Tag Archives: Medicare

Meanwhile, down in DC, Simpson and Bowles Work To Wreck Social Security

  By Liz Iacobucci | April 19, 2013 - 11:55 am | ,
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It’s probably going to get lost in today’s news, now breaking out of Boston, but…

SocialSecurityposter1Down in DC today, Erskine Bowles and Alan K. Simpson are scheduled to announce yet another of their “debt reduction” plans. Yes, it includes chained-CIP; yes, it includes cuts to Medicare. What is doesn’t include is much in the way of new revenues. Here’s how the Washington Post describes today’s plan:

“seeks far less in new taxes than the original, and it seeks far more in savings from federal health programs for the elderly.”

Yeah, this public policy debate is going in the wrong direction.

Here’s a better suggestion: Let’s return to the good ol’ days when investment income was taxed at the same rate as wage income.

Why does US tax policy give preferential tax treatment to dividends, just because investors don’t have to get their hands dirty in order to receive the income? America is supposed to be the land of Horatio Alger (“pull yourself up by your bootstraps, work hard, and you’ll get ahead”). If our tax code is going to have different standards for earned versus unearned income, shouldn’t the “hard work” type of income be the one we prefer?

Instead, ever since the Bush tax cuts, dividends have been taxed at a much lower rate. And that economic distortion has led to all sorts of bad outcomes. (Read “What Mitt Romney Taught Us about America’s Economy” here.)

According to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, this backwards tax preference will cost $616 billion in revenue over the next five years. (It’s one of the largest “tax expenditures” in the tax code.)

So, let’s call that $1.2 trillion over the next decade… and we’re well on our way toward debt reduction – without any cuts to Social Security or Medicare. Toss in another $516 billion worth of estate taxes (I’m doubling the five-year cost of that tax preference, as calculated by the Joint Committee). Maybe throw in $315 billion from ending the special tax treatment for life insurance annuities. And we’re well over $2 trillion in deficit reduction—all without a single cut to a single government program.

Now let’s apply a little “dynamic scoring”. (Haven’t heard of it? It what the GOP used, back in 2001, to argue that the country could afford the Bush tax cuts. Just assume that the tax code changes will improve the economy, and that will generate even more tax revenues.) Ok, you’re right… “dynamic scoring” didn’t work so well with the Bush tax cuts. But remember the Clinton tax hikes? Remember how the economy improved and the budget went from deficit to surplus?

Add in a little “dynamic scoring” (of the tax-HIKE variety) and… Presto Change-o! Suddenly, we’re doing a whole lot better than Simpson-Bowles.

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Also in the message mix, today: a great, big “oops!” from the two Harvard economists whose research has bolstered the GOP’s austerity agenda. Turns out they made a mistake in their spreadsheet analysis. Yes, this is the very same analysis that Paul Ryan used, during last year’s presidential campaign, to argue that our slow economy was caused by national debt. [Hello? Most of us out here in the real world think the economy’s hurting because so many people are out of work.] Yes, these are the same two economists who testified before the Simpson-Bowles Commission.

Here’s the kicker: their mistake was discovered by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Yes, public-funded higher education still works!

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Image from @DanielAdam68 on twitter.

Watching the news this morning, we’re seeing incredible acts of dedication and bravery. Special thanks to everyone whose jobs take them into danger, all those who protect the rest of us. Thoughts and prayers are with the family of the MIT Police officer who was killed; with the MBTA officer who was injured; and with everyone else whose lives have been forever altered by the events of the past few days.

Writing this from the security of my own home, I salute you all.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s Statement on FY 2014 Budget Proposal

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 10, 2013 - 8:10 pm | , , ,
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From WIKIPedia

From WIKIPediaA president’s budget is more than just numbers.  It is a profoundly moral document.  We believe cutting Social Security benefits and shifting costs to Medicare beneficiaries – while exempting corporate America from shared sacrifice – is wrong and indefensible.

