Our Social Security system has never contributed a penny to the deficit. Yet the President is planning to include cuts to Social Security in the budget he releases this year. The debt we have comes from a decade of tax cuts for the wealthy, unlimited spending on foreign wars and a recession caused by unregulated Wall Street speculation. It’s wrong to ask senior citizens, veterans and the disabled to pay for the greed of the top 1%. The President is proposing to use a cut called the “Chained CPI” that will cut benefits for every single Social Security beneficiary—now and in the future. The average earner would lose $4,631 in Social Security benefits by age 75, $13,910 by age 85; and $28,004 by age 95. These cuts are an even bigger threat to the disabled and veterans, who would face the COLA cut for 30, 40 years or more. For example, a severely disabled, unmarried veteran who claims Veterans Disability Compensation benefits today at age 30 would experience a cumulative cut of $60,121 by age 65 and $144,189 by age 85!* The average Social Security benefit is only $13,833. Over 12 million beneficiaries live on 125% of the poverty level ($13,485) or less. We have earned our retirement and disability benefits by contributing a portion of every paycheck to Social Security. And veterans have earned their benefits by putting their lives on the line for our country. ---- * According to “Inflation Indexation in Major Federal Benefit Programs: Impact of the Chained CPI,” Alison Shelton, AARP Public Policy Institute, March 2013. http://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/public_policy_institute/econ_sec/2013/impact-of-chained-cpi-federal-programs-fs-AARP-ppi-econ-sec.pdf

President Obama will reportedly propose a budget in which Social Security and Medicare benefits and income taxes brackets are calculated using a "chained CPI" method. That amounts to future benefit cuts and income tax increases for those who can least afford them, and is a betrayal of the people of the United States. Accordingly, we, the undersigned, will not ever again support *any* politician or candidate -- Democrat or otherwise, federal, state or local -- who does not publicly join us here or elsewhere in opposing this measure, or who votes for such a budget. [Drafted by a Maryland resident. Please feel free to copy this petition and target your state instead of Maryland, as well as President Obama and the entire U.S. House and Senate.]

Press reports say that in his budget, President Obama plans to propose cutting Social Security and veterans' benefits by imposing the "Chained CPI" cut. The only way to stop this is by escalating pressure on Congress. Let's pledge that every Democratic Representative and Senator who supports cutting Social Security and veterans' benefits is going to face a primary challenge.

We have worked our whole life and paid into social security please do not cut or reduce our payment. Thank you for your concern on this issue. Ordielia Bakken

There is a significant number of vehicles speeding on our streets that are are used by children, bikers, walkers and other vehicles. Individuals who disregard posting speeding limits are posing a safety hazard for all who use the streets as well as possible vehicle damages. Safety of residents and guests in "SJGC" should be the goal for our entire community.

Medicare Advantage, the Bush-era privatized portion of Medicare, originally cost 14% more than original Medicare, yet it produced no better outcomes. The original intent of Obamacare was to get the sticky hands of private insurance off of Medicare once more, and the Medicare advantage program funding was originally supposed to be cut by 2.2% Following a media blitz and a lot of corporate money, Medicare Advantage is now scheduled for a 3.3% increase in funding this year instead of a cut. Adding insult to injury, the insurance industry is asking for increases in deductibles on original Medicare and a tax on Medigap plans, forcing more people into Medicare advantage. We may lose Medicare by bits and pieces if we don't stop the insurance industry now!

Social Security is not driving the deficit, therefore it should not be part of reforms aimed at cutting the deficit. The chained CPI, deceptively portrayed as a reasonable cost of living adjustment, is a cut to Social Security benefits that would hurt seniors. There are several sensible reforms to Social Security that should be considered to help make it sustainable, including lifting the ceiling on income subject to Social Security from $113,700 to $200,000 or more, as well as instituting a 1% raise in the payroll tax rate, a rate that hasn't changed in over 20 years. Both of these reforms would go a long way toward protecting the long-term health of Social Security, but neither should not be conflated with efforts to reduce the federal budget deficit. President Obama needs to stand by his Democratic principles and fight to protect Social Security benefits.

In response to talk in Washington about possible cuts to the social safety net, Congressmen Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Mark Takano (D-CA) have written a letter to the President. In it they respectfully promise to vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits -- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that your constituents earned and need. Please sign this petition asking your Illinois Congressional representative show support for Illinois voters by signing the Grayson-Takano letter.

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are extremely vital parts of our social safety net. The majority of Americans are NOT willing to cut benefits from these very popular programs in order to deal with the deficit. In fact, Social Security should not even be part of this equation. We oppose any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits -- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustment. There are other ways to solve our nation's fiscal problems. Our Washington representatives should NOT dismantle the safety net which our country's seniors, the poor, the orphaned, and the disabled rely upon for their very survival.

Thanks to the actions of hundreds of supporteres, the $2 million of funding for the CMRT has been preserved in NY State's 2013 budget! But we're not done yet -- the planning process now shifts to the county level. Please sign our new petition to be delivered to our leaders here in Ulster County, asking them to make constructing the Catskill Mountain Rail Trail a top priority.

Congress has the responsibility to be a good steward of the US Postal Service as outlined in the Constitution of the United States. This is outlined in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7. Our founding fathers wrote this in our constitution before the right to build roads, establish armies, navies and the right to declare war. The postal service has already eliminated 193,000 jobs since 2006 and continues to downsize. Currently the postal service employs 109,000 US military veterans. This is over 20% of the postal service career workforce. In this time of great economic recession in America it does not make sense to downsize the postal service as it is profitable the way it is. It simply needs to end the prefunding of retiree healthcare benefits at current levels. Not only are the postal service's retiree healthcare benefits overfunded by billions of dollars, the postal service's retiree annuity contributions to the CSRS and FERS are overfunded by billions of dollars as well. We believe creative accounting practices and bad laws have created this problem. So we ask the President and Congress to make the postal service cease and desist from closing anymore facilities and from cutting service at the post office until Congress passes a post office reform bill.

NO al aumento en la edad de retiro de hasta 12 años adicionales. NO a que los cobijados por la Ley 1 que al 30 de junio tengan 63 años laboren hasta los 67 años para retirarse. A los amparados por Reforma 2000, NO a que la SPU apruebe que empleados con 56 años al presente se retiren con 64 años.