had a great time at the social security town hall meeting

[mopinko]

yesterday at loyola. organized by jan schakowski, with barack obama and dick durbin.
they had a huge crowd. i could not get into the main room, which my hubby, loyola alum, but not good at estimating much of anything, says holds 800-1000 people. there were 2 other rooms where they put the overflow, which probably added up to another 150 people.
a couple of the best lines- from jan-
the real social security crisis is the bush plan.
they thought that by not touching benefits for people over 55 that seniors would go along with the plan. they forgot that seniors care about their families.

from dick durbin-
what the ownership society really means is that we are all in this ALONE!!

from barack obama-
a quote from daniel patrick moynihan. during a debate on social security under reagan, a republican senator was bloviating on, and moynihan disagreed with him on a point. the senator replied that he "was entitled to his opinions." to which moynihan replied that he "was certainly entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts."


they all took the time to come downstairs, and talk to the people in the overflow rooms.

i hung around at the end, like a little groupie, so that i could shake jan schakowski's hand, and thank her personally for standing up for the truth about what happened in ohio, and tell her how brave i thought she was. what a thrill. (i also shook durbin's hand, and touched barack as he walked by.)

jan says that republicans that are out doing these town hall meetings are getting their heads handed to them. i am catching a slight wiff of the foul smell of frying republicans on the third rail. yummm. makes me hungry.
the seniors were out, and they are fired up. they are absolutely not being bought off by their little exemption of those 55 and over.

they are hoping to put the video of the hearing on their website-
http://www.house.gov/schakowsky/

[Inland]

1. Any suggestion on what do to with SS besides

saying NO to Bush, my own personal position?

[SharonAnn]

2. For now, it's best to leave it alone. Don't let * and his minions touch

it in any way, in any form.

There's no "crisis" so there's no decision that needs to be made "urgently". There's time to wait out this administration and this Republican dominated Congress.

We don't have to come up with a "Plan". Social Security IS our plan. Period.

Don't fall into the Republican trap. Call their plan what it is, THEFT!

[mopinko]

3. that was pretty much the gist

it ain't broke, let's not fix it.
mostly ideas how to defeat this crap.
there were asking people to write down their stories of how social security helped them. they had some people tell their stories, and made the point over and over that 30% of benefits go to non-retirees.
slapdown time. period.

[Inland]

5. Sounds like agreement on substance and tactics all around.

Good for us.

[jfdunphy]

4. What to do next?

Write not just to your own Congressmen and Senators, but to those on the Social Security Committees--and most importantly to those that might be swing votes. I have written to at least three every day since this campaign started. Realize that it is a campaign--and it may even be a distraction so they can try to sneak through the permanent tax cut--so you have to keep up the pressure on that front too. If the tax cut goes permanent, you will have a de facto aristocracy in the US--frustrating the intent of the Congress--the original one--at the end of the Revolutionary War. The one where one-third of the country rooted for the Tories.