Dear Shane Fox,
Fight the Jobs Crisis!
In separate meetings, North Texas Jobs with Justice and our
Workers Rights Board Task Force on the Jobs Crisis have been
working out preliminary plans to fight the jobs crisis and
advocate for the unemployed and underemployed. Meanwhile,
National Jobs with Justice has joined with the AFL-CIO, NAACP
and other organizations on national plans for economic justice.
Here are our local plans so far:
Continue demanding an extension of unemployment benefits and the
COBRA subsidy for health insurance for layoff victims and their
families.
Both the House and Senate passed jobs bills along with their
versions of funding for the military. Included is the extensions
we have been advocating. They also plan to use some of the
leftovers from the bankers' bailout to ameliorate the jobs
crisis. The two bills must be combined and voted into law
Advocate, Investigate, and Seek Allies
*The Workers Rights Board is scheduling hearings on the jobs
crisis for February 12 from 1-4 pm. Media will be invited.
*On the day that unemployment statistics are revealed, Feb 6, we
will hold a press conference.
*We must reach out to other leaders and organizations for the
broadest possible group.
*Continue using our own petitions until a national petition is
available
*The subcommittee will meet on Jan. 29, 2-4 pm
Help by advocating for services
*Encourage donations to the North Texas Food Bank
*Adopt the five-point program presented by the AFL-CIO. The Jobs
with Justice program is almost identical
*Continue cooperating with the entire progressive community in
demanding real health care reform. It will help ease the jobs
crisis!
*Legal Aid of Northwest Texas provides legal assistance
*Texas Law Help has basic, easy to read, legal information
concerning workers' rights, including undocumented workers
*AFL-CIO unemployment lifeline helps re-orient unemployed
workers
*Dallas Work Force Solutions is the state agency that controls
vital benefits
*Telephone "211" for help
Organize the unemployed and underemployed
*Encourage unemployed and underemployed people to join North
Texas Jobs with Justice
*Also encourage them to join Working America (AFL-CIO) and to
tell the Texas AFL-CIO Communications Director. A $5 fee is
requested, but is optional. The Texas AFL-CIO provides complete
information of interest to Texas working people
From our small start, can we really make a difference?
Absolutely! Watch the video from our determined Workers Rights
Board Task Force:
Join or donate to North Texas Jobs with Justice:
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Health Reform Will Not Include Medicare Buy-in for Those 55-64
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A week ago, a compromise Senate deal on health reform had nixed
a public insurance option and replaced it with provisions
letting those 55 or older buy into Medicare and allowing
nationwide nonprofit private plans overseen by the federal
Office of Personnel Management.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), who opposes the public option,
seemed to be in agreement. By last Sunday, however, Lieberman
had changed his mind. According to The Boston Globe, the
Medicare buy-in became as objectionable to him as the public
option. His explanation for the flip-flop is that expanding
Medicare would add to the federal deficit, but he came to
this conclusion before the Congressional Budget Office had
done its analysis.
Senate Democratic leaders have now laid out an ambitious
timetable for passing the health care bill on Christmas Eve.
To be successful, the plan assumes Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-NV) will have three key elements before the weekend: the
bill's cost estimate from the Congressional Budget
Office; the legislation completely written and available to the
public; and assurance from all 60 members of his caucus that
they will vote for the package.
"There will be good things for seniors in the Senate bill.
However, the House bill is far superior, and we will work
tirelessly to include specific pieces from the House,
like the public option, and to exclude the Senate's excise
tax on higher-cost insurance plans, when the bill gets
to conference committee," said Barbara J. Easterling,
President of the Alliance for Retired Americans".
She continued, "The Senate bill includes some relief for plans
with early retirees as well as delivery system reforms that may
lead to lower costs in the long run. And Senate leaders have made
a commitment to close the Medicare prescription drug doughnut hole,
which is so important to seniors. However, the Alliance continues
to insist that employers pay their fair share, and that genuine
health care reform must bring down health costs, hold insurance
companies accountable, and assure that Americans can get the
health care they need."
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted against an amendment to loosen
prescription drug importation rules as part of the health care
bill. The measure had been sponsored by a bipartisan group of
lawmakers led by Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME).
However, it fell short of the 60 votes needed for approval - the
final tally was 51 in favor, 48 opposed. Click HERE
for the complete results of the vote.
Dorgan criticized an alternative amendment, sponsored by
senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both
New Jersey Democrats, and Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), as
inadequate, because it would only allow the importation of drugs
if the federal government's health secretary certified they were
safe and lowered costs. This amendment also fell short of the 60
votes needed for approval; the vote was 56 in favor, 43 opposed.
Those results are available at click HERE
Since last Friday, Alliance for Retired Americans community
activists and volunteers had sent more than 3500 letters to all
Senators urging them to vote in favor of the Dorgan-Snowe
amendment.
