July 30 will mark the 46th anniversary of the Medicare and Medicaid programs and seniors across the country plan to march and lobby to make sure there are many more anniversaries to come.
Contracts covering more than 1,400 Seattle-area hotel and restaurant workers have expired and UNITEHERE! Local 8 has mounted a campaign of actions across the region to call on management to negotiate fair contracts that provide livable wages, job security and respect on the job.
The Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund has awarded its sixth annual Bert and Annabel Seidman Prize for Advancing Social Policy to National Labor College ( NLC ) student Gary Schaible. The prize, and its accompanying $3,000 honorarium, encourages NLC students to research and analyze social policies that affect the older population.
Congressional Republicans slapped older Americans and working people in the face earlier this week by voting to keep billions in subsidies for oil companies while supporting a budget plan that would make it even harder for seniors to visit a doctor and fill a prescription.
In back-home meetings during the two-week congressional recess, House Republicans who want to kill Medicare and replace it with an under-funded voucher system are finding out first-hand what the polls are telling us . An overwhelming number of voters say “No.” Here’s how The New York Times describes it:
“After 10 days of trying to sell constituents on their plan to overhaul Medicare, House Republicans in multiple districts appear to be increasingly on the defensive, facing worried and angry questions from voters.”
On a near straight party line vote (235-193) this afternoon, the U.S. House passed the Republican budget plan that privatizes Medicare, cuts corporate taxes and taxes for the wealthy, cuts Medicaid funding repeals health care reform and costs up to 2 million jobs. All Democrats as well as four Republicans voted against the bill. (Get the vote breakdown here .)
Today is the first anniversary of the landmark Affordable Care Act that has already helped tens of millions of Americans acquire or receive better health care and that has reined in health insurance companies’ most abusive practices.
After lining up Wisconsin’s public employees and middle class jobs in his sights , Gov. Scott Walker (R) is shifting his aim to seniors and low-income families.
Barbara J. Easterling is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org .
UPDATE: As of this morning, 284 state lawmakers have signed on in support of Wisconsin Senators, according to Progressive States Network.
Progressive States Network today released a letter signed by a bipartisan group of more than 270 state legislators representing 44 states voicing their solidarity with the Wisconsin state senators who oppose an extreme measure to take away the right of public employees to bargain for good middle-class jobs.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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