February 5, 2013
MEDIA RELEASE
“In his press briefing today, President Obama referred to ‘…modest reforms in our social insurance programs have to go hand-in-hand with a process of tax reform…’. While we welcome President Obama’s continued efforts to move Congress toward a path of fiscal responsibility, America’s seniors know that in Washington, so-called ‘sensible reforms’ can mean virtually anything. If reform allows Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices, prescription drug re-importation and provides other efficiencies that save Medicare money, it will have the support of the vast majority of Americans. However, reform proposals such as: Medicare means testing, raising Medicare’s eligibility age or cutting the annual COLA through the adoption of a chained CPI won’t pass muster with seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and federal workers.
For too long, many in Washington have pretended that “shared sacrifice” means that if a millionaire loses a tax break then the middle-class and poor must also lose their modest benefits in Medicare or Social Security. This false equivalency pretends that a tax dollar lost to a millionaire or huge corporation is the same as a benefit dollar lost to a retiree living on $14,000 a year from Social Security. America’s seniors know that’s not a fair and balanced approach, it’s not sensible reform and it’s not the path to economic recovery…Max Richtman, NCPSSM President/CEO
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