Retirees Today

Medicare, Medicaid Issues Fuel Democratic Ticket

Savvy AFSCME retirees keep the pressure on in the political arena to return President Clinton to the White House and put Democrats back at the helm in Congress.

This fall retirees say they have two good reasons to vote for Pres. Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress: Medicare and Medicaid.

Both programs are lifelines. Medicare provides retirees with their basic health coverage. Medicaid includes in its coverage a long-term care safety net for those who have exhausted their savings paying for nursing home care. In 1995 nearly every Republican member of the House and Senate voted to slash and dismantle these vital programs. Only the veto of President Clinton stood in their way.

Retirees believe that if Bob Dole is elected president in November, and Newt Gingrich and his GOP allies maintain control of Congress, they will pass their Medicare/Medicaid cuts without a glitch.

DNC Dynamics. So AFSCME retirees are mobilizing. More than 20 AFSCME retirees served as delegates and alternates to the recent Democratic National Convention, where they helped nominate Bill Clinton for president. They were also among nearly 300 older delegates who attended the first-ever Senior Delegates' Caucus at a national party convention.

"This was an important convention because retirees have so much at stake," said Delegate Arlene Collins, chair of the Oregon/AFSCME Retiree Organizing Committee and treasurer of the state Democratic Party. "Oregon isn't a rich state and we won't be able to absorb big cuts in long-term care. Seniors and disabled people are bound to suffer."

Educational Approach. Collins and many other AFSCME retirees have volunteered their services to Labor '96, the AFL-CIO's voter economics education campaign. In over 100 congressional districts around the country, union retirees are educating older voters and getting out the vote. They are distributing leaflets, helping retirees obtain absentee ballots and staffing phone banks, writing letters to their newspapers about Medicare and Medicaid and speaking at senior citizen meetings.

On Patrol. AFSCME retirees are also working in the National Council of Senior Citizens' (NCSC) political program. In numerous congressional districts, they are holding candidate forums and joining NCSC's "Senior Truth Squads." Both are designed to let older voters know where the candidates stand on Medicare and Medicaid and other crucial issues affecting senior citizens. No anti-senior vote in Congress will go unexposed.

"At the Democratic Convention, I met a candidate running for Congress in Wisconsin," said AFSCME retiree delegate Ron Licht, president of the Milwaukee County Subchapter 36 and a member of AFSCME's statewide PEOPLE Committee. The candidate was Lydia Spottswood, running against Republican Rep. Mark Neumann in the 1st District. Neumann is a freshman congressman who cast several Medicare and Medicaid votes that hurt senior citizens.

"I told Lydia Spottswood she could count on AFSCME retirees to mobilize for her campaign," Licht said. "We need more advocates like her in Congress and a lot fewer Mark Neumanns."

Licht is also a leader of the statewide Wisconsin Seniors for Clinton/Gore Committee. Collins is on the statewide committee in Oregon and many other AFSCME retirees are serving in other states.

"We're pumped up," said Collins. "Clinton's a winner. He's the right man for the job and getting him elected is the right thing to do."