Hands Off Medicare!

Government shutdown looms ... and instead of offering real solutions so that Congress and the White House can pass a budget that works for real Americans, the GOP is going off the deep end, proposing plans to shift even more of our nation's money into the pockets of their corporate donors. 

The latest: a proposal by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) that guts Medicare. The Republican's new blueprint shifts costs for health care for seniors and the poor to beneficiaries and the states, but does NOTHING to close tax loopholes and subsidies which allow mega corporations like G.E. to pay zero in U.S. taxes. 

Republicans actually have the gall to pretend that this proposal is somehow courageous, because of its massive scope and the supposedly "tough" decisions it includes. But taking medicine from seniors is not courageous, it's cowardly. Courage is standing up to big corporations and making them pay their fair share. 

Speak Up! Tell Congress to LEAVE MEDICARE ALONE. If they're serious about deficits, they will end corporate welfare before gutting the vital programs on which Americans depend for survival. 

Medicare will go away, but subsidies to Exxon will be untouched? There is something seriously wrong with that picture. 

Americans have already paid for their Medicare benefits. Taking that money to pay for tax cuts for corporate special interests, and billionaires like the Koch brothers and Donald Trump -- who incredibly pays the same tax rate as one of his mid-level managers -- amounts to theft, plain and simple, even if members of Congress are using the law to do it. 

We can address the deficit and still protect necessities like Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits and education assistance. Those on the Right who say otherwise are lying to you and every other American -- right to your faces -- and they're offering a false choice. Billions in subsidies for oil companies (which Republicans voted to extend last month) ... tax loopholes that allow corporations like G.E. and several of Wall Street's largest banks to get a free ride ... that's are where Congress needs to put its focus. 
Tell Congress: Hands off Medicare; Stop Corporate Welfare. 

Thank you as always for your activism and your commitment to the American Way. 

Sincerely, 

Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager 

P.S. Under Rep. Ryan's plan, 90% of Americans would have their taxes increased but the richest would get another tax cut. Perversely, as a share of income, the poorest 20% would have by far the biggest increase and richest 1% would get the bulk of the cuts -- a massive 15%. 

This assault on the poor and middle class is NOT the American Way. Speak out now. 

The New GOP Budget Plan Guts Medicare! Join Our Emergency Action.

Members of Congress: 

Just one month after voting to extend billions of dollars in oil industry subsidies, and one week after it was reported that G.E. and other major corporations essentially paid no U.S. taxes due to loopholes and refunds, how can you consider an extremist proposal to pass the cost of corporate welfare and the burden of our deficit onto the elderly, the poor and the struggling middle-class? 

REJECT Rep. Paul Ryan's draconian plan to punish Americans in need. Leave Medicare alone and rein in corporate welfare.