The Plot to Kill Pensions and a Plan to Save Them 
Featuring
TERESA GHILARDUCCI, Prof. of Economic Policy Analysis, New School for Social Research and author of When I’m Sixty Four

A crisis is brewing for American workers' retirement, due to attack on pensions and the inadequacy of 401k accounts which were designed to replace guaranteed pensions. In response Prof. Ghilarducci is proposing a comprehensive system of reform called the Guaranteed Retirement Account 
and improvements to Social Security.

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How We Can & Why We Must Stave Off The Assaults On Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security & Public Assistance
With
. Joe Baker, Pres., Medicare Rights Center, serves on the US Dept. of Health and Human Services Medicare/Medicaid Advisory Panel, former NYS Deputy Sec'y for Health and Human Services under Gov. David Paterson
. Timothy Casey, Senior Staff Attorney with Legal Momentum
. Nancy Altman, Co-Chair, Strengthen Social Security Campaign

Sixteen years ago Pres. Clinton and a bipartisan Congress replaced Aid To Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) which has proven to be a disaster for poor parents and children, even more so in the midst of recession and economic downturn. The shredding of the safety net began with AFDC and is expanding with proposals to cut, to privatize, to block grant or set up vouchers for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Both political parties seem willing to sacrifice key elements of these programs at the altar of the budget deficit
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Robin Hood In Reverse: Presidential Commission Outlines $3.8 Trillion Theft From The Workers, Seniors, The Disabled, And The Sick
with
Dean Baker, co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

A presidential commission’s leaders outlined a $3.8 trillion deficit-cutting plan that would trim among other things Social Security and Medicare, reduce income-tax rates and eliminate tax breaks including the mortgage-interest deduction, the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. Deficit reduction would also make it harder to emerge from the recession, causing tax revenues to fall further setting the stage for further budget cuts. The Social Security retirement age would rise to 68 in about 2050 and 69 in about 2075. AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka said the panel chairmen “just told working Americans to ‘drop dead.’” In an e-mailed statement, Trumka said, “The very people who want to slash Social Security and Medicare spent this week clamoring for more unpaid Bush tax cuts for millionaires.” While the Commission’s Allan Simpson said the plan was designed to give members of the panel something to “chew on” for further discussions, it’s enough to choke the rest of us.

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Social Security Under Attack
With
Eric Kingson, Prof. of Social Work, Syracuse University’s
School of Social Work & Co-Dir., Social Security Works

It’s the Social Security program, which in large part keeps
older people from poverty and destitution. But, the program is
under attack from the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction
Commission established by the President, The attack is
dressed up in the fallacious rhetoric of the necessity of
deficit reduction, it’s really a raid on the social security
trust fund to help balance the federal budget deficit. They
will call for deep benefit cuts, probably in the form of
another rise in the retirement age.
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2nd Jury Nullification in Tyson Discrimination Suit
With
U. W. Clemon, Alabama's first African-American Federal
judge, who also served as chief judge of the U,S. District
Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Before his
notable career on the federal bench, he was a distinguished
civil rights activist, a lawyer, and state senator.

For the second time a federal appeals court panel rejected jury
awards in favor of African-American plaintiffs who alleged
discrimination against the poultry company Tyson Foods. In a
2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
found that a Tyson manager's use of the word "boy" to address
an African-American man, did not amount to evidence of racial
discrimination.

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Prostrated At the Altar of the Balanced Budget: Sacrificing Social Security, Medicare, and Economic Recovery
with
James Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr. Chair in Gov't/ Business Relations, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin

The Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction Commission established by the president, will deliver an attack on Social Security and Medicare dressed up in the sanctimonious rhetoric of deficit reduction. The Obama spending freeze is another sacrifice to the deficit gods. But, the deficit phobia of Wall Street, the press, some economists and practically all politicians is one of the deepest dangers that we face. It's not just the old and the sick who are threatened; we all are. To cut federal budget deficits without first rebuilding the economy is a sure path to stagnation, to a double-dip recession--even to a second Great Depression.
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It's Time to Play "Social Security Survivor"
with
Gerald W. McEntee, Pres., American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees

A broad coalition of groups has been formed to defend Social Security. Of all the ideas proposed this one comes from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee: A new reality show starring the people who want to cut Social Security. He suggests having John Boehner, billionaire
benefit-cut advocate Peter G. Peterson, and Deficit Commission chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles live for a year on the average Social Security benefit of $14,000.

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Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition 27:41
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An Occupation and On the Picket Line At The Visteon
Plants In Belfast And Enfield, London
with
Phil Wilson, machine setter, Visteon Ensfield plant
Jerry Campbell, retiree, Visteon, Belfast plant

Are Attacks on Social Security Coming Soon?
with
Dean Baker,
Co-Director,Center for Economic & Policy Research,
and author of Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of
the Bubble Economy

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An Occupation and On the Picket Line At The Visteon
Plants In Belfast And Enfield, London

with

Phil Wilson, machine setter, Visteon Ensfield plant

Jerry Campbell, retiree, Visteon, Belfast plant

More than 600 Workers in Visteon car parts plants in Belfast,
Northern Ireland and Enfield and Basildon, England were given
6-minutes notice before their factories would be closing leaving
them without jobs and without contractually agreed upon layoff
benefits.The workers staged spontaneous sit-ins, first in Belfast
on March 31st that spread to two other plants. The workers in
Enfield stopped their occupation after being threatened with long
jail sentences. They are now picketing the plant around the clock.
The occupation continues in Belfast.
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Are Attacks on Social Security Coming Soon?

with

Dean Baker,
Co-Director,Center for Economic & Policy Research,
and author of Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of
the Bubble Economy

Baker had warned for years about the coming recession due to
the real estate bubble and unregulated financial markets. Now that
we are in the middle of the crisis , the geniuses that got us into
the mess have been appointed to get us out of it, How smart is that?
But we can think of few better to outline what went wrong and how to
begin to set it right than Dean Baker who now warns us that some
in the the Obama Administration and Congress are planning attacks
in this year's budget on the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for the
bank bailouts.

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