PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Why should Americans have to turn to Canada to find affordable prescription drugs and better prescription prices? Why shouldn't we be able to get those same prescriptions at the same prices right here in Granger, Winamac, Walkerton, Knox, Camden, Rochester, and every other community in Indiana's Second Congressional District?

I will work in Congress to guarantee that Senior Citizens and the rest of us get a fair deal at a fair price. I will support legislation that increases our pricing power and negotiating power with the big drug companies.

Until the day comes when we do have more affordable prescription prices here in America, I will fully support your right to obtain prescription drugs from Canada at much lower prices. This will create great savings for Seniors and families, and let you keep a few more dollars in your own wallet or pocketbook.

Joe Donnelly

Spotlight on CHINA

China's President, Hu Jintao, is making a much-anticipated visit to the United States this week, first stopping in Seattle for a meeting with Bill Gates and then moving on to meet with President Bush. He comes at a time when the trade relationship between our countries is a disaster: a $200-billion-plus U.S. trade deficit with China is soaring while the Chinese government continues to undervalue its currency and not play by fair trading rules. The result? U.S. jobs are hemorrhaging, and the bleeding is showing no signs of stopping.
In light of the visit and the overall situation, here are some facts on the world's most populous nation:

• China increased its industrial production by nearly 28 percent in 2005 alone.

• “Outsourcing” companies promote that relocating to China’s low-wage market with little if any worker or environmental protections can immediately save 30-50% in costs.

• Five out of every six ships sent here from China loaded with products for our market return to China empty. The sixth ship likely has scrap metal or paper on board.

• Every year, 202 billion pairs of shoes are sent from China to the U.S. – seven pairs for every man, woman and child!

• Over four million Chinese are in forced labor camps producing auto parts and other products that are often exported.

• According to China’s own central bank, U.S. workers earn 33 times as much as their Chinese counterparts.

• We have a $37 billion deficit in advanced technology goods - $36 billion of which is with China (so much for the claim that Americans who lose their manufacturing job can simply move on to a high tech job).

• Right now, the number of Chinese that speak English as a second language is more than the number of people in the United States that are native English speakers.

• Though China doesn’t track rural unemployment, estimates show that overall unemployment is around twenty percent – that’s over 250 million people, or just 50 million less than the entire U.S. population.

Source: Rapid Response Info Alert April 20,2006

Christ - "vital agitator"

“I told my friends of the cloth that I did not believe Christ was meek and lowly but a real, living, vital agitator who went into the temple with a lash and whipped the oppressors of the poor, routed them out of doors and spilled their blood and got silver on the floor. He told the robbed and misruled and exploited and driven people to disobey their plunderers, he denounced the profiteers, and it was for this that they nailed his quivering body to the gates of Jerusalem, not because he told them to love one another. That was a harmless doctrine. But when he touched their profits and denounced them before their people, he was then marked for crucifixion.”
-- Eugene Debs, Labor Leader and Socialist Party Presidential Candidate

Another Kick in the teeth by Republicans

Feds announce Part D cost increases for 2007

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the
increased costs for the Standard Part D parameters that will take effect in
January 2007.

2007 will see the following changes:

* Deductible will go up from $250 to $265.

* Beginning of coverage gap ("donut hole") will go up from $2,250 to $2,400
in total drug cost.

* End of coverage gap ("donut hole") will go up from $5,100 to $5,451.25.

The amount of money a Medicare recipient will have to spend out of their own
pocket on drugs to get out of the coverage gap and begin receiving the 95%
"catastrophic" coverage will go up from $3,600 to $3,850 for the year.

The law requires CMS to increase the cost of the deductible and the
beginning/ending of the coverage gap each year based on the increase in drug
spending by Medicare beneficiaries in the previous year -- a rate much
higher than the Consumer Price Index. The new rates for 2007 are an
increase of 6.8%. The Consumer Price Index, which measures overall
inflation/price increases (and is used in determining Social Security and
other cost-of-living increases) for the same period will be only 1.81%

A real Medicare drug benefit is needed now!