The administration’s budget cuts cost-of-living increases for current and future Social Security beneficiaries by $130 billion over 10 years, and much more in future years.  It shifts $64 billion in health care costs to Medicare beneficiaries over 10 years.  Yet despite closing some loopholes, it calls for corporate income tax reform that is “revenue neutral” – meaning it fails to ask big, profitable corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.

The Obama budget also continues to demand more sacrifice from federal employees than from Wall Street.  Federal employees did not cause the Great Recession.  They did not cause the deficits that resulted from the Great Recession.  Yet their pay and their retirement keeps getting cut.  Why?

Putting aside the injustice of demanding sacrifice from the innocent while letting the guilty off scot free, the Obama budget falls short of putting our economy on a path towards higher wages and full employment.  As we have said many times, the greatest economic challenge facing America is the jobs crisis, not the deficit.  Yet the administration cuts the part of the budget that pays for investments in worker training and jobs, which has already been cut to its lowest level since the Eisenhower administration, by another $100 billion. This austerity budget is bad economic policy at a moment when the economy remains weak and we urgently need more job-creating investments.

The President’s budget does include several proposals worthy of praise.  It aims to provide universal access to pre-kindergarten programs that are so important to our children.  It strengthens programs to protect workers against wage theft, unsafe workplaces and employer retaliation. It closes the outrageous loophole that allows Wall Street financial managers to pay a special lower tax rate.  And it reforms some of the tax loopholes that allow corporations to get away with shifting profits overseas to avoid U.S. taxes.

Last November, working Americans voted for jobs and growth, not for budget austerity and benefit cuts.  We urge the President to drop these cuts and build support for investing in jobs.

 

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Comments on March Jobs Report And President Obama’s Budget Plans

  By New Hampshire Labor News | April 5, 2013 - 7:00 pm | , , ,
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From WIKIPedia

From WIKIPediaToday’s announcement that the economy added only 88,000 jobs in March underscores the reality that the real challenge our nation faces is a jobs crisis..  We are still creating fewer jobs than we need to get us back to post-recession employment rates.  We are going from month to month with our fingers crossed in hope of decent growth, while we should be investing in our infrastructure and rebuilding the middle class.

In Washington, we are still engaging in an upside-down debate.  News that the President is planning to unveil a budget that cuts Social Security and Medicare benefits for working families is a sign of the wrong-headed policy driving our slow recovery.  Millions of Americans remain out of work and the job market is especially devastating for young people.  Young people ages 20-24 are facing 13.3% unemployment rates. Without the prospect of good jobs in their early and crucial earning years, these young people will bear the cost of these proposed cuts in Social Security.

This past November, voters rejected the failed policies of Romney/Ryan and voted for President Obama in hopes that a second term would mean that working families would share in our nation’s prosperity.  This budget dampens those hopes.  But, even worse, it’s bad for the economy.

We continued to reject chained CPI and means testing for Medicare as more “Washington speak” that disguises awful ideas that harm working families  The President should drop these misguided cuts in benefits and focus instead on building support in Congress for investing in jobs.

The Last Thing We Need Is More Austerity; A Statement By AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

  By New Hampshire Labor News | March 13, 2013 - 4:40 pm | , , ,
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From WIKIPedia
From WIKIPediaHouse Republicans’ latest budget crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan is a zombie proposal long ago rejected by working families.  But he won’t let it die.  Instead of calling for the sensible repeal of the sequester, Rep. Ryan would double down on harmful cuts to education, health care and other programs that build a strong middle class.  And instead of closing tax loopholes for the super wealthy, this budget would give even more tax breaks to the rich—higher subsidies for shipping American jobs overseas, bigger tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.  Republicans would pay for all this by voucherizing Medicare, cutting Medicaid for the most vulnerable, and increasing Medicare premiums for middle class beneficiaries.  This budget would cut spending by $5.7 trillion – devastating child nutrition, cancer research, transportation and other key programs and shrink government to the size it was in the 1950s.

Our economy is still in a fragile state of recovery and we’ve seen that previous cuts to state and local services and jobs have prevented us from recovering faster.  The last thing we need is more austerity that would cost jobs and stunt America’s future.  We reject these so called “balanced” approaches that increase inequality and shift even more of the burden to those who can least afford it.  We call for an immediate repeal of the across the board sequester cuts and urge lawmakers to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts.

