• Seniors Win Round One in Budget Battle
• Senate Says No Tax Cuts Without Paying for Them
• Millions for Medicare Counseling, Billions for Drug Companies
• AFT, LCAO Challenge Social Security Administration Spin
• McClellan Softens Stance on Drug Reimportation
• Many Seniors Unaware Medicare Rx Bill Has Been Passed
• New Bipartisan Legislation Would Permit Drug Reimportation
• Alliance Voting Record Shows 108th Congress Failing Seniors
• Another Medicare Veteran Defects
• On the Lighter Side: Battling Al-Gebra
• Pet Care Savings for AFT Members
• Quote of Note: Social Security and Bush Tax Cuts
• Web Site of the Week: Women Labor Leaders

SENIORS WIN ROUND ONE IN BUDGET BATTLE
Healthcare advocates won a big victory March 10 in the U.S. Senate when a bipartisan majority rejected a 10-year reduction of $23 billion in Medicaid spending. Lawmakers passed an amendment introduced by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) rejecting the cuts, which would have severely harmed nursing home residents. Medicaid covers more than half the cost of nursing homes. The proposed cuts to Medicaid and other senior programs are largely the result of the president's $1.7 trillion tax cut, most of which benefits wealthy Americans. Eight Republicans bucked their party's leaders and joined 44 Democrats and one Independent in supporting the amendment. They included Sens. Christopher Bond (Mo.), Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), Norm Coleman (Minn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Gordon Smith (Ore.), Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine). The AFT, the Alliance for Retired Americans and many senior groups lobbied hard to pass the amendment. The union earlier joined other senior organizations in the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations in a letter opposing the president's proposed $144 billion in new tax cuts. "While vital programs would be cut," LCAO wrote, "the [budget] resolution proposes to make permanent certain tax breaks, further driving up the deficit and leaving our nation ill-prepared for important current needs as well as the retiring Baby Boomers." The fight has just begun. The radical right leaders of the House of Representative have targeted Medicaid cuts to help pay for extending current tax cuts and passing new ones. House action is expected in the next several weeks.

More info: http://www.lcao.org/press/budgetPRFeb25_2004.htm.


SENATE SAYS NO TAX CUTS WITHOUT PAYING FOR THEM
The other piece of good news is that it will be much harder for the president to indefinitely extend all of his tax cuts, which total a whopping $1.7 trillion. By a vote of 51-48, the Senate March 10 adopted an amendment by Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) that requires future tax and spending changes to be paid for by other taxes or program cuts. By forcing itself to pay for the president's tax cuts, Congress will have to face -- directly -- ”the question of whether providing tax cuts for the rich is worth cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for the low- and middle-income people in our society. It was a largely party line vote, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joining Republicans Chaffee (R.I), Collins (Maine), Snowe (Maine) joining all the Democrats to pass this important amendment. Only Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) voted with the Republican minority. This issue also will be taken up in the House in the coming weeks.

MILLIONS FOR MEDICARE COUNSELING, BILLIONS FOR DRUG COMPANIES
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced in early March that the U.S. Department of Health and Human services will award $21.1 million this year and another $31.7 million next year to state and local programs that counsel Medicare beneficiaries to help them understand and take advantage of new benefits in Medicare. The hike is intended to increase one-on-one advice for Medicare beneficiaries provided by the staff and volunteers at State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs). A few weeks earlier, HHS drew fire for its $11 million ad campaign touting the new Medicare law as an unalloyed boon to seniors. Critics are now calling for the funding to come from the Bush re-election campaign. It is estimated that drug companies' profits will rise by $139 billion as a result of the law. CMS will increase funding to SHIPs from $12.5 million last year to about $21.1 million for fiscal year 2004. HHS' budget plan for fiscal year 2005 allocates $31.7 million.


AFT, LCAO CHALLENGE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION SPIN
The AFT and the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) are calling for a rewrite of a new Social Security Administration brochure. In a March 12 letter to Social Security commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart, the coalition of 50 senior groups challenged as "unduly alarmist" SSA's claim that Social Security is unsustainable in the long run and will not be able to meet all of its benefit obligations. LCAO reminded the commissioner that even without any change in Social Security's financing, the trust funds can pay full benefits until 2042, and about 70 percent of benefit obligation after that date. The letter went on to say, "If the American people support the Social Security system, as countless studies show they do, Congress will make the moderate adjustments necessary to ensure the program's continued role as the guaranteed, inflation-proof, foundation of retirement security." LCAO members chided the SSA brochure for its biased view of solutions to the shortfall. The brochure touts only cutting benefits, raising taxes or using payroll taxes to establish personal accounts. LCAO reminded Barnhart that transferring money from Social Security into individual accounts will only hasten the date the shortfall occurs, worsen solvency and force greater changes than would otherwise be necessary.

More info: www.lcao.org


McCLELLAN SOFTENS STANCE ON DRUG REIMPORTATION
In Senate confirmation hearings March 8, Mark McClellan, the Bush administration's nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he would consider allowing reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized countries if limits were placed limits on the scope and type of drugs that could be imported and the Food and Drug Administration, which he currently heads, had more authority and funding to track reimported medications. The Senate Finance Committee the next day voted 18-2 to approve the nomination, but Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) blocked a floor vote on the nomination because of McClellan's opposition to reimportation. At least three senators--John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dorgan and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)--have announced plans to delay a final confirmation vote on McClellan because of his opposition to reimportation. McClellan claims the FDA cannot certify the safety of reimported prescription drugs from Canada. As FDA commissioner, McClellan has threatened legal action against state and local governments that establish reimportation programs, asked health insurers to reject reimbursement claims for drugs purchased from Canada and even tried to enlist UPS and FedEx to stop cross-border delivery of prescription drugs.