Less than 4 months into the private Part D drug plan, it's official -- a bad
deal is going to get worse next year and every year after.

Recent studies have shown that compared to the cost of the private Part D
plan, a Medicare run drug benefit with negotiated lower drug prices could
provide 100% of recipients drug costs -- with no premium, deductible,
coverage gap -- and still have a surplus of $40 billion over the first 7
years.

It's time for Congress to fix this private Part D disaster and create a real
drug benefit run by and through Medicare with negotiated lower drug prices.

Steelworkers Summer 2006

When I graduated from High School, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. After working at a summer resort in Iowa during the first few months, I decided to join the Navy. If I were to be in that predicament today, I’d consider the Steelworkers Summer Program.

Steelworkers’ Summer is an educational and training internship in which participants develop skills useful for union organizing by experiencing firsthand the kinds of struggles workers face while trying to win a voice at work. It is also designed to give participants an understanding and appreciation of the positive impact the union has had on their parents’ working lives.

Internships are open to young adults, 18 years of age or older. Selection preference is given to children of members of the United Steelworkers.

Steelworkers’ Summer is committed to uniting students, workers, and community activists to bring about social justice through workplace and community organizing.

Applicants should have a strong commitment to social and economic justice, as well as openness to working with a broad cross section of people. This includes people of various races, ethnicities, religions and orientations. Participants need to be people-oriented, enthusiastic, energetic, flexible and willing to work long hours on an unpredictable schedule. A college degree is not required. Previous union experience is not necessary. Volunteerism or activism is a plus.

You can find more information about this program as well as an application by going here.

I recommend it for any young person looking for an alternative way to begin a career in life.

Immigration Reform

By LINDA CHAVEZ-THOMPSON
Sunday, March 26th, 2006

They are Latin American immigrants tending the manicured lawns in wealthy New York neighborhoods. They are Indian computer programmers working for major corporations. They are women, born in Mexico and Africa, who tend our children. They pay taxes and have been contributing members of our communities for years. Many have families. We rely on their labor each and every day. Yet the basic rights of these workers - to a minimum wage, a safe workplace and fair treatment - are routinely trampled upon. This exploitation hurts all of us, foreign and native-born alike. It must end, and the overhauling of our nation's broken immigration laws is essential to achieving this goal.

Tragically, all immigration reform proposals currently circulating in the halls of Congress fail to protect even the most basic rights of immigrant workers and their families. Just last week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) put forth his own makeshift proposal - topping the list of legislative failures. He wants to criminalize immigrant workers, deepening the potential for abuse and exploitation while undermining wages and labor protections for all.

To achieve comprehensive immigration reform, we have to give up the illusion that enforcement of laws alone can fix our broken system. Effective reform must include three interdependent goals. First, our government must uniformly enforce laws on workplace standards. All workers, including immigrants, should earn a minimum wage, have safe jobs and receive fair treatment. When immigrants are treated poorly, workplace standards are dragged down for all workers. Second, we must reject guest worker programs. Because these workers are wholly dependent on host employers for both their livelihoods and legal status, guest workers are ripe for exploitation. Finally, there must be a path to permanent residency for immigrant workers already here.

Undocumented workers are under constant threat of deportation, and employers cheat them out of due wages. They work the most dangerous jobs - among foreign-born workers, workplace fatality has increased by an alarming 46% between 1992 and 2002. When immigrant workers try to correct these injustices by forming unions, they are harassed, intimidated and terminated. When all else fails to break a union drive, employers simply call in the immigration authorities and everyone gets deported for standing up for basic rights.

Criminalizing undocumented workers makes them easy prey for unscrupulous employers. That in turn drives down working standards for all Americans and creates an undemocratic, two-tiered society.

We need an immigration policy that provides a real path to citizenship for those workers already here and that helps meet the future needs of workers in a fair way. We should recognize immigrant workers as full members of society - permanent residents with full rights that employers may not exploit.

