Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the whole federal social safety net are on the chopping block 16NOV13

THE ongoing federal budget negotiations present a stark difference in the priorities of Progressives and repiglicans / tea-baggers. There is a real possibility the Obama administration will consider accepting a grand betrayal and give in to demands that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits be cut, the retirement age be raised, SNAP (food stamps) be cut while corporations continue to receive tax breaks for sending American jobs overseas. For people in Virginia our two Senators, Tim Kaine D and Mark Warner D sit on the banking committee. Here is a letter (that you can add your comments in) from the AFL-CIO telling them to reject the repiglican / tea-bagger budget and to demand the federal social safety net, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funding not be cut. Click the link no matter who your Senators are (it will find them with your zip code) to send your letter. We can win this battle, but only if we remind our Senators who elected them and tell them what we want.
Have you ever seen a movie, thought it was awful and then been horrified to learn there was actually going to be a sequel?

That’s how I feel about yet another looming fight over our country’s budget. “The Budget Battle: The Sequel No One Wants” is not a movie anybody wants to see.

But House Republicans are insisting we watch it. Their hostage-taking has forced a sequel of the same manufactured debt crisis they tried to hype last year. Right now, Republicans on the Budget Committee—like committee Chair Paul Ryan—are trying to get Democrats to keep the job-killing sequester in place and agree to even more austerity pain by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

Even if your Senators don't serve on the Budget Committee they can stop these shenanigans. Tell them to oppose any plan that includes benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, does not repeal the sequester and keeps tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs overseas.

Just like last year, House Republicans want to put the 99% on the chopping block and bail out the billionaires and millionaires who already take too much from this country. But we don’t have to let these Republican extremists write the script to this sequel.

We can do it and make it a blockbuster hit that everyone will want to see. We can make sure it features an end to job-destroying fiscal austerity—the repeal of sequester. We can give a starring role to any lawmaker who supports no cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits, period. And we can expose the villains who get $600 billion in tax breaks given to their companies for sending their business overseas for the next 10 years and the members of Congress who support them.

Let’s get to work on creating the sequel to the budget battle that working people, not extremist lawmakers and their corporate funders, want to see.

go.aflcio.org/no-bad-sequel

In Solidarity,

Damon
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Damon Silvers
Policy Director, AFL-CIO