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MEDICAID AND SOCIAL SECURITY ACTION ALERTS
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VOR Weekly E-Mail
November 15, 2005
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Table of Contents
1. Update Holiday Schedule
2. VOR Auction: JUST 2 DAYS LEFT TO MAKE YOUR BID - Act now and benefit
VOR!
3. Social Security Urgent Alert from the Consortium of Citizens with
Disabilities -- Calls to Senators needed immediately.
4. Medicaid, the Budget and the House -- There is still time to act!
Coming Up: No Updates Nov. 18, Nov. 25 and Dec. 2, but possible Alerts as
there are legislative developments.
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1. Update Holiday Schedule
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This week's update is being sent early because there are two time
sensitive matters to cover:
a. Social Security Action Alert
b. Medicaid Action Alert
Coming up, there will be no Weekly Updates Friday, Nov. 25 and Dec. 2, due
to the Thanksgiving Holiday and VOR travel. If further action becomes
necessary in response to Medicaid, the Budget and/or Social Security,
alerts will be issued.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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2. Social Security Urgent Alert from the Consortium of Citizens with
Disabilities -- Calls to Senators needed immediately
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Summary: VOR has faxed an official position endorsing the CCD Social
Security position to every Member of Congress. To see this correspondence,
visit,
http://www.vor.net/SocialSecurityCongress1105.html.
CCD ACTION ALERT:
Call Senators To Oppose Private Social Security Accounts
November 14, 2005
The Issue: The press has widely reported that the President and
Congressional leaders have backed away from efforts to promote private
Social Security accounts. However, it appears that Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist has agreed to allow supporters to bring two bills directly to
the floor for a vote as soon as possible. This is an unusual procedure that
bypasses any committee discussion. The bills are S. 1302, sponsored by
Senator Jim DeMint [R-SC] and S. 1750, sponsored by Senators Rick Santorum
[R-PA] and DeMint. Each is a first step a foot in the door towards
creating private accounts.
Wolves in sheep's clothing: The two bills are wrapped in rhetoric about
guarantees but in fact are intended to do just the opposite. S. 1750 would
require that the federal government issue a "benefit guarantee certificate"
to each person born before 1950 who is now entitled to Social Security (or
they would get the certificate when they first become entitled, in future
years). This would provide the person with "a legally enforceable
guarantee" to benefits in effect when the certificate is issued. What is
wrong with this? It's an effort to divide current and future beneficiary
populations; it doesn't protect most people with disabilities and others
like child survivors who are younger; and it really isn't intended to
protect anyone - rather it is intended to make sure that Congress will move
to privatize Social Security in future years, because it may not be able to
meet the promises being made in the bill. S. 1302 would divert money from
the Social Security trust fund into private accounts and would worsen
Social Security's solvency problems. The SSA actuaries' analysis shows that
the plan would drain $1.1 trillion from the Social Security trust fund in
the first decade of the proposal.
Any effort to create private accounts is alarming: they will cut guaranteed
benefits and jeopardize the program's long-term financial future. Families
of workers who lose their lives or their livelihood due to disability must
be able to count on guaranteed Social Security benefits. If we don't reject
private accounts now, we will see an enormous social disaster for years to
come.
What You Can Do: We need calls to Senators to urge them to oppose private
accounts and vote "no" on these two bills. Please call both of your
Senators now. Use the Capitol Hill Switchboard to connect to your Senators'
offices: 202-224-3121.
Our Message: Please vote "no" on the DeMint and Santorum bills and vote
"no" on any effort to allow the bills to be considered without first
undergoing Committee consideration. Any changes in Social Security must
preserve it as family insurance for everyone who is eligible regardless of
whether they have a disability. Private accounts will not provide the same
security: they will cut guaranteed benefits and greatly increase both the
budget deficit and national debt. Social Security must continue to provide
guaranteed benefits for children and spouses when their spouse or parent
retires, dies or becomes disabled. Changes in Social Security are too
important and too risky to make using procedural shortcuts in the Senate.
In addition, we urge Congress to request a beneficiary impact statement on
every major part of any serious Social Security proposal to understand the
actual impact of changes on people's daily lives.
For background & talking points, see www.c-c-d.org, click on Social
Security Task Force.
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3. Medicaid, the Budget and the House -- There is still time to act!
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Summary: Failing to secure the votes it needed last week, the House has not
yet voted on its Budget Reconciliation Bill, including Medicaid provisions.
The following article gives some additional details. VOR's Urgent Action
Alert from last week is still in effect. Visit
http://www.vor.net/Nov%207%202005.html for full details, contact
information and a template message.