As a nation that prides itself on fair treatment and equality, we simply cannot settle for anything less.

Chavez-Thompson is executive vice president of AFL-CIO.

Steelworkers to Rally

The Fox government in Mexico has replaced Napoleon Gomez Urrutia as president of Los Mineros, the National Miners and Metallurgical Union. The Steelworkers Union has labeled Fox's actions "naked aggression" and demanded that he immediately reinstate Gomez and restore his personal assets and those of the union, all of which were frozen by the government.
"The USW views your actions as naked aggression against Los Mineros," Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard wrote in a letter to Mexican President Vincentc Fox. The letter condemned the Mexican government's actions as "a blatant attempt to stifle the voice of workers and all progressive unions in Mexico," coming as they have a short time before the Mexican elections.
Gomez has been a leading voice in opposing changes to Mexican law sought by the Fox regime that would outlaw strikes. He has rallied support among independent unions in opposition to the legislation and is one of a growing number of Mexican leaders openly condemning the negative impacts of NAFTA and so-called free trade policies.
The government's action came on the heels of a strike by Los Mineros in protest to the decision of the Mexican government to seal the mine owned by Grupo Mexico and prematurely end the rescue efforts to reach 65 miners trapped as a result of a Feb. 19 underground gas explosion.
"These actions by Fox's government make a mockery of Mexican `democracy,"' Gerard said in making public his Executive Board's resolution. "This kind of blatant suppression of free trade unionism rips away what little pretense remains that the Fox regime is anything but thugs in three piece suits."
The Steelworkers and Los Mineros signed a strategic alliance last April, in which they committed to defend the human rights of each other's members. In fact, Gomez led hundreds of his members in a protest in Mexico City last year on behalf of Steelworkers in the U.S. who had been forced out on strike by Asarco, a mining company owned by Grupo Mexico.

Rally at the
Indianapolis
Mexican
Consulate
We will gather at the Pan Am Plaza located at South
Capital and Georgia St.
Monday March 27
11:30 am
For more information contact Sal
or Brett at the United Steelworkers
1-800-932-8007

Republican boot lickers

Indiana’s Governor, Mitch Daniels and his boot licker legislators in the General Assembly have gone against the wishes of Hoosiers by leasing the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign company for 75 years. As I understand it, only the Democrats chose to follow the peoples wishes.
There’s only one way to deal with scoundrels like that…..make sure they get booted out of office at the first opportunity.

Representatives are better than so called “leaders”

My Indiana State Representative, Steve Heim, has been posting links on his blog directing people to editorials which suggest that Indiana’s legislators should be “leaders” and go ahead and lease Indiana’s toll road, disregarding the fact that the people of Indiana don’t want this to happen.
That’s exactly how arrogant the politicians were in Michigan in regards to the minimum wage. Even though the people of Michigan wanted the minimum wage to be increased, the politicians thought that they knew what was best for the people and that they would be “leaders” and do what the hell they wanted.
Then, the folks in Michigan prepared to put the issue on this Fall’s ballot as a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage from the disgusting $5.15 per hour to $7.40 by June of 2008 in three incremental increases. The same thing is happening in Arizona.
Well, the Republican controlled Senate in Michigan started to feel the heat and knew that workers would boot their asses out this November if they didn’t do what the people wanted, so they voted unanimously to increase the minimum wage 44%.
Well, guess what the stinking minimum wage is in good old Indiana. Yep, a lousy $5.15 per hour. Indiana always does the minimum when it comes to workers. That’s exactly what “leaders” in congress do. And it hasn’t changed in nine long years. If I was working a job in Indiana which paid the minimum wage, I’d be packing my bags and moving to a more progressive state……like Michigan.
And while the minimum wage stays the same in Indiana, workers fall further and further behind. It's time for the so called “leaders” of Indiana begin to truly represent workers in our state and increase the minimum wage or face our boot in the next election. The same goes for the Indiana Toll Road.
And…if they refuse to do the will of the people, the people should fire them.

