Daniel K. Inouye, Senator and Medal of Honor Recipient, 9/07/1924 – 12/17/2012
Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii speaks to the Remembrance Day audience at the USS ARIZONA Memorial Visitors Center. USS ARIZONA survivors are honored during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, 12/04/1991
Hawaii’s Democratic Senate primary win for Sen. Brian Schatz sends an important signal to candidates nationwide about the huge role Social Security can and will play in their Congressional re-election bids. From the chained CPI to the Bowles-Simpson amendment, many centrist “new Democrats” like Hawaii’s Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, have quietly cast votes for proposals designed to cut benefits to millions of retirees, people with disabilities and their families, while at the same time promising to protect benefits back home.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy launched a surprise attack on Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor, resulting in the official entrance of the United States into World War II. Roughly six months later, the DC Public Library opened an official War Reading Room in its central library “as a central location for war-related literature [including subjects such as civilian defense, the causes of war, and the history of the armed forces] to educate patrons on the ongoing war and its context.” Image via Dig DC, the DC Public Library’s digital depository for historic photographs and other documents from our collections.
[image description: black & white digitized photograph of a reading room with bookshelf-lined walls, decorated with patriotic symbols including the American flag. Patrons sit at a table reading while another browses the books on the shelves. A librarian sits at the reference desk by the door to assist patrons in finding information.]
Today, the National Committee’s Board Chair, Dr. Catherine Dodd, testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Social Security and economic security of women.
House and Senate negotiators unveiled an $85 billion agreement late Tuesday to fund federal agencies through the fall of 2015, averting another government shutdown and ending the cycle of crisis that has paralyzed Washington for much of the past three years.
In a rare display of bipartisan cooperation, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) stood side by side in the Capitol with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to announce the deal, which would cancel half of the sharp spending cuts known as the sequester for the current fiscal year.
Bill Would Keep Premiums and Deductibles Affordable for Millions of Seniors.
The Senate-passed budget resolution would allow the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees to slash programs critical to older Americans and people with disabilities – all to pay for massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and profitable corporations. What is more, under the Senate amendment, $1.5 trillion in tax cuts would not have to be offset. By increasing the federal budget deficit by at least $1.5 trillion, this measure would leave Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid vulnerable to benefit cuts to make up the difference.
The Senate-passed budget would cut Medicare by nearly $500 billion and cut Medicaid and subsidies that make coverage affordable through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces by $1.3 trillion.
Senate Republicans are shying away from the controversial Ryan budget, instead opting to introduce a plan that outlines the size of budget cuts — but not how, exactly, they would change entitlement programs like Medicare.
via VOX.
The House GOP’s budget is another attempt to pay down the deficit while targeting seniors, the disabled, & middle-class families during which billionaires and corporations enjoy their tax breaks & loopholes.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., at a hearing today said Social Security must do more to support women in retirement, whose savings often lag behind men’s due to lower average earnings and a greater likelihood to leave the workforce.
“Instead of living the worry-free ideal of retirement, many women are struggling to make ends meet – to pay for groceries or keep their homes heated this winter,” Wyden said. “The lag in women’s savings in retirement is a growing crisis fed by a confluence of factors that don’t begin at age 65 – they start much earlier. Today’s hearing kicks into high gear the effort to strengthen the safety net and give women greater financial security in retirement.”
The Senate’s version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) is an exercise in political expediency that does nothing to safeguard access to quality healthcare for older Americans. President Trump rightly called the House-passed bill ‘mean’ and lacking ‘heart.’ Unfortunately, the Senate bill is only marginally less mean in some ways, and even more heartless in others.
This is a lose-lose for seniors and the American people. The biggest loss is that the AHCA ends the Medicaid program as we know it.
On this date in 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the #ADA into law — making it easier for older Americans and others with #disabilities to get around at home, participate in their communities, and go to work. #ADA31
