The AFL-CIO labor federation made good on its promise to oppose any proposed budget that includes cuts to Social Security and Medicare yesterday posting a strong message and petition on their website and sending out an email to activist groups and individuals. Both the article online and the email were released by Damon Silvers, the AFL-CIO’s policy director.
Here is the full text from the website, followed by the email:
Yesterday the AFL-CIO learned President Obama’s budget will cut Social Security and Medicare benefits for working families. The so-called “chained” CPI will cut Social Security benefits and middle-income seniors (people who made $47,000 a year and more) will be asked to pay higher Medicare premiums.
Not only do the majority of America’s workers across the political spectrum oppose benefit cuts to the social insurance system, this is bad policy that will slow economic recovery even further.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the “chained” CPI is wrong-headed policy.
“Millions of Americans remain out of work and the job market is especially devastating for young people. Young people ages 20-24 are facing 13.3% unemployment rates. Without the prospect of good jobs in their early and crucial earning years, these young people will bear the cost of these proposed cuts in Social Security.”
In a time of rampant income inequality and stagnant wages, a blow to retirement security is the last thing we need.
It’s unconscionable we’re asking seniors, people with disabilities and veterans to be squeezed of every last penny when corporations and the wealthiest 2% are not paying their fair share of taxes, despite soaring profits.
This year alone, the job-killing sequester will cost 750,000 people their jobs. We need to invest in America’s workers, not pull the rug out from under them.
The “chained” CPI is based on a fraudulent premise – that the CPI is rising faster than the actual cost of living experienced by seniors, veterans and millions of other vulnerable citizens living on meager incomes. In fact, because seniors in particular have limited flexibility and spend a disproportionate share of their income on health care, they tend to experience more rapid inflation than the general population.
“Chained” CPI also hits the vulnerable people in the country—people with disabilities who get long-term Social Security benefits and women, because they live longer.
America elected President Obama to protect us from bad Washington ideas like “chained” CPI, not to advocate for them.
And here is the full text of the email, with the subject heading, “Obama’s really bad idea.”
From all reports I’ve seen, President Obama is going to propose a budget plan next week that is unprecedented for a Democratic president. It will propose a cut to Social Security benefits for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities.
It appears the proposed cut will take the form of “chained” CPI—a discredited way of calculating annual cost-of-living increases that does not keep up with actual costs, eating into benefits.
But there’s more. The president’s budget proposal also would require middle-class seniors—people who make $47,000 a year and more—to pay higher Medicare premiums.
These cuts are bad policy. And the only way we’re going to stop them is if President Obama and all members of Congress hear that we’re not going to tolerate them. Sign our petition to the president NOW.
It is unconscionable to ask seniors, people with disabilities and veterans who are barely making it to be squeezed even tighter at a time when corporations and the wealthiest 2% are not paying their fair share of taxes, despite soaring profits.
It’s bad policy to make cuts that will weaken our economic recovery.
And it’s wrong, at a time of record income inequality and stagnant wages, to make the gap even worse by undercutting the retirement security of working- and middle-class Americans.
The majority of Americans oppose cuts to our country’s most important family protection programs. It’s time to make some noise about it.
We need to invest in America’s working families, not pull the rug out from under them. That starts with repealing the sequester and making corporations and the richest 2% pay their fair share. And that should never, ever include cuts to benefits that millions of working families rely on.
Tell President Obama: No “chained” CPI and no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or other cuts to Social Security benefits. Period.:
In Solidarity,
Damon Silvers Director of Policy, AFL-CIO
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