United Steelworkers Union

On Wednesday, March 1, 2006, The Steelworkers Union had their Installation of Officers and Members of their Executive Board.

Below is listed the members of the USW Executive Board:

Leo W. Gerard, International President
James D. English, International Secretary-Treasurer
Thomas M. Conway, International Vice President (Administration)
Fred Redmond, International Vice President (Human Affairs)
Ken Neumann, National Director for Canada
Richard “Dick” LaCosse, International Vice President
James E. “Jim” Pannell, Administrative Vice President
David McCall, Director, District 1
Jon Geenen, Director, District 2
Stephen Hunt, Director, District 3
Bill Pienta, Director, District 4
Michel Arsenault, Director, District 5
Wayne Fraser, Director, District 6
Jim Robinson, Director, District 7
Billy Thompson, Director, District 8
Connie Entrekin, Director, District 9
John DeFazio, Director, District 10
Robert Bratulich, Director, District 11
Terry Bonds, Director, District 12
Gary Beevers, Director, District 13
Ron Hoover, Executive Vice President (R/PIC)
James Dunn, Associate Secretary-Treasurer
Lewis Peacock, Vice President (Organizing)
James K. Phillips, Vice President at Large
Gerald Johnston, Co-Director, District 1
Gary B. Cook, Co-Director, District 4
William Gibbons, Co-Director, District 7
Robert Smith, Co-Director, District 8
Lloyd Walters, Co-Director, District 9
Donald Langham, Co-Director, District 9
Ken Test, Co-Director, District 10
Roger Heiser, Co-Director, District 12

They took the following Oath of Office:

“I,________________, do hereby sincerely pledge my honor to perform the duties of my office as prescribed by the Laws of the organization, and to bear true allegiance to the United Steelworkers. I will deliver to my successor in office all books and other property of this Union that may be in my possession at the close of my official term. All of this I solemnly promise, with full knowledge that to violate this pledge is to stamp me as a person devoid of principle and destitute of honor.”

Our Union

The USW is 1.2 million working and retired members throughout the United States and Canada, working together to improve our jobs; to build a better future for our families; and to promote fairness, justice and equality both on the job and in our societies.

Our union is a resource, an organization that helps us achieve those goals, a network made up of hundreds of thousands of workers just like you, united to face the challenge of an ever-changing workplace in a constantly changing world.

Our members work in just about every sector of the North American economy, from metals and mining and manufacturing, to health care and various services in both the public and private sectors. Together, we make our union one of the most diverse in the world.

Many Industries, One Strong Union

In the USW, diversity isn't some politically correct buzzword for the new millenium. It's a tradition as old as the union itself.

Established as the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) in 1936 to coordinate the massive drive to organize the North American steel industry, our organization grew in just six years to become the United Steelworkers on May 22, 1942.

Within two years of its founding convention, the USW began to broaden its ranks, when the Aluminum Workers voted unanimously to join the Steelworkers on June 30, 1944. The USW wasn't just for Steelworkers any more.

The Aluminum Workers was only the first of ten unions to join the USW. Each brought a new wave of diversity to our union, eventually spreading Steelworkers through virtually every industry on the North American continent.
Source: Installation of Officers program booklet & the USW web site

A Sneak Attack In The Dark of Night

Six minutes before the deadline for filing amendments to all bills this legislative session, Representative Cindy Noe (R-Indianapolis) introduced an amendment which would have turned Indiana into the 23rd Right to Work state. Debate on this amendment to change a statute which has stood unchallenged for fifty plus years in Indiana began at nearly eleven p.m. Reversal of this long-standing law in Indiana would have thrust our state backward to a day when workers had no collective voice in their workplaces or the statehouse, where workers earn substantially less money, work in harsher, more unsafe conditions, have less insurance, less public education, and more infant mortality.