MANY SENIORS UNAWARE MEDICARE Rx BILL HAS BEEN PASSED
Most U.S. seniors do not know the Medicare law (H.R. 1) was enacted and 55 percent take an unfavorable view of it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released Feb. 26. The telephone survey Feb. 5-8 of 1,201 adults--237 of them 65 or older--just days after HHS launched a television ad campaign, found that although 64 percent of seniors said they followed the debate over the new law very closely or somewhat closely, 68 percent of seniors did not know that Congress passed the law and President Bush signed it. In addition, 15 percent of seniors said they understand the law very well; 24 percent said they understand the law somewhat well; and 60 percent said they understand it not too well or not well at all. Based on their personal knowledge about the law, 55 percent of seniors said their impression of the law is unfavorable, compared with 17 percent who said their impression is favorable, the survey says. "The more seniors know about this law, the less they like it," said AFT associate director of federal legislation Bill Cunningham. "Job one now is for retiree leaders and members to learn as much as they can about the law and spread the word to family and friends. Our job in Washington and in the country is to win enough votes to replace it before it does real damage."  A Q&A on the controversial law is available on the AFT Web site: www.aft.org.


NEW BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION WOULD PERMIT DRUG REIMPORTATION
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) March 3 introduced a bill (S. 2137) that would allow American consumers to import lower-cost, FDA-approved prescription drugs from 25 industrialized nations. The legislation is identical to a bill (H.R. 2427) passed by the House last July. Sponsored by Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.), that legislation would allow U.S. pharmacists to import prescription drugs manufactured in a number of industrialized nations, provided that the medications are manufactured by companies that use counterfeit-resistant technologies and that the companies have registered their production operations with the FDA. Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and majority whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) objected to the new Senate bill, seeking to scuttle it on procedural grounds.

ALLIANCE VOTING RECORD SHOWS 108TH CONGRESS FAILING SENIORS
In its 2003 Congressional Voting Record--released the week of March 4--the Alliance for Retired Americans, the AFL-CIO organization for union and community retirees, warns that the first session of the 108th Congress was "a direct assault on the quality of life for America's retirees." Alliance executive director Ed Coyle said, "Overall, findings from the annual voting record reveal an alarming number of elected officials who voted against seniors." The report assesses how members of Congress voted on 10 House and 10 Senate votes important to the health and economic security of older Americans, including Medicare, retiree benefits, tax breaks and issues involving family caregivers. Fifty-six percent of lawmakers in the House and 58 percent in the Senate received failing scores, while only 13 senators and 114 representatives scored a perfect 100 percent. The full voting record is available on the Alliance Web site, along with a toolkit of activities that senior activists can use to get the word out on how members of Congress scored. To find out how your member rated, go to www.retiredamericans.org.


ANOTHER MEDICARE VETERAN DEFECTS
Yet another key player in the enactment of the flawed Medicare prescription drug law is jumping ship before the measure goes into effect. The Washington Post reports that Patrick Morrisey, chief health counsel and deputy staff director of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will become a partner in the healthcare practice of Austin Brown & Wood, where he will be doing healthcare lobbying, regulatory work and counseling clients. Morrisey is the seventh veteran of the Medicare battle to move to the more lucrative private sector.


ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: BATTLING AL-GEBRA
At New York's Kennedy Airport today, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set-square, a slide rule and a calculator. At a morning press conference, attorney general John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. "Al-Gebra is a fearsome cult," Ashcroft said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like "x" and "y" and refer to themselves as "unknowns," but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. Asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes." The president went on to warn, "These weapons of math instruction have the potential to decimal everything in their math on a scalene never before seen."


PET CARE SAVINGS FOR AFT MEMBERS
AFT PLUS offers members two programs that can help you save money on your veterinary bills. The first option is our pet insurance. This is true pet insurance that allows you to continue with your current veterinarian. Policies available include older pets, accident-only coverage and more. For specifics, call 866/473-7387 or go to www.unionplus.org/pets and click on Pet Health Insurance. Our second program is called Pet Assure Veterinary Care Savings. This plan allows you to save 25 percent on your bill at participating veterinarians for a monthly fee (discounted 40 percent for AFT members). Savings include preventive care, shots, surgery, medications and more. To sign up, or to find participating veterinarians in your area, call 888/789-PETS (7387) or go to www.unionplus.org/pets. Use the discount code UP2003 to get your AFT savings!


QUOTE OF NOTE: SOCIAL SECURITY AND BUSH TAX CUTS
"Social Security's problem, such as it is, is a matter of demography: As the population ages, the number of retirees will rise faster than the number of workers. As a result, benefit costs will rise by about 2 percent of GDP [gross domestic product] over the next 30 years, and creep up slowly thereafter. By comparison, making the Bush tax cuts permanent would reduce revenue by at least 2.5 percent of GDP, starting now. That--combined with the fact that Social Security, unlike the rest of the federal government, is currently running a surplus--is why the Bush tax cuts are a much bigger problem for the nation's fiscal future than the Social Security shortfall."

Paul Krugman
New York Times

WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: http://www.labor-studies.org/
The American Labor Studies Center in March is highlighting "Women's (Labor) History Month" on its Web site. The site features a variety of resources, including the song "Union Maid," a proclamation, biographical information on Mother Jones, and other great features, including a link to the AFT Online page about women labor leaders.