Will Republicans Force Seniors, Veterans, the Poor Pay for their failures?

Social Security DID NOT create the deficit!

Medicare DID NOT create the deficit!

[They're both solvent and self-sustaining programs.]

Republican economic policy created the deficit with Welfare for the Wealthy and 'Trickle Down Economics.'

Let's not re-write history and forget that President Clinton and Vice President Gore left office with budget surplusses and full employment. You weren't pleased with that? You voted these clowns into office? You accepted the Grover Norquist/Koch Brothers/Tea Bagger propaganda?

Can we learn something here?

Bernie Sanders

Remember Rep. Paul Ryan? The failed Republican candidate for vice president has been relatively quiet as Tea Party extremists have commandeered his party and the debate over the government shutdown. But the House Budget Committee chairman waded into the debt-limit debate in a column published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. He said he would consider letting the government avoid default if “entitlement reform” is a part of the deal. Translation: he wants to cut Social Security benefits and change Medicare.

Don't Make Seniors, Veterans Pay for the Shutdown: http://youtu.be/P1vLF2bluPo

North Carolina: Moral Mondays

Impressive actions!

Moral Mondays

by Jim Wallis 07-11-2013

I often talk about faith as something that is personal, but never private. Each of us must take responsibility for the beliefs we hold and must personally wrestle with life’s most fundamental questions. But once we have decided to follow Jesus, we cannot help but live out our personal beliefs in public ways. The demands of the gospel refuse us the option of a purely inward spirituality.

Protestors gather for Moral Mondays in North Carolina.

Photo by yashmori / flickr.com

As anyone who has read my writings over the years will know, Matthew 25 is a text at the very core of my faith. It is the scripture that brought me back to Christ. In Jesus’ call to welcome the stranger and care about the least of these, we are challenged as Christians to love those whom the world too often neglects. In a culture driven by self-interest, God call us to care about the common good and about how our public policies affect the most vulnerable. In a world where money and power bring influence, Jesus asks us to give attention to the poor, the weak, and the marginalized.

While there are times when those in power listen to the guidance of moral and religious leaders, far too often we’re asked to be prophets. In the face of opposition, we pick up our crosses and lift up our voices on behalf of the disadvantaged.

In North Carolina, pastors and civil rights leaders, along with thousands of others, have been living out their personal faith in a very public way. Since late April, dozens of faith leaders and hundreds of others have been arrested at the state capitol as part of an ongoing protest called “Moral Mondays.”

What would motivate these leaders to take such a strong stand at such a personal cost?

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and conservative majorities in both chambers of the state legislature have pushed a rigid budget agenda that has cut benefits to more than 70,000 people without jobs, restricted access to health care for low-income people, and attacked voting rights. The legislature is working on a tax cut for the wealthy and corporations while increasing the burden on struggling families.

Pastors in North Carolina are putting their faith into action because their elected officials are ignoring the views and values of the people they are supposed to be representing. As the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, a pastor in Goldsboro and the president of the NAACP in North Carolina, said, “We had to stand up as a coalition — not liberal vs. conservative (that’s too small, too limited, too tired), or Republican vs. Democrat. We had to [give] a moral challenge because these policies they were passing, in rapid-fire, were constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible, and economically insane.”

Across our country, too many pastors from too many churches in too many towns are far too timid when it comes to following the gospel call in Matthew 25. In this passage, Jesus offers a vision of God’s kingdom where caring for vulnerable people is the defining mark:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:35-36, 40)

God is far bigger than a single political party. There are many paths and policies for addressing poverty, reforming our broken immigration system, responding to climate change, and healing the racial divides that continue in our society. But what we cannot accept, nor allow, is for our own leaders to willfully exacerbate our problems and directly harm people who are already suffering — to sacrifice the common good to their own ideological agendas. In such moments and times, people of faith must speak out — not for the sake of politics, but because the beauty and simplicity of the gospel demands it.

What is happening in North Carolina is remarkable and inspiring. It is also effective. The media is taking notice, and people are responding from all directions. Sadly, more than one elected leader has resorted to name-calling, with one legislator describing the protests as “Moron Mondays.”

It is clear which side has the moral high ground.

A diversity of issues is at play among protestors in North Carolina. Many, including myself, may not agree with their whole agenda. But a common purpose drives them: that those elected to serve must truly be the servant of all by governing toward the common good. Until North Carolina’s elected officials start listening to the faith community and change their ways, I stand with the pastors and civil rights leaders getting arrested every Monday in Raleigh. And I want to add my voice to theirs.

Sign this petition and join me in showing North Carolina’s elected leaders that the whole country is watching, and we’re praying for those hurt by their actions.

Jim Wallis is president of Sojourners. His book, On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned About Serving the Common Good, is now available. Watch the Story of the Common Good HERE. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.

Image: A Moral Monday gathering in North Carolina, yashmori / flickr.com

http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/07/11/moral-mondays

Proud Again for Senator Elizabeth Warren!

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is working with others to raise questions about the U.S. Treasury Program that penalizes the poor, sdeniors and veterans.

We should be proud, once again that we elected Senator Warren to work for the best interests of ALL Americans!

