Seniors Stand Up To GOPer at Town Hall Meeting On Medicare & Tax Cuts

[upstatecajun]

This week, Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) attended a town hall event to discuss the House Republican budget and the changes it would bring to Medicare — which didn’t fare too well with his constituents.

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Sean Duffy, who brought public attention to his struggle of getting by on his $174,000 a year salary, is another GOPer who didn’t make out too well at another Town Hall event.



Medicare is under seize (siege) and senior citizens are visibly upset. Knowing their offspring will not receive benefits they paid into for years, is worrisome. But, other issues came up as well, including corporate tax loopholes and tax cuts afforded to the wealthy

http://freakoutnation.com/2011/04/23/seniors-stand-up-to-goper-at-town-hall-meeting-on-medicare-tax-cuts/




http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Liberal-Ohioan/195130570504421

[ananda]

1. Medicare is under s e i g e (not seize).

nt

[Faygo Kid]

2. s i e g e (not seige)

Live by the sword, die by the sword:)

[upstatecajun]

3. I did not write

the story....just a link...not sure if I can change others writings..

[brewens]

4. Too many seniors don't have any problem with the cuts.

They are being grandfathered in. As long as they got theirs, screw everyone else. I'd like to give them a problem. If they're going to cut, do it now and go after the retired peoples benefits too. That'll change some teabagger attitudes!

I really wouldn't want to see that happen, but about every time something gets passed with grandfather clauses, it's a screwjob. Who is more responsible for the problems we have these days if not the seniors? They are the people that voted the most for the longest time.

One guy can only have had a small sample to observe, but I remember what some of the retired people I know were like when they were working. They think they were the working class heroes and earned everything they have. Younger people are lazy and want too much. That's not the way I remember it. In the beverage distribution business as a young man, I remember older guys that worked there way up to supervisor positions. They were semi-retired by 50 and stood around and bullshitted half the time, while everyone else did all the work.

In the beer business, half of those guys were alcoholics and couldn't get or keep a good job these days. I know retired beer guys and mill workers in my area that were legendary drunks and screw-offs. We really didn't resent them too much, because we figured it was fair and we'd end up with easier jobs when we got older too. Not so. The cutthroat competition has eliminated that kind of job. No one gets away with what some of those guys did.

I'd like to see some real push back on the part of younger people. Make it clear that if we get screwed, these older people are going down too.

[ctsnowman]

5. Too true.

NT

[WinkyDink]

6. Well, then, pal, where ARE the Under-55's, HUH? WHERE ARE THEY?? You

think geezers in their 70's are going to take their walkers to protest something THAT DOES NOT AFFECT THEM??

YOU NEED TO RANT AT THE RIGHT PEOPLE**.

AND BTW: WE PAID FOR MANY DECADES INTO SS; NOBODY IN THEIR 20'S HAS.

**And while you're at it, maybe you can rally them to protest the illegal wars; I did that already, in the 60's and in 2003.

YOUR TURN.

[brewens]

12. " You think geezers in their 70's are going to take their walkers

to protest something THAT DOES NOT AFFECT THEM??" Precisely! We need to give them the idea that it IS going to affect them!

[Faygo Kid]

7. Yeah, generational warfare. That's the ticket.

We all get screwed when that happens, because it's not young-vs.-old that is at issue, it's the elite trying to squeeze the last drop of blood out of the rest of us.

[brewens]

9. Yeah, I know. But just enough to let them know we're looking at them too. n/t

[juajen]

8. Do you have verifiable statistics on this? I know many seniors, since I am one

and none are laying back on this issue. We are all against any change in medicare or social security, at least from where I stand, and that is in GOP controlled Louisiana.

[brewens]

11. Nope. Totally unscientific. Going on the attitude of a couple old

teabagger types I know, and what I saw in the bagger rallys and town hall meetings.

[Faygo Kid]

13. Sad. Completely wrong impression.

Those types are certainly out there, but to extrapolate an entire generation's attitude from those idiots is weak.

Actually, two generations: Older Boomers, and (mostly) Silents. Who are more of the "I've got mine" attitude, although that generalization is unfair too, I am sure.

[brewens]

16. By saying "too man seniors" I didn't mean I thought the majority

of them had that attitude. FOX gets their viewers from somewhere though. I'm around a few older people every week and some of them have exactly that attitude. This being in a real right-wing state though, where that attitude is probably more prevalent.

As far as the older guys I worked with, I remember their reaction to Clintons health care plan. These guys were teamsters and had the full ride, everything is free plan. As with union mill workers I knew then, they were dead set against anyone touching health care. Why? Because they had theirs.

[DURHAM D]

17. So you are a giant AGEIST...

Are you also a sexist, a racist and a homophobic a-hole?

[brewens]

21. Ageist huh? That's what we'll call younger people when they fight back?

I hadn't heard that one.

All I'm saying is we have to give these older teabagger types a wakeup call. We know who votes in larger numbers and that they tend to vote Republican. They better wise up and start watching something other than FOX News. If fear is what they understand then let's scare the crap out of them.

We already have many younger people that are convinced they won't see a dime of social security. I know that's totally unnecessary, but who keeps electing the people that keep repeating that? If they don't want to elect people that can come up with some sane answers, we have to MAKE THEM WANT TO!

