'Medicare Extra' Is NOT 'Medicare For All'

afl-cio national call day to white house this January 23rd

Save the Date: National Call the White House Day January 23

GOP leaders in Congress are preparing bills to dismantle or cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for current and future retirees. Donald Trump promised repeatedly not to cut these earned benefits on the campaign trail. To help hold him accountable thousands of activists will call the White House on January 23 and tell Trump to veto any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. You can RSVP for the call-in day here. When you RSVP, we will send you a reminder on the 23^rd and a script to use for your call.  

Thank you for signing up! Remember you can call your representative on January 23rd using this phone number: (866) 828 - 4162

Medicare for All Rally

Why We Shouldn't Panic Over the Medicare Report Headlines

White House Rules Out Raising Medicare Eligibility Age | TPMDC

White House Rules Out Raising Medicare Eligibility Age | TPMDC

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“The president’s made clear that we don’t believe that’s the right policy to take,” he told reporters.

The White House was never fond of the idea, which Republicans and conservative advocates support, but was open to gradually raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67 as part of a broader deal in prior deficit reduction talks. Carney’s remarks nix the proposal in the White House’s most explicit terms yet.

Raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 would save the federal government $125 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by shifting some of the health care burden to younger seniors by requiring them to obtain insurance on their own.

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) office responded to Carney.

“The White House keeps saying what they won’t do to replace President Obama’s devastating sequester — when will they tell us what they will do, and call on the Senate Democrats to pass it?” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an email to TPM.

Immediately after Carney made his remarks, Boehner spokesman

Bad deal: The White House’s last-ditch plan stinks

Bad deal: The White House’s last-ditch plan stinks

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This afternoon, President Obama is meeting with congressional leaders in a last-ditch attempt to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff. Most people in Washington think the effort is futile. That’s probably good thing, as going over the cliff is better than enacting the deal the White House is reportedly putting on the table at the summit.

While the details are sketchy and reports conflicting, according to the New York Times, the proposal would extend the Bush tax cuts up to $400,000 (instead of the $250,000 most Democrats want), and it would extend some important tax credits, but it would leave the estate tax as is, do nothing about the sequester (the automatic spending cuts that will go into effect January 1) and do nothing about the debt ceiling.

If you’re a progressive, those items are, respectively, mediocre, somewhat positive, bad, mixed and terrible. While the $400,000 threshold is tolerable in a larger deal, it’s no good in a bad deal. Changing the estate tax is a must, as current rates exclusively help the heirs of wealthy people to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Some of the tax credits are vital, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, but these should be passed automatically, not as something Democrats need to bargain for. The sequester is mixed because half the cuts come from the military, which are valuable and generally politically unachievable, but the other half come from the rest of the government, including programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

Other reports paint a more positive picture of the deal Obama will offer, but they seem less realistic, as the contours outlined by the Times fit with the deal Obama previously offered, which liberals rejected out of hand.

Ration End-Of-Life Care: Debate Edited for WNET

Paul Krugman: Class wars of 2012 | Ames Tribune

Paul Krugman: Class wars of 2012 | Ames Tribune:

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 Consider, as a prime example, the push to raise the retirement age, the age of eligibility for Medicare, or both. This is only reasonable, we’re told — after all, life expectancy has risen, so shouldn’t we all retire later? In reality, however, it would be a hugely regressive policy change, imposing severe burdens on lower- and middle-income Americans while barely affecting the wealthy.

Why? First of all, the increase in life expectancy is concentrated among the affluent; why should janitors have to retire later because lawyers are living longer? Second, both Social Security and Medicare are much more important, relative to income, to less-affluent Americans, so delaying their availability would be a far more severe hit to ordinary families than to the top 1 percent.

Or take a subtler example, the insistence that any revenue increases should come from limiting deductions rather than from higher tax rates. The key thing to realize here is that the math just doesn’t work; there is, in fact, no way limits on deductions can raise as much revenue from the wealthy as you can get simply by letting the relevant parts of the Bush-era tax cuts expire.

So any proposal to avoid a rate increase is, whatever its proponents may say, a proposal that we let the 1 percent off the hook and shift the burden, one way or another, to the middle class or the poor.

The point is that the class war is still on, this time with an added dose of deception. And this, in turn, means that you need to look very closely at any proposals coming from the usual suspects, even — or rather especially — if the proposal is being represented as a bipartisan, common-sense solution. In particular, whenever some deficit-scold group talks about “shared sacrifice,” you need to ask, sacrifice relative to what?

So keep your eyes open as the fiscal game of chicken continues. It’s an uncomfortable but real truth that we are not all in this together.

Krugman: The big budget mumble | The Salt Lake Tribune

Krugman: The big budget mumble | The Salt Lake Tribune:

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 Republicans have howled in outrage. Sen. Orrin Hatch, delivering the GOP reply to the president’s weekly address, denounced the offer as a case of "bait and switch," bearing no relationship to what Obama ran on in the election. In fact, however, the offer is more or less the same as Obama’s original 2013 budget proposal and also closely tracks his campaign literature.

So what are Republicans offering as an alternative? They say they want to rely mainly on spending cuts instead. Which spending cuts? Ah, that’s a mystery. In fact, until late last week, as far as I can tell, no leading Republican had been willing to say anything specific at all about how spending should be cut.

The veil lifted a bit when Sen. Mitch McConnell, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, finally mentioned a few things — raising the Medicare eligibility age, increasing Medicare premiums for high-income beneficiaries and changing the inflation adjustment for Social Security. But it’s not clear whether these represent an official negotiating position — and in any case, the arithmetic just doesn’t work.

