National Nurses United

Social Security Final_FNL with art 7/30/10 6:08 PM Page 12 THE GREAT Social Security AND Medicare Robbery Congress is conspiring to cut benefits for future generations of seniors. Nurses are fighting back. by Carl Bloice — he reference to pet food was a bit startling. A veteran nurse activist was speaking of the recently established Congressional deficit-reduction commission that has set its sights on making major changes in Social Security and Medicare. "We got Medicare partly because it was discovered that in order to pay their medical bills some people were being reduced to eating pet food—and now we are threatened with returning to such a situation," she said. It wasn't the first time the image has been evoked. Since President Barack Obama set up his "bipartisan" deficit reduction commission back in February, some people have taken to calling it the Cat Food Commission. Extreme perhaps, but there are often credible reports of older people going without adequate nutrition because of high medical expenses, splitting pills in half to make them last twice as long and, in some cases, eating products not intended for human consumption. As the commission deliberates, cuts in the two programs vital to the well-being of millions of seniors will figure front and center. And most of the maneuvering around them has been and will continue to be carried out by a hand-picked elite group operating mostly behind closed doors. Organized nurses are helping lead an effort to expose the maneuver and head it off. "It's terrible what's happening," says Kay McVay, RN, past president of the California Nurses Association. "It is the top one percent of people in this country, who control over a third of all privately-held wealth, that are agitating the hardest to cut the lifeline that makes it possible for older working people to live with some measure of security and comfort." Two of the most popular social programs in United States history, Social Security (adopted in 1935) and Medicare (1965) have been credited with dramatically reducing the poverty rate for senior citizens. Both were created during times of social unrest but have become well-established symbols of America's commitment to care for its most vulnerable, withstanding numerous attempts by business interests to dismantle them. But the recent onslaught, coming amidst an economic crisis and growing hysteria over the federal budget deficit, is especially dangerous-and it's being spearheaded not just by Republicans as during the George W. Bush years, but by both major parties. 12 N AT I O N A L N U R S E W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G DAVID TURNER T JUNE 2010

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