The following is the official statement by AFL-CIO President Trumka
about the Senate bill.
December 17, 2009
The labor movement has been fighting for health care for nearly 100 years
and we are not about to stop fighting now, when it really matters.
But for this health care bill to be worthy of the support of working men
and women, substantial changes must be made. The AFL-CIO intends to
fight on behalf of all working families to make those changes and win
health care reform that is deserving of the name.
The absolute refusal of Republicans in the Senate to support health care
reform and the hijacking of the bill by defenders of the insurance
industry have brought us a Senate bill that is inadequate: It is too
kind to the insurance industry.
Genuine health care reform must bring down health costs, hold insurance
companies accountable, assure that Americans can get the health care
they need and be financed fairly.
That's why we are championing a public health insurance option: It is
the way to break the stranglehold of the insurance industry over
consumers that has led to double digit premium increases virtually
every year.
Employers must pay their fair share.
And the benefits of hard-working Americans cannot be taxed to pay for
health care reform. That's no way to rein in insurance companies and
it's the wrong way to pay for health care reform.
Those are the changes for which we will be fighting in the coming days.
The Senate bill does some good things: It will provide health insurance
to 30 million more Americans and provide subsidies to low-income
individuals and families. Benefits will have to meet minimum standards
and insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based
on pre-existing conditions or impose lifetime or unreasonable annual
limits.
The bill also includes some relief for plans with early retirees as
well as delivery system reforms that may lead to lower costs over the
long haul. And Senate leaders have made a commitment to close the
Medicare prescription drugs doughnut hole which is so costly to seniors.
But because it bends toward the insurance industry, the Senate bill will
not check costs in the short term, and its financing asks working people
and the country to pay the price, even as benefits are cut.
The House bill is the model for genuine health care reform.
Working people cannot accept anything less than real reform.
President Obama hailed a tentative health care agreement
announced in the Senate last week, saying that he would support
it, and majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sent the proposal to
the Congressional Budget Office for cost analysis the next day.
However, Joe Lieberman announced that he would oppose the
"Medicare Buy In". If you have not already, now is the time to
let Lieberman know that he is being watched by Older Americans.
Click HERE to sign the "Stop Joe" petition.
Click HERE to "Adopt Connecticut" and join with, and support
that state's activists who are standing up to Joe!
According to The New York Times, the deal would allow some people
ages 55 to 64 to buy coverage through Medicare beginning in 2011.
At first, they would pay full cost. Eventually, the legislation would
allow them to obtain subsidies to help defray the cost. Senior
advocates view the Medicare expansion as a major step for people
nearing retirement who face some of the biggest obstacles to obtaining
insurance and pay some of the highest prices.
The agreement also calls for creating a menu of national insurance plans,
modeled after those offered to federal workers, including members of
Congress. The new, nonprofit insurance plans would be overseen by the
Office of Personnel Management, which now runs the Federal Employees
Health Benefits Program. The deal maintains the public option as a
fallback plan, to be "triggered" if private insurers do not step up to
offer the new national plans.
Activists rallied outside the Senate last Thursday (December 10),
pressing senators to drop a tax on higher-end insurance plans. At issue
is a proposed 40% excise tax on health care plans costing more than
$8,500 annually for individuals and $23,000 for families.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who spoke at the event, has introduced an
amendment with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to strip out the insurance
plan tax. "The House approach, which would raise income taxes on
individuals making more than $500,000 a year and couples making more
than $1 million, would not have the detrimental effect on coverage for
retirees and older workers that the Senate's excise tax would," said
Barbara J. Easterling, President of the Alliance for Retired Americans.
On the Senate floor on Thursday, Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and John
McCain (R-AZ) pushed an amendment to allow U.S. pharmacies and drug
wholesalers to import Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs from
Canada, Europe and a few other countries.
See my blog immediately below this.
A vote is likely to occur on Early this week---Maybe today! Be ready
to call your Senators and ask them to support Drug Re-importation.
The U.S. Senate may vote as soon as Monday, December 14 to allow
the safe re-importation of drugs from other industrialized
countries.
Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) have
introduced an amendment to the Senate health care legislation
to allow safe drug re-importation.
Americans pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world,
five times more to fill their prescriptions than consumers in
other countries such as Canada. Retirees and older Americans are
particularly hard hit by high drug costs because they have more
acute and chronic illnesses. In addition to consumer savings,the
Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Dorgan-Snowe
Amendment would also save the government about $19 billion
over 10 years.
This is a win for retirees and all taxpayers.
For several years, the Alliance for Retired Americans sponsored
bus trips to Canada for seniors who are forced to make the trips
to purchase prescriptions that costs hundreds of dollars less than
in the United States. However, bus-trips are not a solution. The
Dorgan-Snowe amendment, with rigid safeguards to ensure
quality control, is a necessary measure to reduce ever-increasing
prescription drug costs.