Dressed in full Thanksgiving regalia and chanting “No more turkey – we want security!” nearly fifty local seniors gathered in front of the offices of Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown today to protest anticipated cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Their protest came just a day after the so-called Congressional Super-Committee’s announced gridlock in its budget deliberations – a development that will lead to automatic cuts to a swath of big-ticket programs from Medicare to national defense.
Barring a last-minute congressional miracle that realizes $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, cuts of at least that amount will automatically take effect in January 2013 – fifty percent from defense spending and fifty percent non-defense. Republicans have taken a hard ‘no new revenue’ stance on fiscal matters while also swearing to minimize defense cuts, a position that could significantly slash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and job creation programs.
Concerned seniors and advocates delivered bags stuffed full of constituent-signed postcards to the senators’ offices, calling on Kerry, Brown and the remainder of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to protect seniors and future generations from the draconian cuts. Check out the video below:
Western Massachusetts seniors held a simultaneous protest outside federal offices in Springfield today. Massachusetts Senior Action Council and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, which organized the twin demonstrations, promised to ramp up pressure on the Massachusetts delegation in the coming weeks.
They never pull back to avoid conflict, they look for opportunities like this to illustrate and illuminate the conflict and force us to get off our duffs and join them. Great turkey suits.
No press of course.. not cool to wear turkey suits outside a important US Senator’s office. There go those crazy seniors again. I wish the powers that be in the press would ask their Mothers what they think about actions like this.
At least they are not swinging rubber chickens over their heads and letting them fly at a State Senator who was acting uppity. I almost got beaned by one.
Ah those were the days …. now we sit back in our ergonomic chairs after writing blogs praising #occupy and protesting policy violence.