Start with raising the Medicare age. 

Gutting Medicare and Social Security is not the only way to balance the ...

social security call in day

The National Committee is joining advocates across the nation in a Congressional Call-In day on Wednesday, December 5th. Our goal is to flood Congress with calls reminding them that Americans of all ages and political parties do not support cutting middle-class benefits to pay for deficit reduction. Let’s shutdown the Capitol switchboard with thousands of calls delivering one simple message! NO CUTS to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The threat to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid during this Lame Duck Congress is as serious as any time in these programs’ long and successful histories. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid do not belong in this deficit debate and we must urge Congress to take these programs off the table. Making your call couldn’t be easier. Just dial NCPSSM’s Legislative Hotline and you’ll be directed to your Congressional leaders from one toll-free number: NCPSSM CONGRESSIONAL CALL IN DAY (800) 998-0180 Send this email to 5 of your friends and tell them One Minute, One Call can make the difference in the fight to preserve America’s vital retirement and health security programs.

Alliance for Retired Americans--social security, medicare

Alliance for Retired Americans

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Please send a message to Congress asking to protect the guarantees of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid!

Time is short. Politicians and special interests are demanding that the deficit be reduced dramatically – paid for by deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – to guarantee more big tax breaks for the wealthy and Wall Street. We need to protect what we've earned.

Take action now and send a message to your U.S. Representative and Senators.

Rich CEOs aim to shift $134 billion in tax payments onto poor and middle...

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Let's Raise The Retirement Age Again! | Crooks and Liars

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Let's Raise The Retirement Age Again! | Crooks and Liars: ""

Progressives = Tea Party? cenk

Paul Krugman: Life, death and deficits - San Jose Mercury News

Paul Krugman: Life, death and deficits - San Jose Mercury News:

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 America's political landscape is infested with many zombie ideas -- beliefs about policy that have been repeatedly refuted with evidence and analysis but refuse to die. The most prominent zombie is the insistence that low taxes on rich people are the key to prosperity. But there are others.

And right now the most dangerous zombie is probably the claim that rising life expectancy justifies a rise in both the Social Security retirement age and the age of eligibility for Medicare. Even some Democrats -- including, according to reports, the president -- have seemed susceptible to this argument. But it's a cruel, foolish idea -- cruel in the case of Social Security, foolish in the case of Medicare -- and we shouldn't let it eat our brains.

First of all, you need to understand that while life expectancy at birth has gone up a lot, that's not relevant to this issue; what matters is life expectancy for those at or near retirement age. When, to take one example, Alan Simpson -- the co-chairman of President Barack Obama's deficit commission -- declared that Social Security was "never intended as a retirement program" because life expectancy when it was founded was only 63, he was displaying his ignorance. Even in 1940, Americans who made it to age 65 generally had many years left.

Now, life expectancy at age 65 has ris

Obama Meeting With Progressives & CEOs

---------- soar 11-3 supports Richard Trumka on this issue.

Tell Congress: No Benefit Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

note: I already both called and e-mailed the politicos both senators gave vague remarks (staffers) take note: cut these programs and face some serious wrath next election time. folks in Missouri have long memories perhaps our votes and couple bucks make no difference

Labor leaders reaffirm tax position with Obama

Labor leaders reaffirm tax position with Obama:

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 "We are very, very committed so that the middle class and workers don't end up paying the tab for a party we didn't get to go to, and the president is committed to that as well," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Participants in the meeting also voiced their fierce opposition to raising the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security, he said.

The hour-long meeting included officials from the activist group MoveOn.org, the union AFSCME, the woman's group AAUW and the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress. All were active in Obama's re-election effort, and Obama could call on them for help as he makes his case to the American people for his "balanced" approach to cutting the country's yawning deficit problem.

"We won the election, but we're going into another campaign now," AFSCME President Lee Saunders said after the meeting.

Obama is scheduled to meet with 12 business executives Wednesday and is likely to meet with congressional leaders from both parties Friday to discuss the looming fiscal crisis.

----- yes, some of are ready for new campaign. cut medicare, soocial security; democrats lose much of their base. that I can gurantee

Fiscal Cliff: Richard Trumka, Head Of AFL-CIO, Calls Out 'Manufactured Crisis'

Fiscal Cliff: Richard Trumka, Head Of AFL-CIO, Calls Out 'Manufactured Crisis':

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 WASHINGTON -- Digging in for the looming battle over deficit-reduction, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will make organized labor's case Thursday against cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, declaring the doomsday debt talk in Washington a "manufactured crisis."

"There is no fiscal cliff," Trumka says in prepared remarks to the National Mediation Board Conference in Washington on Thursday. "What we’re facing is an obstacle course within a manufactured crisis that was hastily thrown together in response to inflated rhetoric about our federal deficit."

Democrats and Republicans are headed to the bargaining table to address the so-called fiscal cliff that Trumka alludes to -- the point after the New Year when painful automatic cuts hit the federal budget, unless legislators can find other ways to reduce the $16 trillion debt. Negotiations last year indicated that Democrats are open to cutting social programs that liberals have long considered sacrosanct, as well as trimming programs that aid the poor and elderly.

President Barack Obama met with labor leaders, including Trumka, on Tuesday, assuring them he was committed to letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. But organized labor is just as concerned about social insurance programs. The failed "grand bargain" nearly struck by Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) last year reportedly included cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

Trumka told HuffPost last week that the AFL-CIO, a federation of unions representing 11 million workers, will not support any deal including such cuts. "The voters yesterday rejected that notion soundly," he said the morning after the election. "The answer is, if it includes benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, we'll oppose it."