With Labor Day approaching, the Alliance for Retired Americans is wrapping up more than 70 actions in more than two dozen states around the country this summer. The events have ranged from celebrating the anniversaries and successes of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to holding accountable presidential candidates and lawmakers.
In Las Cruces, N.M., Alliance members told Rep. Steve Pearce (R), who wants to privatize Medicare and force seniors to pay for health care with an underfunded voucher program, that if he really believed in privatization, he should drop his taxpayer-funded, government health coverage he receives as a member of Congress.
On the other hand, Alliance members, including Brenda Kelly Nelum from Dale City, Calif., joined House Minority Leader rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to celebrate Medicare’s 46th anniversary. Said Nelum:
I just thought the public should know that this was the anniversary of a program that, as far as I can see, has been a success. If we didn’t have it, I don’t know if we could even afford our medicines…We would like to see the program there for younger people.
When Rep. Todd Platt (R-Pa.) went home to York, Pa., for the August congressional recess, Alliance members were there to protest his moves to privatize Social Security, cut benefits or raise the retirement age. To mark Social Security’s 76th anniversary, Alliance members and their allies delivered a piece of birthday cake to Platt’s office. Said Tony Eisenhour:
It’s not just about us, it’s about preserving it for future generations.
In San Francisco, several hundred Alliance members and other activists rallied outside Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D) office to urge her to forcefully come out to strengthen Social Security. Said California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) President Nan Brasmer:
We’re here today to ask Sen. Feinstein to tell us, her constituents, that she will support and champion Social Security, and fight against cuts and proposals to privatize the program by Congress, the Super Committee and even by the president, who keeps tossing it out on the table.
Just this past week, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry were told in no uncertain terms what Alliance members thought of their schemes to raise the Social Security retirement age, cut benefits or privatize the program.
Perry’s photo op at New Hampshire pastry shop went a bit off his staff’s planned tracks, when Alliance members demanded he defend his bizarre claim that Social Security is unconstitutional. He refused.
Romney told a New Hampshire town hall meeting that he was a big supporter of Social Security. But after tough questioning by Alliance members, he admitted he supports raising the retirement age or cutting benefits as opposed to asking all taxpayers to pay a fair share to strengthen Social Security.