The NH Alliance For Retired Americans Pres. Ballban Blasts Congressman Ryans Budget Proposal!

  By New Hampshire Labor News | March 13, 2013 - 12:48 pm | ,
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SS-Medicare-sayno.org

SS-Medicare-sayno.orgManchester, NH – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled a Republican budget on Tuesday that would once again prioritize millionaires over seniors by turning Medicare into a voucher system and repealing the Obama health care law.

“Last November, the American people voted on these principles and they voted No,” said Charles Balban, President of the New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans.

“This budget – Ryan’s 3rd edition – is not new and it’s not improved,” continued Charles Balban. “It again proposes privatizing Medicare and turning it into a coupon system while lowering tax rates on the wealthy and corporations.”

“Paul Ryan can produce all the charts he wants, but his values are diametrically opposed to those of the rest of us. New Hampshire seniors don’t see the need to balance the budget on our backs and those of the already-struggling middle class. We don’t think the wealthy and corporations need relief. The reason we’re in this mess to begin with is that they’ve been taking a bigger and bigger piece of the pie for too many years.”

“Paul Ryan and the GOP once again are proposing to end Medicare as we know it and double seniors’ out-of-pocket costs. This plan doesn’t reduce the cost of our health care system, but rather shifts it from the government’s books onto the backs of seniors.”

“This unfair plan proposes giving seniors vouchers rather than maintaining the guaranteed benefits of Medicare, and turning Medicaid into a block-grant program. Of course these vouchers would not keep up with costs and New Hampshire seniors would be out more and more money every year.”

 

For more information on the New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans, please contact: Terry Lochhead, (603) 545-9989.

How do we get an economy that works for the 99%?

  By Liz Iacobucci | March 6, 2013 - 1:20 pm | , ,
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Day 20 Occupy Wall Street October 5 2011 Shankbone 3It’s official: Wall Street has recovered from the recession. Yesterday,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to its highest level ever, erasing losses from the financial crisis after a four-year rally fueled by the fastest profit growth since the 1990s and monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. About $10 trillion has been restored to U.S. equities as retailers, banks and manufacturers led the recovery from the worst bear market since the 1930s.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, America’s middle class is still losing ground.

In the wake of the Great Recession, millions of middle-class people are being pinched by stagnating incomes and the increased cost of living. America’s median household income has dropped by more than $4,000 since 2000…

The unemployment rate has been getting better – but for most American families, life is still getting worse.

One of the most disturbing trends of the recession is still very far from being reversed. America’s middle-class jobs have been decimated since 2007, replaced largely by low-wage jobs.

In other words, wages are still falling. From the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank:

Many middle-class workers have lost their jobs and, if they have been able to secure new employment at all, find themselves earning far lower wages post-recession… on average over the next 25 years, these workers will earn 11% less [than they would have, if they hadn’t lost their jobs during the recession].

Back in Washington, DC, what are the politicians doing?

  1. House Republicans believe they’re “on the side of the angels” on defense spending. They are coalescing around a budget deal that would allow the Pentagon more flexibility to move money around (for instance, using savings that resulted from troop withdrawals to restore funding to military contractors).
  2. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is working on next year’s budget. Should be interesting to read. The last time he proposed a budget, a whopping 62% of the budget cuts came from programs that help low-income people.
  3. And Ryan still plans to privatize Medicare. His only question: what should the cut-off age be? Should current Medicare benefits be guaranteed for people 55-and-older? 56-and-older? Even older than that? [The League of Women Voters analyzed Ryan’s proposal and calculated that the voucher system would pay only 32% of the cost of covered procedures, leaving patients to pay the other 68% of the cost. Read Time Magazine’s piece on medical costs here.]

Obviously, last November’s election didn’t change the dynamics in Washington.

What is it going to take, to do that?

