Call Your Member of Congress Now and Tell Them to Stand Up For Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security
SEIU President Mary Kay Henry sent an emergency action alert to more than 400,000 SEIU activists asking them help protect our safety net, the patients who rely on these critical services and the workers who deliver them. Deep cuts would add millions to the unemployment rolls and deny medical care to the most vulnerable among us – including many of the people SEIU members care for on a daily basis. Will you do your part and help?
- Call 1-877-736-7831 to call your member of Congress now, and then click here to report on how the call went.
SEIU Stands Up Against Morally Wrong Cuts to Our Most Vulnerable
As politicians in Washington continue to seek a path forward on honoring America’s financial obligations and avoiding economic catastrophe, there seems to be new rumors every few hours about a possible deal or agreement. But SEIU is making clear to our leaders that any agreement that allows billionaires to keep their tax breaks but makes working families pay more and pulls the safety net from under the feet of seniors and the more vulnerable is completely unacceptable.
“If press reports about a potential deal on deficit reduction turn out to be true, Medicaid will be eviscerated, access to healthcare for millions of Americans will be gutted and millions of jobs will be lost,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry. “On behalf of 2.1 million members, SEIU will not support a deal with these outcomes.”
- Read President Henry’s full statement on a possible “grand deal.”
One possible alternative is the proposal by the Senate’s so-called “Gang of Six.” Much like the corporate-friendly Simpson-Bowels proposal on which it is modeled, it would do nothing to help the men and women who wake up and go to work every day and keep America running.
“Specifically, the proposed cuts to Medicaid and Medicare would raise costs and limit availability of healthcare to the most vulnerable among us, including seniors, people with disabilities and children,” said President Henry. “Reducing tax rates for corporations and the wealthy and exempting foreign earnings, a job killing measure that would send more jobs overseas, is a backward approach to raising the level of revenue needed to really address our deficit.”
- Read President Henry’s full statement on the Gang of Six proposal.
What bills would you pay on August 3 if our leaders can’t come to an agreement? What services and programs would disappear?
- Learn more about what bills are coming due.
- Find out what a debt default would mean for your state.
- Decide for yourself who gets paid, and who doesn’t.
Want to Boost the Economy? Don’t Cut Pensions
If it were up to them, Republican lawmakers would have you believe that public pensions are bringing the country down, framing public employees as greedy Americans who retire into wealth on the backs of taxpayers. We’ve already addressed how these ideas are flat out wrong. Data collected by the National Institute of Retirement Security (NIRS) reveals that public pensions have consistently provided a much-needed boost to local economies over the past several years.