Retired Teachers Chapter News
Plenty at stake on Nov. 7
Nov 2, 2006 2:27 PM
“The Congress that forgot seniors needs to be replaced.” Exactly my sentiments.
Edward Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, made that comment recently on the heels of a Reuters poll that indicated Democrats leading Republicans in 11 of 15 races crucial to deciding which party will control the House of Representatives.
Older Americans — that’s us — are the most sought-after bloc of voters by both parties. Coyle made it clear, “We know who created the complicated Medicare Part D plan. We know who wants to rip the three-legged retirement stool out from under us. We will not let the party that works to weaken Social Security, pensions and retirement savings win in November.
“Nov. 7 can’t come soon enough,” Coyle added.
About that I’m not quite so sure. I worry we have not done everything we can to assure an election victory for our side. I worry we have not reached out and made our case crystal clear to everyone we know of voting age.
It’s crucial that voters understand what’s at stake. There are certainly issues of incredible importance on the economic, political, military, constitutional, environmental and foreign policy fronts and we will all weigh them carefully when we vote.
Our job right now is to sharpen the focus on the crucial issues that affect us as retirees. We must not sit on our hands and watch the conservatives in the House and Senate continue their grab for Social Security, Medicare and pensions as we know them. After all, these are issues that will ultimately affect all Americans.
We have seen irreversible harm caused retirees with the implementation of the Medicare Part D drug plan with its donut hole and unbridled drug prices.
Now the future of Medicare Part B — the part of Medicare that covers doctor visits and diagnostic tests — is in danger. For the first time in 41 years, Medicare Part B premiums for 2007 will be determined by means testing. Predictions are that by 2012 the premiums will be so high for upper-bracket incomes — and who knows how far down those brackets may shift in years to come — that they will abandon the program, leaving it to wither into a policy for the poorest and sickest that no one will pay attention to.
The conservatives’ Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 — cobbled together behind closed doors and passed in the wee hours of the morning — has been a pernicious ploy to speed up privatization of all facets of health benefits. Insurance companies are once again ready to enjoy the windfall just as the pharmaceutical companies already have.
Add to all of this the National Labor Relations Board’s latest attack on unions and working Americans, declaring that workers who schedule or assign other workers to particular responsibilities are part of management and therefore are denied the benefits and protections of union membership.
As UFT President Randi Weingarten noted in “President’s Perspectives” in the Oct. 19 edition of the New York Teacher, “If you needed another reason to get to the polls on Nov. 7 — and there were plenty of reasons in this crucial midterm election — the latest ruling of the Bush administration’s NLRB is pretty compelling for anyone who wants a voice at work. ... It hits directly at the ranks of organized labor already substantially thinned by the president’s aggressive anti-union policies.”
She urges all of us to “restore political balance to our federal government on Nov. 7.”
There’s still time to restore that balance. Reach out to every potential voter you know. Add your voice to that last-minute, critical push to get out the vote. Join our phone banks at all UFT borough offices and in local NYSUT offices. Here at headquarters, 52 Broadway, Manhattan, phone banks will be open from noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday, until Election Day.