The NH AFL-CIO Speaks Out Against Mandatory Budget Cuts And The Effect On NH Working Families

  By New Hampshire Labor News | February 26, 2013 - 2:39 pm | ,
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NH AFL-CIO Logo

Sequestration Cuts to Employment Services to Hurt Over 6,104 Granite Staters Searching for Work 

Republicans take economy hostage to protect tax loopholes for corporations and wealthy

 A report from the Senate Appropriations Committee shows that Congressional Republicans’ ‘threats to harm the economy by letting automatic across-the-board budget cuts – called “sequestration” – go forward on March 1, 2013 would cause New Hampshire to lose enormous funding for job training services, education and home heating assistance.

The report further proves that Republicans’ insistence on cutting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to pay for tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthiest 2 percent would directly harm working families.

These drastic cuts would slash $744,407 from critical job training and employment services, impacting 6,104 veterans, young workers and adults. Thanks to cuts in Workforce Investment Act adult and dislocated worker state grants, 963 fewer adult workers would have access to grants to help them retrain and find employment after layoffs. An additional 4,912 workers would be hurt by cuts to the DOL’s employment service.

Sequestration would also cut nearly $2.2 million in funds for New Hampshire from Title I, the largest federal-funded education program in the United States, meaning schools would be left struggling to pay for teachers and tutors. Critical grants for public safety would be cut back by $198,965, leaving local fire departments understaffed and working without necessary, critical equipment.

“Yet again, Republicans in Congress are threatening to throw the economy back into recession unless Democrats agree to benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” said New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie. “They are willing to allow deep across the board cuts that hurt working families to go into effect rather than close wasteful tax loopholes and demand corporations and the richest 2% pay their fair share. We need to invest in our economy and our people by creating more jobs, not cutting them. Congress must stop protecting corporations and the richest 2% and cancel the sequester immediately.”

Additional state cuts:  (State tables start on page 79)

  FY 12 Funding FY 13 Sequester Cut Impact
Department of Labor Job Training Grants $9,517,729 $744,407 6,104 fewer adults and young workers receive assistance with job training, including 171 veterans
Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies $4,881,449 $198,965 31 education jobs lost, 1,349 fewer students served and 15 fewer schools to receive grants
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program $26,055,007 $2,150,521 Less funding to provide home heating and cooling assistance to low-income individuals and families
Head Start  $15,590,172 $1,216,033 41 Head Start jobs lost and 194 fewer children served

 

The full report can be found at: http://www.harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/500ff3554f9ba.pdf

Governor Hassan Announces $1.6 Million Federal Grant to Help NH Improve Health Care Through Innovation

  By New Hampshire Labor News | February 22, 2013 - 5:00 pm | ,
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Maggie Hassan

Funds Will Allow State to Develop Comprehensive Health Innovation Plan

CONCORD – Governor Maggie Hassan announced today that the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has been awarded up to $1.6 million in federal funds to develop a State Health Care Innovation Plan to improve quality and reduce growth in health care costs through improved coordination. The State Innovation Model grant program, issued by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and made possible by the Affordable Care Act, will allow New Hampshire to develop a strategy to transform the health care delivery system through multi-payer payment reform and other state initiatives.

“Innovating in health care is critical for reducing the growth in health care costs and improving the quality of care for all of our people,” said Governor Hassan. “New Hampshire has led the way in health care innovation through initiatives like accountable care organizations, and these federal funds will allow us to develop a comprehensive strategy to continue our progress and strengthen our health care system.”

New Hampshire’s plan will lay out a framework for aligning consumer access across delivery system “silos,” payer support for outcomes-based long term care services, and global accountability for cost-effectiveness and outcomes.

A central tenet of the transformation activities will target opportunities for improved coordination across systems for individuals who are either in need of or at-risk for needing long-term support services; this population will be targeted due to the complex health needs and the cross-cutting nature of the services and payments needed to coordinate their care. Through this process, New Hampshire will leverage ongoing activities in the development of the new system and align the ongoing state and national quality initiatives with the new system.

New Hampshire has six months to submit its plan to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and will use its Health Care Innovation Plan to apply for an anticipated second round of awards.

