Saturday, December 20, 2014

Retirees, disorganized, not equipped for legal battles are being attacked.


Paul Ryan’s Way of Cutting Medicare to Reemerge in New Congress
The next Republican budget will look a lot like those written by exiting House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), the incoming House Budget Committee Chairman said last Friday. That would mean eliminating deficits in 10 years by calling again for massive cuts to the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who takes the reins of the U.S. House budget panel in January, told reporters he will “build on” Ryan's proposals by devising ways to put more federal benefits programs under the control of states. Ryan will take over as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
Price said a Republican-controlled Congress can now advance policies pioneered by Ryan, including his controversial Medicare plans. Those plans would cut Medicare by limiting beneficiaries to a set amount of money every year to buy private health care insurance. Known as "premium support," the program would mark a dramatic shift from the current Medicare system, under which the federal government helps pay for all medical services that an individual uses.

<In short, here is a voucher for health insurance, now go negotiate a health plan for yourself.>

“‘Premium support’ is vouchers and would gut Medicare and shift costs to seniors,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance. “It is another way of saying, ‘Here’s a nickel, you’re on your own for the rest of your health care costs.’” More from Reuters at http://tinyurl.com/nuuhany.

<Alliance for Retired Americans sponsors "Letters to the Editor" and awards a special pen to members who get published and forward their information to the organization.>
Budget or another Topic on Your Mind? Write a Letter to the Editor
Letters to the editor are a terrific way to get our message out.
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Huffington Post December 15, 2014
When the Senate approved the omnibus spending bill to prevent the government from shutting down, it also delivered a blow to some retirees who collect pensions. In a little-discussed provision of the bill, certain multi-employer pension plans were given the go-ahead to reduce pension checks to current recipients by up to 60 percent
<Watch this, also Koch Industries major employers are looking for ways to limit or reduce employee pension benefits.>
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Huffington Post December 19, 2014
The United Steelworkers union negotiated a series of collective bargaining agreements stipulating that retired employees "will receive a full company contribution towards the cost of [health] benefits." The union believed the benefits were guaranteed for life. The company contends it could take away these benefits whenever it chose--which it did in 2007.
The retirees challenged that action. The retirees won in the lower courts, and now their case is pending before the Supreme Court.
<Watch this, many retirees whose benefit includes company paid health benefits, may not be guaranteed for life as they thought.>
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Saturday, December 13, 2014

The Speech That Could Make Elizabeth Warren the Next President of the United States

The Warren for President Movement already has a campaign slogan:

"The Best Candidate Money Can't Buy!"

Democrats don't like Wall Street bailouts. Republicans don't like Wall Street bailouts. The American people are disgusted by Wall Street bailouts
And yet here we are, five years after Dodd-Frank with Congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would do nothing for the middle class, do nothing for community banks, do nothing but raise the risk that taxpayers will have to bail out the biggest banks once again...So let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi[group]. I agree with you Dodd-Frank isn't perfect. It should have broken you into pieces!
If this Congress is going to open up Dodd-Frank in the months ahead, then let's open it up
to get tougher, not to create more bailout opportunities. If we're going to open up Dodd-Frank, let's open it up so that once and for all we end too big to fail and I mean really end it, not just say that we did.  Instead of passing laws that create new bailout opportunities for too big to fail banks, let's pass...something...that would help break up these giant banks.
A century ago Teddy Roosevelt was America's Trust-Buster. He went after the giant trusts
and monopolies in this country, and a lot of people talk about how those trust deserved to be broken up because they had too much economic power. But Teddy Roosevelt said we should break them up because they had too much political power. Teddy Roosevelt said break them up because all that concentrated power threatens the very foundations up our democratic system.
And now we're watching as Congress passes yet another provision that was written by lobbyists for the biggest recipient of bailout money in the history of this country. And its attached to a bill that needs to pass or else we entire federal government will grind to a halt.
Think about that kind of power. If a financial institution has become so big and so powerful
that it can hold the entire country hostage. That alone is reason enough to break them up.
Enough is enough.  Enough is enough with Wall Street insiders getting key position after key position and the kind of cronyism that we have seen in the executive branch. Enough is enough with Citigroup passing 11th hour deregulatory provisions that nobody takes ownership over but everybody will come to regret. Enough is enough,  Washington already works really well for the billionaires and the big corporations and the lawyers and the lobbyists.
But what about the families who lost their homes or their jobs or their retirement savings the last time Citigroup bet big on derivatives and lost? What about the families who are living paycheck to paycheck and saw their tax dollars go to bail out Citi just 6 years ago?  We were sent here to fight for those families. It is time, it is past time, for Washington to start working for them!  The conventional wisdom is that to win white working and middle class voters, politicians need to move towards the center, meaning towards a more corporate approach. But in a world of growing inequality, stagnating wages, and a fading belief that with hard work your children can have a better life than you had, that may no longer be true.         Senator Elizabeth Warren   United States Senate  December 12, 2014

