Anyone who wants to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits to finance massive tax giveaways for the rich must have a heart two sizes too small. 

Today, we're tweeting at House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, telling them to stop holding working people hostage just so the wealthiest 2% can receive more tax giveaways. 

Click here to send this message to Boehner and McConnell: Don’t “steal Christmas” by passing GOP benefit cuts.

Amid reports that negotiations over the so-called “fiscal cliff” include possible cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other vital lifelines that families count on, worker activists are rallying on Capitol Hill today. They are calling on Congress to fight back against cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and to insist that lawmakers ensure the nation’s wealthiest pay their fair share in taxes.

Beware the "chained" CPI.

As Republicans in Congress take a hard line in the sand against higher tax rates for millionaires and billionaires, they are demanding a Social Security benefit cut through a lower Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs). The lower COLA would result from the adoption of a new formula for calculating COLAs called "Chained CPI." 

"Deficits, Deceit, and the Body Politic" was originally published in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Here is an excerpt:

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are the foundations for the well-being of scores of millions of middle- and low-income Americans. Without Social Security, 14 million more low-income Americans would be living in poverty. Because of Medicare, 33 million older people live longer, have access to quality careand are not driven into poverty by rapidly rising health care costs. Medicaid is a health care boon to Americans not yet eligible for Medicare, which covers some 60 million Americans.

Working people across the United States in more than 100 events last night called on their representatives to reject benefit cuts for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and to stop tax giveaways for the richest 2%. 

View photos from events around the country on the AFL-CIO Facebook page. 

AFGE is leading a coalition that is standing up to any further wage cuts for federal government employees. AFGE members are concerned that working families employed by the federal government will once again be the target of wage, benefit or pension cuts. In the past decade, federal workers have been targeted for $103 billion in cuts—an average of $50,000 per worker. Federal workers have not received a raise since January 2010; as of January 2013, new employees will pay nearly four times as much into their pension funds as current workers do.

This is a cross-post from The Huffington Post by Diane Archer, the former president of the Medicare Rights Center.

As both our national debt and health care costs continue to swell, America's CEOs and other "influentials" have targeted Medicare as a key culprit and insist that Congress cut Medicare spending in the current deficit discussions. In truth, we do not have a "Medicare problem" in this country; we have a big problem with rising health care costs.

Republican congressional leaders offered their budget counter-proposal Monday in response to President Obama's proposal, but it does little more than rehash previous offers that were clearly rejected by the voters in November's election.

This is a cross-post from The Huffington Post by Joe Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center.

As the approach of the so-called "Fiscal Cliff" nears, many advocates nationwide are making this message clear: Medicare benefit cuts are not an option. In a letter to the president and Congress, AARP states, "As we move forward, it is clear that older Americans want the focus of the debate to be on reducing overall health costs and not simply targeting Medicare and Medicaid for budget cuts." Just days after the election, a collective of the largest and most powerful progressive voices ran a Washington Post advertisement to the president and Congress that included, "No cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security benefits or shifting costs to beneficiaries or the states," as one of five guiding principles for reducing the federal deficit. Medicare Rights Center joined 146 national organizations in support of this very same message.

The budget proposal President Obama gave Republicans yesterday "keeps faith with the voters in last month’s election, who overwhelmingly opposed tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans and benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare," says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

The ball is now in the Republicans’ court. Unfortunately, Republicans do not seem to have learned the lessons from their shellacking at the polls in November.  They are still insisting on the very things voters rejected so resoundingly: tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% and benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.