For more information on the grant please go to:  http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/State-Innovations <http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/State-Innovations> . To learn more about other innovative models being tested by the CMS Innovation Center, please visit: innovation.cms.gov.

The Alliance For Retired Americans Want President Obama To Make A ‘Renewed Commitment’ To Social Security

  By New Hampshire Labor News | February 11, 2013 - 8:00 am | ,
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social securty 1The Alliance for Retired Americans is an advocacy group in 33 states that work to push for or against legislation that impacts seniors.  For example last week, Ron Geoffroy from the NH Chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans, spoke for the repeal of the Voter ID law in the NH House public hearing.

Recently much of the Alliance for Retired Americans actions revolved around preserving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  Most recently they joined with the NH AFL-CIO to ask Senator Kelly Ayotte to stop playing roulette with seniors Social Security.

Today the 33 Presidents of the State Chapters of the Alliance for Retired Americans sent a letter to President Obama.  They are asking for him to take a stand, and be the man they elected.  They want President Obama to use the State of the Union address to “reaffirm your commitment” to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Below is the letter signed by New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans President Charlie Balbon.  (Charlie is a retired Sheet Metal Worker)

Dear Mr. President:

We write you as the national officers and the presidents of the state chapters of the Alliance for Retired Americans, a national organization of four million members dedicated to securing a better quality of life for all Americans in retirement. We believe that you have the opportunity to renew the nation’s commitment to the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs during the State of the Union Address next week.

Mr. President, we were heartened by your inauguration address. It captured the long American tradition that a lifetime of hard work should create the foundation for a secure retirement. And should unfortunate circumstances visit any one of us, these vital programs are a lifeline for continued personal and family security. Your words, “The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great” embody this great American tradition.

We are concerned, Mr. President, that many in Washington will try to take advantage of the nation’s current fiscal situation and cause permanent damage to the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs. We strongly urge you to resist such efforts. We urge you to speak forcefully in favor of strengthened Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs.

We recognize that long term efforts will be necessary to keep these programs financially sound as well as being able to provide benefits that are adequate to maintain a dignified quality of life. However, the debate over the current fiscal situation is not the forum for addressing the future of these programs. We applaud your leadership on vital issues such as health care reform which has benefited our members. We believe you are now in a position to demonstrate that same leadership on behalf of the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs. Sincerely yours

View the letter in a PDF from the ARA.

.@NHAFLCIO Host High-Stakes Safety Net Roulette Game to Protest Manufactured Fiscal Crisis

  By New Hampshire Labor News | January 31, 2013 - 8:08 pm | ,
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NH AFLCIO Medicare Action
NH AFLCIO Medicare Action

Image from NH AFL-CIO (Nora Fredrickson)

A group of workers, labor leaders and community members gathered outside Senator Kelly Ayotte’s Manchester office on Thursday, January 31st for a high-stakes game of safety net roulette. Demanding that fringe Republicans in Congress stop holding the economy hostage to their own radical agenda, they called on Senator Ayotte to close tax loopholes for Wall Street and the richest 2% of Americans instead of cutting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare for families.

Participants delivered an invitation to Senator Ayotte to try her hand at a roulette wheel set up outside her office, offering her a choice of red chips, representing safety net programs like Medicaid, or black chips, representing outsized tax breaks and loopholes for corporations.

“We want our elected leaders to address the real problems facing our economy,” said Charles Balban, retiree and president of the New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans. “Demanding benefit cuts to programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, just so that corporations and the richest 2% don’t pay their fair share, isn’t the right way to go. Republicans in Congress need to stop holding the middle class hostage to their radical agenda.”

“Tens of thousands of Granite Staters depend on safety net programs, yet our elected leaders are still choosing to use them as bargaining chips in negotiations over the deficit,” said New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie. “It’s time for our elected officials to stop gambling with our future, stop making drastic cuts to the services their constituents need to get back on their feet, and close tax loopholes that only further benefit the wealthy and corporations.”

Image from NH AFL-CIO (Nora Fredrickson)