Message text written by "Dennis D. Barrett"
Holdouts see a chance to win more on Budget reconciliation
The Hill
November 15, 2005
Stripping a provision to permit oil drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge gave House GOP leaders a three-vote lead the night before
members were expected to vote on the budget-reconciliation bill, according
to the unofficial tally held by members of the centrist Republican Main
Street Partnership.
But in dropping the provision, as they did Wednesday evening, the leaders
provoked a group of Republicans from Western states to withdraw their
support from the bill and thus undermine its passage on the floor. By early
Thursday afternoon, the ripple effect was continuing and the
budget-reconciliation bill had lost so much support that Main Street's
unofficial whip count showed the bill with a 10-vote deficit.
That dramatic shift in momentum illustrates the difficulty Republican
leaders in the House have had in pushing the sweeping package of spending
cuts and regulation changes that are part of the controversial bill, losing
support from one faction and gaining support from another in a struggle to
strike a tenuous balance between the ideological wings of the party.
By Thursday, the constellation of wavering members included frequent rebels
- such as Reps. Walter Jones (N.C.), Sherwood Boehlert (N.Y.) and Chris
Smith (N.J.) - and those that buck their leadership far less often - such
as Reps. Elton Gallegly (Calif.), John McHugh (N.Y.) and Jim Saxton (N.J.)
- according to leadership aides with knowledge of the vote.
The wide range of member concerns, along with pressure from conference
Republicans to attend previously scheduled Veterans Day events, forced
members to pull the bill Thursday. It is expected back on the floor later
this week.
While the buildup has exposed obvious tensions between centrists and
conservatives within the conference, it has also emboldened members to ask
their leaders for favors.
"It's not just the moderates; it's everyone making us miserable right now,"
one GOP leadership aide lamented.
Many of the demands are disproportionate to the prestige or electoral
vulnerability of the individual member, the aide said."These people are
thinking they have a high-value stock; they think they're Yahoo in 2000,
not 2005," the aide said.
Enough members remain undecided on the bill that Republican leaders were
considering scheduling a conference meeting tonight to discuss its
particulars and hear member concerns, a GOP staffer said.
The foremost concern Thursday was the lack of support from Energy and
Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Resources Committee Chairman
Richard Pombo (R-Calif.).
Pombo convened a meeting late Thursday with members who did not want ANWR
to be stripped from the bill and has since asked GOP leaders for assurances
that the controversial oil-drilling provision will remain in the conference
report whenever the legislation comes back to the House for a vote, said
Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the committee. The Senate included ANWR in
its own version of the bill, which narrowly passed earlier this month. If
leaders make that promise, Pombo would consider voting for the House bill,
Kennedy said, adding: "He might be willing to treat this as a procedural
vote."
The concerns vary among those other members whose support was in doubt
Thursday.
"The poor bear an unfair burden of the proposed reductions," Rep.
Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said in a statement. "I'm concerned about cuts
to higher-education funding, child care, child welfare and food stamps.
These are simply the wrong priorities."
Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Ill.) is concerned that the House bill strips too many
agricultural subsidies that will hurt farmers in his rural district. He is
also worried that changes to student-loan funding will adversely affect the
three public universities in his district, a spokesman said. Despite those
concerns, Johnson may still support the bill, making him and other
like-minded members the focus of aggressive lobbying by leadership.
"Right now it appears the gulf is too wide, but he has not closed the door
on it," said Phil Bloomer, a spokesman for Johnson.
Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) recognized that Congress must address deficit
spending in some way but was unconvinced as of last week that the package
reported to the Rules Committee was worth his support."No options are
happy, whether they be raising taxes or lowering spending," Leach said in a
statement after the postponement."But the proposal of significantly
reducing student loans, food stamps and a host of other social programs at
a time of many wrenches in the economy appears un-compelling."
Other Republican members whose support was in doubt as of Thursday were
Reps. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), as well as House
Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney
(R-Ohio).
Whatever the outcome, the vote itself will provide both parties with an
easy opportunity to attack their colleagues across the aisle. Democrats and
their affiliated organizations have maintained a steady drumbeat of
opposition to the bill, drawing attention to the particular cuts listed in
the legislation. With the fate of the bill still uncertain, Republican
leaders are planning a message offensive of their own to hammer Democrats
as fiscally irresponsible whatever happens to the bill."They've opened up
their spending flank for an entire year," said Ron Bonjean, communications
director to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
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Tamie Hopp
Executive Director
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