Senator Elizabeth Warren correctly points out the political system in the United States has become heavily weighted down for the wealthy and many Democrats have forgotten our goal is to protect working families against these forces of massive money campaigns.
If there is one thing that people understand, either they have money or someone else does and that leaves them out of the main stream of American Life.  How much longer will the poor continue to pay the penalty?
 Entertainment attorney, writer and political activist 
December 13, 2014  Huff Post Politics Writes
Elizabeth Warren represents a new politics in which, by challenging the power of the oligarchy, she has the potential of reclaiming the white working class for Democrats and uniting them with the coalition of professionals, single women, gays and minorities who elected Obama. She is the first major national politician in decades who is willing to openly challenge the power of the Wall Street oligarchy, in the manner of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who declared, "They are unanimous in their hate for me -- and I welcome their hatred."
With the increasingly dominant power of big money in politics, could Warren defeat Clinton, Inc. and then go on to defeat what is likely to be the near unanimous support of the Wall Street and corporate elite for her Republican opponent? It's hard to say. But the nation is in too much trouble to settle for a Democratic or Republican candidate of the corporatist status quo. If there's any hope, it's that once in a while the power of organized people can defeat the power of organized money. Elizabeth Warren represents that hope and it's the only thing worth hoping for.                                                                                                                                 
It transformed the conventional wisdom about American politics that the main divide is between left, right, and center, when it is really between pro-corporate and anti-corporate. Her declaration that neither Democrats nor Republicans (meaning the voters, not the Washington politicians) don't like bank bailouts rings loud and true. Tea party supporters don't like bailouts and crony capitalism any more that progressives do.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Everyone is asking the same question: Have Democrats Failed the White Working Class?

Democrats seem to be winning the majority of minority voters and losing white voters and not just in the South.  The question keeps getting louder from all corners. how do the Democrats win back their votes?

Remember the so called "Reagan" Democrats?  Today many with roots to the same White middle class working folks who are responding to economic and cultural forces that serve to drive these voters away from their New Deal Democratic home.  

Black, Latino and White workers are facing diminishing work opportunities.  Since the 1970s federal civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination started to be seriously enforced as jobs declined.  Jobs shipped overseas for lower paid wages, new robotic plant modifications requiring fewer workers and lets face it, more women and elderly in the work force have all contributed to less hiring as the population continued to grow.  

The globalization, automation of production coupled with millions of workers from all over the world seeking work have one way or another found their way into jobs and an underground work force.

Times have changed and more families find they need two incomes to stay in even the lower middle class.  People are living longer and Social Security retirement ages have been lifted forcing workers to remain in the work force longer to receive maximum benefits.

As all these forces led to diminishing jobs, organized labor and the unions lost membership and the push on their members to stick with the Democratic party.
The question should not be have the Democrats failed the White working class, the question is how do the Democrats win back those lost voters without "turning off" the new voting block of "voters of color".

I want to add in my opinion the movement of workers away from their families and the support that is given has led to the breakdown of working-class families.
Flowing from that breakdown the consequences of family splits, spiritual support with family support and pressure have left big holes and additional financial burdens on these folks.

As younger workers scattered across the country to seek jobs it has taken a huge toll on that network of moral support and resources for those White working-class people that felt comfortable with the values of the Democratic party.

So I feel the question is, how, when and where do Democrats put their coalition of working class voters back together?  Is someone like Senator Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, Senator Sherrod Brown or Senator Bernie Sanders up to the task of rebuilding the Democratic Party?

What really burns my toast here in Arizona.
The statement from Robert Graham, Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party:
"Democrats had an underwhelming primary. Untested candidates means an unenthusiastic electorate. Even the media had little to report during the Democrats' process of secretly hand-picking nominees, and no publicity in a statewide election means doom. Everyone likes a good fight, even within the party. Democrats could only find one candidate for the biggest seat in the state. Republicans, in contrast, were able to watch a thoroughly competitive primary involving six candidates have a healthy discussion about the issues. In addition, Democrats handed the treasurer’s seat over to the Republicans by failing to produce a nominee."
<Note as well as the State Mine Inspector a statewide elected office where Democrats failed to have a candidate.>

What Chairman Graham points out and Democrat should take notice and start working now for the 2016 Arizona elections.

You can't win a game if you don't field a team!

