Protest Attacks on Women's Health on Thursday, February 17

Women's health is under attack in Harrisburg and Washington, DC. Fight back this Thursday at protest rallies in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

In Philadelphia:

When: 11:30 AM, Thursday 2/17

Where: Thomas Paine Plaza in front of the Municipal Services Building across from City Hall, 1417 John F Kennedy Boulevard

RSVP Here

In Pittsburgh:

When: 4:30 PM, Thursday 2/17

Where: Old Allegheny County Morgue, 542 Fourth Avenue at the corner of Fourth and Ross

RSVP Here

Why Are We Protesting?

Legislation in both Harrisburg and Washington DC aims to stop women from using their own money to purchase health insurance that covers abortion.

Legislators were sent to Washington and Harrisburg to create jobs but since taking office, newly elected lawmakers have instead been appeasing their extreme right wing base who want to roll back the advances women made in the last forty years.

These same lawmakers have also been busy trying to block implementation of the health care legislation passed last year even though support for it is rising as citizens come to understand how the law protects them from insurance company abuses.

Meanwhile, some members of Congress are proposing to entirely eliminate all federal funding for family planning and reproductive health services which will lead to more unintended pregnancies.  Congressional leadership in Washington will propose a budget for this fiscal year that would in addition:

• Entirely eliminate all federal funding for family planning and reproductive health. In other words, Republicans who oppose abortion are doing everything they can to encourage more unwanted pregnancies while attacking Planned Parenthood, the most respected provider of women’s health care in the country.
• Chop $1.1 billion cut from Head Start.
• Cut $758 million from the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a program created by the Nixon administration that provides supplemental food to infants as well as health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income pregnant and postpartum women.
•  Reduce the Maternal and Child Health Block Grants by $210 million. This program, a descendant of one created during the Harding Administration, supports children with special needs, provides newborn screening and genetic services, and funds lead poisoning and injury prevention.
• Slash $1.3 billion from Community Health Centers that provide affordable health care to low income women, men and their children. Last year, Republicans claimed we didn’t need health care reform because Community Health Centers provide care to people with low incomes. This year, they are ready to slash funding for them.

And a vote is expected this Thursday in the US House to eliminate many of these programs through HR 1 - the Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government through the end of September!  So before coming out to either of the protest rallies, call your US Representative and tell him/her to stop these attacks.  You can obtain their contact information by going to http://www.house.gov/ and filling in your zip code in the top left corner of the page.  This will take you to your Representative's web page where you can then get the information needed to call and/or email him/her.

And meanwhile,  please sign our petition at http://PAForWomensHealth.org/ now! Raising Women's Voices, a coalition of organizations concerned about these attacks on women's health care will be delivering signatures to our lawmakers next week.

What’s at stake? Women’s lives! Please join us Thursday. Call your legislators. And sign our petition.

We hope to see you there!

Still Time to Call and Protect Social Security

The Fiscal Commission has delayed their vote on the debt reduction plan that currently contains several ways to gut Social Security.  Their plan includes raising the retirement age to 69, cutting the annual COLA (Cost-of-Living-Allowance), and cutting benefits overall for middle-income earners by 17% to 36%.

The Strengthen Social Security Campaign - the national coalition working to protect Social Security that Pennsylvania NOW is part of - sent out a notice this morning extending the time to call the US Senate due to this delay.  Here's the message:

We slammed the phones on Capitol Hill yesterday [November 30] thanks to your help. In fact, we overloaded the Capitol Switchboard and the phones went down.

Tens of thousands delivered the message: Hands Off Our Social Security! Members of Congress even called our offices and those of our allies to say that they were hearing the calls loud and clear.

The Fiscal Commission was supposed to vote today on a plan to slash Social Security benefits. But they’re still trying to round up the votes. The vote is now scheduled for Friday.

So you have time to call your U.S. Senators TODAY [December 1] and THURSDAY [December 2] to make your voice heard. Please call 1-866-529-7630 now.

We know many of you called yesterday but could not get through to the offices because the switchboards were jammed. So please try again TODAY.

Call 1-866-529-7630 right now. There will be less phone traffic today, which should allow you to get through.

We can beat these guys. That’s why we will continue fighting all week against the Fiscal Commission. They released their new proposal for slashing Social Security benefits this morning. Once again it disregards the will of the American people. Their plan will raise the retirement age to 69, cut the annual COLA, and cut benefits overall for middle-income earners by 17% to 36%.

We’ll send you a wrap-up on all your great work on Friday. Call your senators right now at 1-866-529-7630.


Thanks for taking action,


The Strengthen Social Security Campaign Team
www.strengthensocialsecurity.org
PS: Call your Senators and invite your friends to call, too. The number is 1-866-529-7630

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Reminder: Tuesday November 30 is Call-In Day to Protect Social Security

Join us tomorrow, Nov. 30, in a National Call Congress Day to fight Social Security cuts! Thanks to those of you who have already pledged to call. It's not too late to commit to participating in this important event.

