Bowles-Simpson bill proposes cruel and senseless cuts to Social Security and Medicare
From our friends at National Nurses United:Nation’s Nurses Sharply Criticize Deficit Commission’s Bowles-Simpson Proposal for Unwarranted Attacks on Social Security and MedicareWashington Insiders Misreading Demands of American Public With Efforts to Undermine Retirement Security – Middle Class to Suffer If Bowles-Simpson Passes(Washington, D.C.)–Jean Ross, RN, co-president of National Nurses United, the nation’s union and professional association for registered nurses, issued the following statement on suggestions from Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, co-chairs of the Commission on the Deficit, that Social Security and Medicare be cut:”Nurses are aghast at the Commission on the Deficit’s Bowles-Simpson proposal for a cruel and senseless cut to the Social Security and Medicare programs that are the core of American retirement and healthcare security for tens of millions of people. This is just heartless at a time when the average Social Security benefit is already insufficient, especially for women, and for the millions of Americans who have seen their retirement savings lost in this Great Recession.” Read the complete release here.LESSONS LEARNED…One lesson that can be drawn from the election last week is that supporting Social Security and Medicare isn’t just the right thing to do, it will help members of Congress keep their seats. Only 15 of 140 members who signed a letter to the president pledging to vote against any cuts in these important programs lost their bid for re-election, and only one of eight senators who have signed on to a similar Senate resolution lost his seat.And yet, the news coming out of Washington this week is that the president’s Deficit Commission still plans to release a report in the near future recommending that the lame-duck Congress hastily pass deficit-reduction legislation that could slash these critical programs, because they decided this election meant that voters want austerity. Wrong. The reality is that people are unemployed and underemployed and the economy hasn’t improved quickly enough.That’s why they need to hear from bedside nurses from all over the country that Social Security isn’t broke, so they better not try to fix it in the context of this commission.TAKE ACTION…Call your member of Congress and tell them to vote against cuts in Medicare or Social Security, and ask your senators to sign on to S. Res. 664 to affirm that we don’t need to cut these programs to deal with the deficit, since they don’t have anything to do with the deficit. Enter your zip code here to contact your representative today.For more information, the Center on Economic Policy Research released a report recently about the need to keep these programs intact.In solidarity,National Nurses United888 16th Street, NW #640Washington, DC 20006www.NationalNursesUnited.orgRepresenting 156,000 registered nurses from all 50 states, National Nurses United is the voice of the registered nurse movement.
