WNY Labor Today
Buffalo
Tom Campbell
WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Actors playing the roles of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, speak at the kick-off of a Statewide Caravan Tour in Buffalo, whose aim is to garner public support for protecting, preserving and strengthening Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. A number of speakers called on the general and voting public to get involved in the effort. They also called on their Federally-Elected Representatives to stand up to those in Washington who are looking to cut such critical programs that protect the poor, Working Poor and Middle Class. (WNYLaborToday.com Photo)
(BUFFALO) – Led by “Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt,” a Statewide Caravan Tour kicked off in Buffalo today, whose aim is to send a clear and loud message to Washington to protect, preserve and strengthen Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security – programs that aid the Poor, Working Poor and Middle Class that are under attack in the ongoing and political U.S. Deficit Plan battle.
With just over two weeks until Medicare and Medicaid’s 46th birthday on July 30th, caravan participants found particular irony in the fact that Republicans in Congress are tying to make radical cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – historic Social Programs that provide economic security and a better life for tens of millions of Working American Families, leading up to the August 2nd deadline to raise the National Debt Ceiling.
Backed by a coalition of groups – including a number of Labor Unions (New York State AFL-CIO, Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, Communications Workers of America, National Association of Letter Carriers, the New York State United Teachers, 1199 Service Employees International Union and the United Auto Workers), Citizen Action of New York, and the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans – the tour held a press conference outside Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo before heading on to 12 communities across New York, including Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Saratoga Springs and Kinderhook.
“We’ve been asked why we’ve come back,” said the actor who played the role of FDR. “Our political leaders have gotten my dander up. These leaders scare me. They’ve forgotten the lessons of my day. They wish to do away with programs that benefit all. This was America’s promise, a social contract. We must ensure it continues and it is up to us to stop them.”
Those attending and taking part in the kick-off news conference held several signs that read: “Hands Off My Medicare,” “Restore the American Promise,” “We Have $, It’s Just In The Wrong Pocket” and “Protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – Create New Jobs.”
“We need to send a message to our elected leaders,” Citizens Action Ellen Kennedy said. “Tax fairness will help solve our economic crisis, not cutting programs that President Roosevelt started with the Social Security Act in 1935 and provides security for so many.”
According to a recent Families USA Report, under the budget plan that was passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives earlier this year, New York would lose $12.2 billion in Federal Medicaid Funds, which would result in a loss of $25 billion in business activity and close to 200,000 jobs.
A letter signed by Western New York Congressional Leaders Kathy Hochul and Brian Higgins was also read at the news conference: “As Social Security has provided our Nation’s Seniors with financial security in their later years for four-and-a-half decades, Medicare has provided forty-seven-million Seniors and disabled Americans, and more than four-hundred-and-sixty-thousand Medicare beneficiaries here in Western New York, with comprehensive Health Care Coverage. Without access to services and benefits offered by Medicare, many Americans would be unable to receive the medical treatment, doctors’ visits and prescription drugs they need.”
In a prepared release, Erie-Niagara County Association of Retired Americans (ENCARA) President Steve Muscarella said: “Social Security’s been the most successful, reliable and far-reaching Social Insurance Program in the history of the world. In the past seventy-five years, the program’s never missed a payment to the elderly, the disabled, widows or other dependents. It’s a guarantee benefit credited with greatly reducing poverty among the elderly in this country. ‘American Values’ do not include taking money from the poor, disabled, Seniors and Working Class People.”
“President Roosevelt,” meanwhile, asked New York State Residents and Taxpayers to “stand up and be pro-active” and that elected leaders in Washington “must not balance the budget by destroying such programs” as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
“It’s time to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires and create job programs like the WPA (Works Progress Administration did in the late 30s) and put people back to work,” he said. “Our obligation is to take care of our constituency and to help provide help for those who have too little. You have the vote and you can vote them out!”
Clifford Canthon, who identified himself as a 22-year-old Buffalo State College Political Science Major, also spoke at the kick-off “Restore The American Promise” press conference and added: “A great majority of our elected officials are selling us out. We all have to take advantage of new technology to inspire a new Democracy.”
