Nothing Grand about Proposed Bargain, Unions Say (100 cities say no cuts Social Security, Medicare..

[Omaha Steve]

http://labornotes.org/blogs/2012/11/nothing-grand-about-proposed-bargain-unions-say

by Jane Slaughter | Thu, 11/08/2012 - 12:47pm

After months of campaigning vigorously for President Obama, unions made a “hard pivot” today and jumped into action to head off threats to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

The AFL-CIO and allies planned picket lines and other actions in close to 100 cities demanding that the lame-duck Congress keep hands off.

Backers of the popular programs fear Congress will reach what Obama and others have called a “grand bargain”: cuts to “entitlement” programs in exchange for letting the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire December 31.

Obama’s statements on the popular programs have been less than reassuring. In the first candidates’ debate he said his position on Social Security was “somewhat similar” to Mitt Romney’s. Demonstrating his usual fondness for bipartisanship, Obama said the program needs “to be tweaked the way it was by Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill.” Those 1983 changes raised the retirement age from 65 to 67.

FULL story at link.

[tokenlib]

1. Hope Harry Reid is right about no messing with Social Security...

Love the "hard pivot" while labor and others are still paying attention..

[Grateful for Hope]

3. I hope so too.

I had confidence in this election, and I have confidence that SS will not be altered.

[Vincardog]

2. Good flood their phones NO CUTS to benefits at all

[limpyhobbler]

4. Obama ought to be protecting us from this stuff.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Sign the AFL-CIO's "Protect Our Future" petition here:

http://act.aflcio.org/c/18/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=5062

We only have a few weeks to make sure President Obama and Congress do everything they can to rebuild the middle class. The stakes are huge and we're up against millions of dollars from the same corporations and right-wing billionaires that spent record amounts trying to elect Mitt Romney. It’s up to us to fight like hell for working families.

Get involved:
http://www.aflcio.org/Get-Involved/Protect-Our-Future

Find events near you:
http://local.americawantstowork.org/protectourfuture