When Medicare Part D was introduced in 2003, the goal was to provide seniors with cheaper prescription drugs, writes Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in an Op-Ed for the Duluth News Tribune. But, with the Part D "donut hole" and the clause that prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug prices, the burden of prescription drug costs has been a hardship for many of America's seniors over the past decade. 

More than 1,500 people rallied Tuesday on Capitol Hill in support of working families and to tell Congress not to make any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They also told Congress to close tax loopholes for big corporations and the wealthiest 2% and to prevent the sequester from going into effect and harming the country. Throughout the rally, working families spoke with a unified voice calling for "jobs, not cuts."

Seniors and veterans showed up at a "Fix the Debt" event in New Hampshire to tell Honeywell CEO David Cote that if he really wants to fix the debt, he should have Honeywell pay its fair share of taxes. Cote is one of a number of wealthy corporate leaders in the "Fix the Debt" coalition, which advocates for cuts to benefits like Social Security and Medicare and is pushing for lower corporate taxes. Advocates for working families and their allies point out that many of the "Fix the Debt" companies engage in loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

In just a few weeks, the nation will be facing yet another manufactured fiscal crisis when a series of harsh across-the-board federal spending cuts in education, defense and all government operations go into effect unless Congress repeals them. 

Known as “sequestration,” economists say these cuts would imperil the fragile economic recovery and cost as many as 1 million of America's workers their jobs. Yet Republicans are making threats to let those cuts take effect on March 1 unless Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits are cut or drastic cuts are made to vital services.

Working families aren't fooled. There's nothing "fair and balanced" about the Bowles-Simpson budget plan that would ultimately increase unemployment, cut Social Security benefits, tax workers’ health benefits and scapegoat federal employees while giving more tax breaks for sending jobs overseas and lowering tax rates for Wall Street and the wealthiest 2%. Yesterday, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) introduced an amendment to H.R. 444, that would direct President Obama to follow the budget recommendations of Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, known as the Bowles-Simpson plan. 

As Congress gets ready for “Round 2” of the Fiscal Showdown—yet another manufactured budget crisis that will unfold during the month of March and over the course of this year—Republicans are resisting proposals to make this crisis go away once and for all by closing tax loopholes for Wall Street and the richest 2% of Americans.

After Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-Ohio) office ignored requests from Columbus-area families to meet and talk about the kind of budget policies he and other lawmakers are pushing that would hurt both working people and the recovering U.S. economy, they decided to drop by anyway. The Wednesday action outside Portman’s Columbus office was just one of dozens of “Protect Our Future” demonstrations around the country.

Working families will be gathering at congressional offices across the country on Wednesday to fight bad budget policies that would hurt both families and the recovering U.S. economy. Specifically, they will be telling members of Congress to reject any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid; close loopholes for Wall Street and the richest 2%; and cancel the sequestration crisis they created for themselves and the rest of the country.

Brace yourself. In coming weeks you’ll hear there’s no serious alternative to cutting Social Security and Medicare, raising taxes on middle class and decimating what’s left of the federal government’s discretionary spending, on everything from education and job training to highways and basic research.

“We” must make these sacrifices, it will be said, in order to deal with our mushrooming budget deficit and cumulative debt. 

But most of the people who are making this argument are very wealthy or are sponsored by the very wealthy: Wall Street moguls like Peter Peterson and his “Fix the Debt” brigade, the Business Roundtable, well-appointed think tanks and policy centers along the Potomac, members of the Simpson-Bowles commission. 

Calling something a “bipartisan reform” is quickly becoming Washington-speak for “cutting your health care and retirement benefits.”

In this next phase of the fiscal showdown, Republicans are continuing to threaten to tank the economy, starting with demands they want in exchange for more tax giveaways for the wealthiest 2%.