In light of the budget commission’s recommendations, and reports that cutbacks to social security and Medicare might actually be on the table as a way to cut back our war-swollen deficit, America’s nurses are sending Preisdent a message from the hospital units: stand up!
While members of Congress might be looking across the aisle to find new seat-mates, the eyes the National Nurses United are instead watching the Social Security and Medicare provisions of the SOTU. Nurses see these programs as the heart of America, saving lives and building community, and vow to never, ever allow a politician to undermine them.
Watch the video here, to hear it from the nurse’s mouth. National Nurses United has run online ads through the SOTU, to let the public and Beltway-insiders know what nurses—our nation’s most trusted profession—think of the proposed cutbacks to our public safety net.
"President Obama, we the nurses do not want any more compromise. Nurses need and want for you to stand up. Stand up and fight against any party whose legislative agenda diminishes social security and public health. After a lifetime of hard work we want to retire with dignity.
"Stand up no compromise on social security!
Dorothy Ahmad, a critical-care nurse from Chicago, lays out why for the President in this video put together by her and her colleagues and patients:
"President Obama, we the nurses do not want any more compromise. Nurses need and want for you to stand up. Stand up and fight against any party whose legislative agenda diminishes social security and public health. After a lifetime of hard work we want to retire with dignity.
"Stand up no compromise on social security!
Her words echo a letter that was sent last week by 33 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The math suggests, unfortunately, that 50 members of the caucus took a duck on advocating for social security, but the true progressives agreed:
As you know, Congressional Republicans have long targeted Social Security for privatizatin. They have invented a Social Security "crisis" myth to promote their radical schemes to dismantle the cornerstone of retirement security for millions of Americans...
The promise of Social Security is one that we must keep. We urge you to send a clear message in your State of the Union Address: Hands off our Social Security!
Maybe the White House was just raising a trial balloon? And it dropped as if it were made of lead? Because the Washington Post now reports that:
President Obama has decided not to endorse his deficit commission's recommendation to raise the retirement age, and otherwise reduce Social Security benefits, in Tuesday's State of the Union address...
Polls show that large majorities of Americans in both parties - even in households that identify themselves as part of the tea party movement - oppose cuts to Social Security.
E.J. Dionne picked up on that last point and made the obvious argument: it is in the political interests of a Democratic President to protect Social Security, not to undermine it.
Any proposal to raise the Social Security retirement age is a nonstarter because there is no reason to waste political capital on Social Security cuts that would do nothing to close the nation's deficit within any reasonable time period.
On this issue, the Washington establishment is entirely out of touch with the heartland. It's easy for columnists, CEOs, investment bankers and senators to work beyond 68 or 70. It's not so easy for construction workers, nurse's aides, firefighters or retail salespeople on their feet all day.
And finally, a big boo to the Concord Coalition. They claim to care about the deficit...so why are they helping undermine a solvent program, Social Security, while the rest of the budget gets wrecked with an ever-growing military budget?
"The commission said nothing surprising about Social Security. The options they recommended are perfectly reasonable and balanced. If the president wasn't willing to embrace these sort of changes, he shouldn't have appointed a commission to find solutions. What did he expect?" Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the nonprofit Concord Coalition, which advocates for balanced budgets, said in an e-mail.
160,000 Registered Nurses can’t be wrong about life-and-death issues for their patients. It is time for the President to stand up and, in the words of Dorothy Ahmad, RN, "be the man we voted for." And not one person voted for President Obama, hoping that he will extend the misery of America’s seniors and sickly by undermining the programs that care for them.