March 4, 2016

The Honorable Raúl Grijalva
Co-Chair
Congressional Progressive Caucus
1511 Longworth House Office Building
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

  The Honorable Keith Ellison
Co-Chair
Congressional Progressive Caucus
2263 Rayburn House Office Building
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairmen Grijalva and Ellison:

On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to endorse the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Fiscal Year 2017 “People’s Budget” because it strengthens, improves and preserves Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The National Committee commends the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s call to address the growing retirement income crisis by raising Social Security’s modest benefits.  To improve Social Security’s solvency and boost benefits, the CPC budget supports gradually raising the cap on payroll taxes.  To improve benefits, the People’s Budget would protect Social Security benefits from inflation by using a fully-developed Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) to set cost-of-living adjustments, and would provide a Social Security caregivers credit to individuals who leave the workforce to care for loved ones. 

The People’s Budget would save Medicare and seniors billions of dollars by allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and prohibiting “pay for delay” agreements that brand name pharmaceutical manufacturers use to prevent less costly generic drugs from entering the market. What’s more, it continues the investments made in the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid in the states and to help people with modest incomes gain health insurance.   The measure also closes a loophole that allows some individuals to avoid paying their full Medicare taxes. 

Regrettably, some members of the 114th Congress have repeatedly attempted to treat Social Security and Medicare as a piggybank to pay for unrelated programs.  We are pleased the People’s Budget opposes setting this dangerous precedent and supports using savings from changes in social insurance policy to improve social insurance programs – not for other purposes.

The House of Representatives will have important choices to make this month when you and your colleagues consider the budget resolution.  The National Committee urges all Representatives to support the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget since it puts seniors, people with disabilities and working families first.

Sincerely,

Max Richtman
President and CEO