The amendment was passionately debated, but was destined to fail. Its introduction and the vote was likely intended to attract campaign donations from large, out-of-state, anti-union corporations for the 2006 election cycle. As a movement, we need to be prepared to counter this influx of anti-union campaign funds with all of our energies – grassroots, get-out-the-vote, and funds of our own - this election cycle.

In the end, sixty-three percent of all Republicans voting on the amendment voted for this attack on working families. The amendment was defeated with the full support of the Democratic caucus and some fair-minded Republicans who joined in opposition to this attempt to turn back Indiana’s clock.

The vote record is below. Know how your representative voted on this strike at the heart of organized labor and the right of Hoosiers to work with dignity and democracy in their workplaces.

The following Indiana State Representatives voted against the workers of Indiana.

R Robert W. Behning
R Matt Bell
R Randy L. Borror
R William E. Bright
R Tim Brown
R Woody Burton
R Bill Davis
R Richard (Dick) Dodge
R Jeffrey K. Espich
R Ralph M. Foley
R William C. Friend
R David Nason Frizzell
R Eric A. Gutwein
R Timothy Harris
R Phillip D. Hinkle
R Robert A. Hoffman
R Dan Leonard
R L. Jack Lutz
R Luke Messer
R Tim Neese
R Cindy Noe
R Phyllis J. Pond
R Kathy Kreag Richardson
R Michael Allen Ripley
R William 'Bill' J. Ruppel
R Marlin Stutzman
R Jeffrey Thompson
R Gerald R. Torr
R P. Eric Turner
R Jacqueline Walorski Swihart
R David Alan Wolkins

The following Indiana State Representatives voted for the workers of Indiana:

D John C. Aguilera Jr
D Terri Jo Austin
D Dennis T. Avery
D Jeb Bardon
D B. Patrick Bauer
D Robert J. Bischoff
D Carlene Bottorff
D Charlie Brown
D Duane Cheney
D William C. Cochran
D William A. Crawford
D David L. 'Dave' Crooks
D John Day
D Jerry L. Denbo
D Mae Dickinson
D Chester F. Dobis
D Ryan Dvorak
D Craig R. Fry
D Benjamin (Ben) GiaQuinta
D Terry A. Goodin
D F. Dale Grubb
D Earl L. Harris
D George Philip Hoy
D Clyde Kersey
D Sheila Johnston Klinker
D Thomas S. Kromkowski
D Robert D. Kuzman
D Linda Lawson
D Edmund M. Mahern
D Carolene Mays
D Joe Micon
D David Orentlicher
D Dennie Oxley II
D Scott Pelath
D Phillip Pflum
D Matt Pierce
D Gregory W. Porter
D Scott Reske
D Paul J. Robertson
D Vernon G. Smith
D Dan Charles Stevenson
D Russell L. Stilwell
D Vanessa Summers
D Vern Tincher
D Dennis Tyler
D Trent Van Haaften
D Peggy Welch
R Ralph Donald Ayres
R Bruce Borders
R James Russell Buck
R Mary Kay Budak
R Lawrence Lee Buell
R Suzanne Crouch
R Cleo Duncan
R Eric Koch
R Don Lehe
R Richard W. McClain
R Michael B. Murphy
R Thomas E. Saunders
R John Smith
R Andy Thomas
R John Ulmer
R Matthew D. Whetstone
R Troy A. Woodruff
R David B. Yount

The following Indiana State Representative was excused from voting:

R Steven Heim

Note: Steve Heim is my own State Representative. I asked him how he would have voted had he had the chance. His response was as follows:

“As I mentioned to you before, I have not given the issue much thought since I don't sit on the labor committee or any other committee that deals with these types of issues. As with any issue, I am willing to listen to both sides before making a decision. Unfortunately, I was sick Tuesday and not present for any of the debate that took place, so I honestly can't tell you how I would have voted.

I can tell you that I prefer legislation implementing significant policy changes to go through the committee process rather than being enacted via second reading amendment on the floor of the House.”

I will attempt to help Representative Heim give the issue more thought.