Start building the bench by recruiting and training candidates over the next year. Starting with the Legislature in 2016 and building for the next statewide election in 2018.

{Isn't it telling that in Arizona every state official with the exception of two Corporation Commission members out of five are elected in the non-presidential, "off-year", low voter participation elections.}


Friday, December 5, 2014

Can Democrats Crawl and Scratch Back by 2016?

Democrats across the country stood for Nothing and Lost Everything!

No surprise Democrats lost this last election, they were campaigning on a losing strategy.  Since when does running against the leader of your party, President Obama, campaigning against your values and accomplishments equal electoral victory?

Stepping back blaming a disappointing voter turn-out, the worse since 1942 when we were fighting World War II, without looking at the message we were delivering to all U S citizens just doesn't wash.   <"That dog don't hunt, North or South.">

Here in Arizona we had the best ground operation that we could throw money into, dedicated, educated and well-financed young workers from around the country were transported here to protect candidates unwilling to acknowledge Democrat's progressive agenda and accomplishments.

We need to remember and remind the Republicans that President Obama was elected and re-elected by far greater number of people than accepted Republican candidates this election.

President Obama and the Democrats in Congress were STOPPED time and again by the far-right Republicans determined to defeat Obama by spending taxpayer dollars for useless lawsuits.  The Republican Congressional machine in the House were making laws, over 50 alone to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which if ever reaching the Senate and passed would have been seen a Presidential Veto with no hope of a legislative override.

President Obama and the Democrats offered programs that would have spent money helping the economy expand and grow, against extremist Republicans talking about impeachment and actually shutting down the Federal Government throwing money away without any plans to help the country.

The Republicans were elected but didn't win the 2014 off-year election.  The Democrats lost because they didn't present enough reason to kill voter apathy which led to lack of voter turn-out.  Democrats ran from President Obama, used ill-advised strategies, lacked leadership on progressive issues and did not standby the Democrat Party's principles.

Running from election victories two years previous was the same as campaigning against yourself.  Success denied is confessing to a crime you didn't commit.

Line up the real wins for the American people:
•    That there was 55 months of job growth under Obama versus multiple years of job loss under Republican leadership.

•    That even though the economy is doing better, it isn't doing as well as it could be because Republicans continually block job bills that could put millions back to work rebuilding America's decaying roads, bridges, etc.

•    That Democrats strongly support scientists and their work to stop the man-made destruction of our planet by controlling air and water quality, but the Republican Party does not even address the issue.

•    That Republicans want to proceed with their oil and gas donors' plans to construct the Keystone Pipeline, even though it would damage the environment and have minimal job growth.

•    That the millions of people who have healthcare and access to doctors outside of the emergency room for the first time, would lose their coverage if Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

•    That Republican governors blocked Medicaid Expansion in numerous states, keeping their state from getting billions of federal dollars in addition to bankrupting many hospitals.

•    That Democrats are fighting for a minimum wage increase, while Republicans are opposing giving employees a raise.

•    That while Republicans say they want to lower the deficit, they consistently increase it under their leadership in contrast to Democrats who decrease it when in office.

•    That old, white, Republican men feel that controlling women's health decisions, economic equality and family planning is their job, not the woman's right.

•    That Democrats fight for the programs American citizens want and need such as Social Security and Medicare, while Republicans want to privatize them, and eventually eliminate them.

Where in the list of real accomplishments do the Democrats need to hold their head in shame?  Time after time when pollsters ask the American Voters where do they stand on these important issues, the voters overwhelmingly support the Democrat positions.

Right here in Arizona where the Democrat registered voters are now in third place behind Republicans and "other" voters, Independents, what is the road to winning again?  It certainly isn't following the same old worn-out slogans and finding leadership willing to hit the streets as proud supporters of Democrat values.  There is plenty of work to be done so we best get started.

Democrats across the state need to use our resources and people to engage our friends, neighbors and family members registered as Independents and find out where their political views actually fall.  We know how to use the information, collect and input into the VAN, prepare ourselves for meaningful contact door to door in 2016.

At the same time every area in the state needs to hold "mini Democrat conventions" adopting local platforms allowing our voters the opportunity to express themselves and direct our candidates the values that are important to us.
Issue conferences, talking and adopting resolutions and directions for future election discussions.

It is time to listen and bring together our fellow citizens seeking to broaden our base, using the opportunity in the next few months to engage and involve otherwise "bystanders" into our political tent based on a broad cross-section of hopes and visions for Arizona's future.

Getting right down to it, as an experienced Democrat activist is pleading, now is the time to start the 2016 campaign.  It is two year's work that can't be done in less time!