[juajen]

22. Sonny, there is something perhaps you do not understand.

We have been fighting all our lives. It is not easy to survive in this world, but we have managed to. Might I ask where in hell you were eight to 20 years ago, while we were fighting, raising children, trying even then to save social security, raising money for the poor, for democrats to win elections, and most importantly, for people to wake up and realize that the votes in this country are being stolen? Perhaps, you were too busy drinking beer to realize that your country was being sold down the river. We seniors are very tired of attempting to wake the young up to accept that the responsiblity for their country and its laws are theirs. Yeah, it is time for you to take up the effort, that is, if you now realize that the responsible elderly are not the only ones responsible for good government. Not to mention that these good people are dying at an alarming rate, well, it is alarming to us. We get barely any respect, and now we are supposed to save the world. We are very tired and now, need our rest and some tranquility.

What don't you understand about us being at the end of our rope, literally and figuratively. Take up the flag, son, and run with it. We urge you to.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

29. [phone]

just a wonderful post.




off topic, but I used to visit Lafayette pretty regularly with my ex, to see his family. We had fun, I miss that

[Bluenorthwest]

25. this is a thread about Seniors standing up and speaking out

and you come on to tell about these other two you 'know' who apparently override the people in the OP being discussed. Your old baggers are suddenly and without proof, the face of the elderly and the subject of the thread.
When I hear these tales of older people who do not care about their younger family I wonder what kind of monsters you live around, because the old people I have known my whole life are more concerned with their kids and grandkids than they are with their own well being. The entire history of the world is elders looking after the youth, paying their way and building their worlds.

[snot]

28. Hey, wait a sec and think this through --

Isn't the real problem that the cap on income subject to SSI needs to go up? First, EVERYONE agrees that that would solve any shortfall. Second, we've had a huge amount of inflation since the last increase in SSI assessments, meaning that the "real" current cap is a lot lower than it was then; so it would make sense to adjust it.

In other words, there is no need for generational conflict over this issue. Today's seniors paid an appropriate amount for the benefits they're to receive; and with an adjustment to the income cap, tomorrow's seniors can expect the same benefits without paying more in for them in real dollars.

[Golden Raisin]

23. Shocking as it may seem

the spectrum of seniors just might be larger and more varied than the "couple of old teabagger types" you know and use to condemn out of hand an entire demographic population/generation.

[sarge43]

27. Yeah, in another context that would be called bigotry. n/t

[1monster]

14. I was at the laundry the other day and picked up a January edition of TIME

magazine. In the letters to the editor section, TIME had placed what they called "quotes of the year" -- from the letters section.

One of the quotes had a young whippersnapper saying that the boomer and X generations had already had their chance to fix the world and had failed miserably and tht it was time for them to get out of the way and let them (the youngers) have the helm.

You seem to be saying the same.

Can't you even be original? The boomers said the same to the WWII and Korean generations.

The problem isn't that one generation or another has TRIED and failed. It is that that the split IS NOT generational. It is within each generation. The boomers were split right down the middle. There were those who advocated peace, going green, taking care of those who can't take care of themselves, civil rights, etc., and those who preferred a more backward approach. Those who believed things were better in the past and tried to bring back the past, including the darkest policies.

Each generation fights a civil war with itself. The problem is that when the liberal forward-looking side is ascendant, they sit back and enjoy the fruits of their work. The other, retrograde, group never stop working to reverse every positive step forward and to grab more power while they are at it.

Jimmy Carter managed to put an energy policy in place that eventually broke the back of OPEC which had, by restricting in a punitive way, oil, nearly destroyed our economy. Ronald Reagan reaped the benefits of that policy even while overturning and destroying every victory Carter had won for us. Had Carter's energy program been allowed to continue growing, we probably would no longer be oil depenedent.

The Reagan victories were not made possible by one generation beating another. They were made by all generations' allowing retrograde members to get the upper hand. No one generation cornered the market on liberal, progressive action.

The Vietnam War was not brought to an end by the boomer generation by themselves. It was only when the older generations became disgusted by the never ending body bags coming back to this country week after week holding their sons, their nephews, the grandsons, their neighbors' sons, et als, for no known or logical reason, and joined in the protests and anger of the boomers and started making loud enough noises that TPTB in Washington heard and began the processes of ending the war.

The Paris Peace Talkes were a never-meant-to-be-successful attempt to placate what Nixon called the Silent Majority, but the people saw through that and continued to push for an end.

The point of this little history lesson is to remind those who want to start another generational war that such actions only defeat the will of the people and allow the retogressors to win.

We don't win anything unless all generations work together. As Lincoln once said, "A housed divided against itself cannot win." It was true then, true in the '60s and '70s and still true today.

edit: cleaned up grammar, missing letters, and words.

[brewens]

24. Yeah. The people responsible for setting the bar at 55, where

there should be no bar, can back off and put a stop to any generational conflict. If no one is grandfathered in, more people will be forced to support what is fair.

[Ship of Fools]

15. too many, perhaps, but not all

maybe not even a majority?? one can only hope. best part of this video is watching these weasels squirm. now the anger is coming from people with half a brain and they're having difficulty perpetuating their narrative. to me, this is a thing of beauty.

[daa]

18. What BS Once they cut the under 55 you think they are done?

You think one guy has Medicare and the next guy the next years gets a voucher and that will stand. One cut is only the first of many. Look at corporate pension, corporate health care. One cut , and now it is cut every year or eliminated.

[TheKentuckian]

10. Yet this is not being blasted and discussed in the corporate media.

Consider this as you think the Teabaggers changed the course of the Health Care debate.

How many went to town halls much more civil that portrayed. The media pushed the outrage and fostered it with the help of Republican operatives and corporate funding.

[Bozita]

20. The corporate media is busy at this time in London. Please call back next month.

[butterfly77]

19. K&R..

[Scuba]

26. To address the age issue, based on observations in Madison....

Lots of seniors

Not enough of everyone else.