The following Indiana State Representatives did not vote:

D Winfield C. Moses, Jr.
R Brian Bosma
R Robert Cherry

An Independent Voice in Congress

“In this election, we will bring sweeping change to the United States Congress in our country. The time has come to end the corruption and cronyism that is rampant in Washington. It is time for our government to stand up again for the middle class and for working families.__In Congress, I will put the needs of the people in our District first and foremost. We are not just Democrats or Republicans. We are Hoosiers with a common interest in making our country a better place, and creating a brighter future for our children.__I invite you to become part of our campaign team and help make the difference in this election. Your volunteer assistance, whether a few minutes or a few days a week, can help change Indiana's future. I look forward to meeting you during the campaign. Together, we can change Washington and build a better world.__I hope to see you soon.”

Joe Donnelly

Source: Joe Donnelly Website

Note: Joe is a candidate in Indiana's 2nd Congressional District.

The Costs of War

In Money

$3.8 billion in taxes from Indiana—and counting.
For this amount of money we could have provided care for the estimated 862,000 Indiana residents (14%) without health insurance and assistance to over 600,000 Hoosiers (10+%) living in poverty. What did we get instead? $164.9 million in cuts to Indiana state and local budgets.

In Lives Lost and Disrupted

2,340 Indiana reservists are currently serving in Iraq; 55 have died and 330 have been wounded.
Last year the surgeon general of the U.S. Army reported that 30% of U.S. troops develop mental health problems within 3-4 months of returning from Iraq.

The Results

Over 30,000 Iraqi and Afghani civilians have been killed, many more wounded, and both countries are in chaos. The White House is “scaling back ambitions to rebuild” in favor of ever more money for military operations. While we pay for all this, Bush and Cheney cronies reap fat profits from no-bid contracts to companies such as Halliburton.

And what have we gained?

Our country shamed in front of the whole world for the pornographically relished torture and abuse of ‘terrorist’ suspects, many of them later declared innocent.
Security for Americans? Well Al Quaeda wasn’t in Iraq before the war, but it sure is now. Meanwhile, Our civil liberties are being eroded daily in the name of the War on Terror.

Benefits? None! Cost? Huge! Bring the troops home now!

(Sources: U.S. Census Bureau;
www.insideindianabusiness.com;
www.nationalpriorites.org;
www.iraqbodycount.net; Guardian/UK)

What does war look like?
"Like the backside of a baboon. When the baboon is up in a tree, with its hind end facing us, there is the face of war exactly: scarlet, scaly, glazed, framed in a clotted, filthy wig." Hecuba

Politicians Say "Let Workers Eat Cake" On Pensions

CNNMoney has published a great column today about how politicians regurgitating right-wing talking points about how American workers should just get used to massive pension cuts have no problem taking such a hard line because their pensions are lavish and guaranteed. As he says, "In the coming months, when you hear various elected officials bemoan the state of pensions and the need for reform [aka. cuts] keep this in mind: They got theirs and it isn't going away ... that would take an act of Congress." You may recall that legislation was offered in 2003 to force Congress to convert its pension plan to the same kind of "cash balance" pension rip-off scheme politicians and the Bush administration was trying to legalize. The result of that debate was simultaneously hilarious and sad.

New Steelworkers SOAR Podcast available.

Photos at Podcast Page

You'll notice that at the top of the Steelworkers SOAR podcast, you will see a link to a photo album. I just put it on yesterday with the intension of simply seeing what the results would look like. The photos on there now were randomly selected. I'll try to change them about once per week.

The "hit counter" at the bottom of each page is deceiving. Most of the “hits” would understandably be on the first page. Then, many people will “subscribe” and download the rest of the “casts” by the use of iTunes or whatever other suitable program they’re using. I continue to push the iTunes program which is a free program and good with your computer. After downloading iTunes, you can simply click on the Music Bookstore, then select podcasts, then search for the word, steelworkers, or soar, or steelworkers soar. The result will give you an opportunity to "subscribe". Once you subscibe, all of the "casts" will be downloaded to your itunes program

Podcast information

Brothers and Sisters, I'm trying my hand at podcasting. I invite you to visit the introduction to it here.