Senators grill Treasury official about debit card program

Payments increased for contractor, poor hit with fees

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/06/20/12876/senators-grill-treasury-official-about-debit-card-program

Benefit payment change hurts poor

Fees mount under debit card system

By Daniel Wagneremail

6:00 am, June 19, 2013 Updated: 3:01 pm, June 20, 2013

A government initiative aimed at saving money by eliminating paper checks is hurting some recipients of federal benefits while earning the bank that operates the program millions in fees charged to consumers.

The U.S. Treasury Department has been urging people who collect Social Security and other benefits to switch to direct deposit rather than rely on mailed checks, to save millions of dollars a year in administrative costs.

But beneficiaries without bank accounts — and even some who do have accounts — are being pressured into using prepaid debit cards offered by Comerica Bank, an effort that is shifting costs to elderly people, veterans and other vulnerable consumers.

The Treasury Department launched the program in 2008, teaming up with the Dallas-based bank to issue the “Direct Express” debit cards in a deal that lacked the open competition or transparency of most federal contracts.

Key findings

• The government has been aggressively pushing seniors, veterans and others who collect federal benefits to sign up for Direct Express, a payment card subsidized by taxpayers and issued by Comerica bank.

 

• Comerica received $22 million in taxpayer money for offering the cards as of August 2012. It also collects millions in fees that are deducted directly from people’s benefits.

• The contracting process lacked transparency, critics say. Comerica initially offered to provide the service at no cost to the government, then reversed course, saying it couldn't make a profit. The government agreed to give the bank millions of dollars without reopening bidding.

• Call center workers were trained to get people to enroll in Direct Express, even if direct deposit was an option. More than a quarter of the people enrolled already have bank accounts and are probably paying more in fees than if they used the direct deposit option.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/06/19/12857/benefit-payment-change-hurts-poor?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=watchdog&utm_medium=publici-email



http://thecenterforpublicintegrity.createsend5.com/t/ViewEmail/t/122B0B4778CA7B9F/7F4F0F5A7E541FFD9A8E73400EDACAB4

An Educational Tool of Key Votes

No one has the time to wade through voting records and track votes of elected officials.
The site below offers a synopsis of key votes that highlight why Americans need to replace extremists and stop the obstruction to allow the U.S. to restore our economy and our basic values.

During the last campaign, former Senator Scott Brown misstated his votes and his position on numerous issues. Let's not be misled by untrue campaign rhetoric and repeat the same mistake.

The Alliance for Retired Americans just released its annual report detailing the voting record of every U.S. Senator and Representative on key issues affecting current and future retirees. The document, available here, examines 10 key Senate votes and 10 key House votes in 2012. Roll calls on issues include:

• whether to privatize Medicare and create a voucher-like system in its place;
• whether to turn Medicaid into a block grant system; and
• whether to undo key Affordable Care Act provisions that benefit seniors.

View the Voting Record online here.

The Voting Record reflects how committed our elected representatives are (or are not) to retirees and older Americans. The record can be used to educate and to encourage the health and economic security of seniors, their families and their communities. Higher scores on the 2012 Voting Record reflect a commitment to protect seniors and ask the wealthiest American people and corporations to pay their fair share.

Help shine a light on what Congress has meant for seniors this past year by looking at how your elected officials voted! Again, the link is here.

This year, for the first time, the Voting Record is also available in Spanish. It is important that everyone who does not want to be part of the last generation to retire knows how their elected representatives voted on these retirement security issues. Use our simple online Tell-A-Friend tool to share the Voting Record with your friends and neighbors in English or Spanish.

In 2012, we saw the most unproductive Congress in modern American history finally come to an end, passing fewer than 250 bills in two years. Instead of asking the wealthiest American people and corporations to pay their fair share, we hear many Representatives again and again propose cutting the modest benefits to stable programs on which seniors rely. Help us make Congress pay attention to the needs of seniors!




Join the Alliance!

Alliance for Retired Americans | 815 16th Street, NW | Washington, DC 20006 | www.retiredamericans.org

 

Click here to subscribe:

Congressional Voting Record

 

Click here to download the 2012 Voting Record
This past year we saw the most unproductive Congress in modern American history finally come to an end, passing fewer than 250 bills in two years. In just 2012 alone, bipartisan consensus legislation on issues such as farm programs and violence against women languished and went uncompleted. The House even refused to vote on needed relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. Yet, it voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on its constitutionality. In the Senate, 115 filibuster threats grounded work to a near standstill on dozens of issues. All the while, the dysfunction in Congress pushed the nation toward a false crisis of a fiscal cliff. This act cost taxpayers nearly $19 billion because of avoidable credit downgrades. The nation deserves better. Voters in the 2012 elections did not reward many proponents of these policies.

Explanation of 2012 House Votes

Explanation of 2012 Senate Votes
en español

 

 

Archives:

Voting Record 2011.pdf
2011 saw a new Congress come to Washington. Almost immediately, many went to work on attacking our core retiree programs, Social Security and Medicare. In addition to congressional actions, these programs came under scrutiny early in the year by the national Fiscal Commission. Although it was unable to reach final recommendations, a majority of the commission supported a plan that would cut the Social Security COLA, raise the retirement age, and make seniors pay more for Medicare benefits. A congressional Super Committee later in the year also was unable to make any final recommendations, but it, too, considered some of these misguided proposals.