirement benefits (average monthly check: $1,230 ) for everyone else?" asks Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik  in his latest column. 

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are under attack by Republican lawmakers. Whether it is the Romney/Ryan budget that would end Medicare as we know it or proposals to privatize and cut Social Security, members of the Alliance for Retired Americans are pushing back and mobilizing with new “Let’s Not Be the Last Generation to Retire” campaign. Actions across the country will coincide with Medicare’s and Medicaid’s 47th anniversary July 30 and Social Security’s 77th on Aug. 14.

This is a cross-post from Huffington Post by Harold Schaitberger, general president of  the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). 

There's an oft repeated myth being fed by many that claims the defined benefit pension plans available to most public employees are going bankrupt.

While a new report by the Pew Center for the States feeds those myths, Pew's research paints a false picture of pensions. Here are five oft-peddled myths about public pensions followed by the facts.

Social Security is popular.

It is one of the most, if not the most, popular federal government-run programs. It is social insurance, not welfare. It provides Americans with a reliable source of income when: a senior retires from work, a child loses a working parent or if a worker becomes disabled.

Social Security is an American promise.  We pay into the program during our working lives and we’re entitled to collect benefits. We paid for it. It’s our money.

Survey after survey shows the public wants corporations to stop sending jobs overseas and hopes the federal government takes action to get jobs back to this country, as demonstrated in a recent compilation of polling data by Ruy Teixeira at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Ninety percent said keeping jobs in America was either one of the most effective steps (59 percent) or a very effective step (31 percent) that
the government could take to improve the economy. The 2011 Pew Mobility survey also showed the “Keep jobs in America” option was ranked first out of 16 possible steps the government could take to make sure people don’t fall behind economically.

Even as Alan Simpson rants against anyone who dares to oppose his scheme to raise the Social Security retirement age, a new study finds such an action would have the greatest impact on workers in the most physically demanding occupations—but would have little overall impact on the financial health of  Social Security.

Meanwhile, the California Alliance for Retired Americans—the group at which Simpson directed his most recent rant, calling them “a wretched group of seniors” and “greedy geezers” full of “blather and drivel,” who are “shoveling out bullshit”—is fighting back.

A new study from the Economic Policy Institute finds that hardships for older workers due to proposed Social Security cuts would be significant—and that the “just work longer to make up the difference” argument doesn’t hold up. Yes, the idea of raising the retirement age is on the table again, as it was 30 years ago, when Reagan-era legislation passed to raise it to age 67—a transition that is still taking place.

One week after the pivotal Wisconsin recall election, southern Arizona will be holding a special election to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to serve the remainder of her term. Giffords resigned this year. The June 12 contest will be between Giffords' staffer Ron Barber and Giffords' 2010 opponent, Republican Jesse Kelly. 

A vicious rant against seniors by Alan Simpson, co-author of the 2010 federal commission on the deficit report that calls for raising the Social Security retirement age, should give pause to those embracing the so-called Simpson-Bowles plan—especially Democrats. It’s time for them to not only repudiate Simpson’s most recent tirade against seniors, but they should also reject his even more devastating attack on seniors—and their children and grandchildren—by pledging not to cut Social Security.