If for some reason you're unable to hear it, you can download the necessary plugin by clicking on the far right arrow beneath the photo for a link to where you can get it. Here's the link.

Also, you can subscribe to future "episodes". iTunes is a great program for this. If you don't have iTunes, you can download it free with this link.

This is relatively new technology, and I'm not good at it, but after I get the hang of it, it could turn out to be a pretty good resource for you who love your union.

Steelworkers SOAR Podcast

I've decided to try my hand at podcasting. You can check out the introduction to the new Steelworkers SOAR Podcast here.

Harry Lester Announces Retirement

Harry E. Lester, District 2 Director
Announces his Retirement

Harry Lester has announced that he will retire on March 1, 2006. He has dedicated his entire working life to the Labor Movement. Brother Lester has been a dynamic and motivating force in the American Labor Movement and within the Michigan Down River Community for over fifty-three years.
Harry was elected to the position of shop steward, three terms as President of Local 2659, twelve years as a USWA Staff Representative and twenty-four years as District Director. Harry has touched countless lives and helped improve the standard of living for our members everywhere. His hard work and dedication had set a standard that helped working people across North America.
We congratulate Harry on the eve of his retirement and thank him for his years of dedicated service to our Union.

Steelworkers Converge

Yesterday afternoon, over 500 members of the United Steelworkers Union and the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees converged on the State House in Indianapolis to meet with their Representatives and Senators, discuss bills important to Indiana’s workers and to thank those representatives who have placed the people of Indiana above the profits of corporations.

Mobilizing seems to come naturally to Steelworkers but just as sailors practice man overboard drills, the union continues to fine tune this important function for when an emergency needs immediate action.
Photo by Joe Woessner

Regime Change Needed

The following post was originally posted a couple of days ago, but it was removed and has not reappeared so I am reposting it.

Today has been a sad, frustrating one for me. Working with retirees who are frustrated, worried, and confused with the pressure being placed on them to choose a prescription drug plan through the new Medicare Part D.

Let me tell you what I’m thinking, Brothers and Sisters. What the Bush administration has done to our retirees is nothing short of cruel. The Medicare Prescription Drug Program being forced onto seniors has them scared and frustrated. The plans are so complicated, misleading and hard to understand and there are so many variables to consider that seniors are being forced to make decisions that many aren’t capable of making.

Do people become so educated and powerful that they lose all sense of empathy? Do our legislators really believe that they’ve done a good thing for seniors? While they try so hard to portray themselves as being the party with “family values”, they have forgotten the commandment, “honor your Father and your Mother”?

Medicare has been such a wonderful, reliable program for seniors. Everyone liked it, and it had such low overhead. If the prescription drug program was simply made a part of Medicare, with all seniors paying the same premium and having the same coverage, all would have accepted it and all would be fine. But no, the administration had to privatize it. Just like they tried to do with Social Security. They just had to give billions to their Corporate buddies in the pharmaceutical industry and screw the retirees. Plus, this darned Part D won’t do anything to keep the cost of drugs down. What Bush and his cronies are trying to do is take a government program that they have never liked, run it into the ground and make it so costly that they will eventually, finally get rid of it.

U.S. Senators have an opportunity to at least give seniors a little more time to make their decision without being penalized by passing the Medicare Informed Choice Ammendment to the tax reconciliation bill. This would extend the initial enrollment period for Medicare Part D from May 15, 2006 to the end of 2006. This would delay the late enrollment penalty and give beneficiaries more time to make the best possible decision. The amendment would also give beneficiaries the opportunity to make a one-time change in plan enrollment to correct initial mistakes choosing a plan during the first year of implementation.

We need to forget about changing regimes in other parts of the world and concentrate on regime change right here in our own country.