Call your Senators tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1-866-529-7630, toll-free. The operator will identify your senators by asking for your zip code. Call BOTH of your senators if you have time.  It only takes a minute each. If you only have time for one phone call and you live in Pennsylvania, ask for Senator Bob Casey.  If you have time to make both calls, ask for Senator Casey first.  Then call back through the toll-free number one more time and ask for Senator Arlen Specter.

If you're having trouble getting through on the toll-free number, you can look up your senators' direct lines on National NOW's website.

Here's a sample script:

Hello, my name is [give name].  I am a constituent in [name of your state] and my address is [give your address]. I am calling Senator [Last Name] to urge [her or him] to say no to Social Security benefit cuts. As a women's rights supporter, I am particularly concerned about the millions of women who depend upon Social Security as a person with a disability, as a widow caring for minor children, or as a retiree or spouse of a retiree. Due to unequal pay, time spent out of the workforce for caregiving, and having little to no savings, pensions or investments, women disproportionately rely on Social Security. Please don't cut benefits in any way, including by raising the retirement age. Thank you for your time. 

Background:

The co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform have proposed increasing the retirement age to 69 (making us work longer), deeply cutting benefits for middle-class workers and reducing annual Cost of Living Adjustments. We need your help to stop them!

Social Security is a promise that must not be broken -- we work hard and our payroll taxes pay for it. It belongs to our children, our parents, our neighbors and us. Throughout their lives, women on average are paid less then men, and they often work at part-time jobs or take extended leave from the workforce for raising children and other forms of caregiving. As a result, women are less likely to have pensions, investments or life savings, so they stand to lose the most if these cuts are made.

Help ensure that Social Security will be there, keeping middle-class women out of poverty and not forcing them to work until they are nearly 70.

If you haven't yet, please sign the "Count on Me" pledge at the National NOW website promising to participate in the National Call Congress Day on Nov. 30. Then, forward this blog/e-mail and tell your friends, family and co-workers to add their voices, too. You can also invite your friends to make calls through the Strengthen Social Security Facebook events page. Don't let politicians cut OUR Social Security.

For additional information and talking points, see our blog on November 19, 2010 titled "Ten Reasons the Social Security Proposal of the Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs Should be DOA."

Please TAKE ACTION  and then DONATE. 

We'd really appreciate it and so will all those who depend on Social Security.

Thank you!

Ten Reasons the Social Security Proposal of the Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs Should be DOA

The Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs’ Social Security proposal:

1. Deeply cuts the benefits of middle-class families. Benefits for retirees, survivors and disabled workers will be cut between 17% and 36% for young people entering the workforce today, affecting those earning an average of $43,000 (17%) to $107,000 (36%) a year over their working lives, according to the Social Security Chief Actuary. The proposed cuts would apply to retirees, disabled workers and their families, children who have lost parents, and widows and widowers.
2. Closes Social Security’s long-range funding gap primarily by cutting already low benefits, rather than by raising taxes on those who can most afford to pay. Ninety-two percent of Social Security’s long-range funding gap is closed by cutting promised benefits. Instead, this gap could be closed, as most Americans want, by requiring those employees (and their employers) who make more than $107,000 a year to pay Social Security taxes on all their wages, as the rest of us do who earn less.
3. Raises the retirement age to 69. This is a 13% benefit cut on top of the 13% cut already made when the retirement age was increased from 65 to 67, according to the Social Security Administration.
4. Raises the early retirement age to 64. Most Americans claim Social Security benefits before age 64, even though the benefits are currently reduced by as much as 25% when they do so. That’s usually because they work in physically demanding jobs, have health problems, or can no longer find work. Raising the early retirement age will shut them out of the system when they are most vulnerable, potentially forcing them to seek disability benefits or welfare. 
5. Discriminates against lower-wage workers by raising the retirement age. Upper-income Americans are living longer. But in recent years the life expectancy of lower-income men has increased only slightly and the life expectancy of lower-income women declined. In effect, the proposal says to lower wage workers that they must work longer because the rich are living longer!
6. Reduces the annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security beneficiaries. The proposal would reduce the purchasing power of benefits by 3.7% after 10 years of receiving benefits and by 6.5% after 20 years, according to the Social Security Chief Actuary.
7. Hurts current retirees, contrary to promises made by the Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs. The change in the COLA calculation would affect all beneficiaries, not just retirees, starting in 2012.  If anything, the COLA should be increased because it does not adequately take account of skyrocketing medical costs, which hit seniors and people with disabilities hardest.
8. Breaks faith with our nation’s veterans and service members. Forty-three percent of veterans receive Social Security. They or their families will see their Social Security disability benefits cut deeply if they are seriously injured in combat, their survivors’ benefits cut substantially if they die in combat, and their retirement benefits cut significantly just like all other Americans.
9. Harms our grandchildren the most. The younger a person is the deeper the cuts because of the increase in the retirement age and the changes in the benefit formula.
10. Breaks Social Security’s promise with Americans. Social Security belongs to the people who have worked hard all their lives and contributed to the program. The proposal breaks that promise.

Click here for a more detailed analysis of the Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs’ proposal.