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It’s an American Classic – Our Social Security System


 
What’s an American classic? Something that stays fresh and wonderful generation after generation. Something that says, “This is America.” Like ice cream cones. The Statue of Liberty. Sunday drives. The March on Washington and “I have a dream.” I Love Lucy.And our Social Security system.

Social Security - It's An American Classic! Celebrate Social Security’s birthday. Share this on:

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On this date in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. On its 77th birthday, we hail Social Security as an American classic! Why?

  • Social Security has brought Americans together across generations. Working together, we’ve built a system that provides income and security for workers and their families when they need it — when income is lost due to retirement, disability, or death.
  • For three-quarters of a century, through wars, recessions, natural disasters — and stock market crashes — Social Security has made every payment, on time and in full.
  • Social Security is the foundation of retirement security for most Americans — especially women. Without income from Social Security, half of women 65 and older would be poor.
  • Social Security is a family insurance plan that protects young workers, their spouses, and their children. More than 3.2 million children rely on Social Security.

And Social Security is still going strong! Even with no changes, it can pay 100 percent of promised benefits for the next 20 years, and 75 percent of promised benefits after that. Yes, there’s a long-term shortfall. But to put it in perspective: eliminating the entire 75-year shortfall costs about as much as extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest two percent.
Social Security will only turn 77 once! To celebrate this American classic you can:

When he signed the Social Security Act, President Roosevelt said that this law “represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete.” Since 1935 Americans have expanded and improved this structure, providing benefits for widows and children, workers with disabilities, benefits for divorced spouses (initially, after a 20-year marriage, later reduced to 10 years), eliminating sex discrimination in the award of benefits, and providing automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) that help protect the value of Social Security benefits from eroding over time.
We need your help to protect and strengthen Social Security! Later this year, Congress will make far-reaching budget decisions — and cuts to Social Security benefits, particularly by reducing annual cost-of-living adjustments, are reportedly on the table. After Congress returns, we’ll keep you posted and make it easy for you to take action to protect Social Security. In addition, the policy makers we choose in November will make important decisions about the future of our Social Security system. So be sure you’re registered to vote!
Sincerely,
Joan Entmacher Joan Entmacher Vice President, Family Economic Security National Women’s Law Center   

P.S. Want to learn more about what Social Security means to women and families in your state? Check out our state-by-state fact sheets!
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Breaking News: The threat to women just doubled


NARAL Pro-Choice America

The biggest threat to women’s health?You’re looking at them.

Help us spread the word.

DONATE NOW

The threat to women’s reproductive lives and health just doubled.

Just this morning, Mitt Romney announced his choice for his vice presidential running mate: Anti-choice extremist Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Anti-choice forces are thrilled with Ryan, and it’s no wonder why:

  • During his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ryan cast 59 votes on abortion and other reproductive rights issues. He voted anti-choice each and every time.
  • Ryan repeatedly voted for and cosponsored the Federal Abortion Ban, a law that criminalizes some abortion services, endangers women’s health, and carries a two-year prison sentence for doctors.

Ryan is outspoken about his anti-choice beliefs:

“I’m as pro-life as a person gets. You’re not going to have a truce. Judges are going to come up. Issues come up, they’re unavoidable, and I’m never going to not vote pro-life.”1

We need your help to defeat the anti-choice Romney-Ryan ticket and all anti-choice politicians who are dangerous threats to women’s health.

Make no mistake about it: Ryan is 100% behind the War on Women agenda and, if elected on November 6, he’s ready to work with Mitt Romney the day after the inauguration to:

  • Defund Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation;
  • Eliminate the Title X family-planning program, which provides mammograms and cancer screenings to low-income individuals;
  • Deny women in the military — who defend our freedom overseas — the right to use their own, private funds for abortion care at military hospitals;
  • Pass legislation to effectively ban abortion coverage in state health-insurance exchanges; and
  • Allow hospitals to refuse to provide emergency abortion care, even when a woman’s life is in danger.

Please help us get the word out: Romney and Ryan are dangerous to women’s health.

With nothing to stand in the way of the extreme Romney-Ryan agenda, we could lose the protection of Roe v. Wade, women’s health and lives will be at risk — and anti-choice zealots could wipe out decades’ worth of reproductive rights we’ve fought so hard to win.

We can spread the word about these and other anti-choice candidates. But we’re running out of time. With less than 90 days to go, we need to knock on every door, make every call, and sound the warning bell to every pro-choice voter we can find. If we can get them to the polls, we can defeat anti-choice politicians running across the country and continue with all our important grassroots and advocacy work to ensure the right to privacy.

Please make the most generous gift you can to NARAL Pro-Choice America — right now — to beat the Romney-Ryan ticket, protect our pro-choice allies, and defend choice at all levels of government.

Thanks for all you do.

Nancy Keenan

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

DONATE NOW

1The Weekly Standard, Paul Ryan: GOP Must Continue Fighting for the Right to Life by John McCormack, September 22, 2010.

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Are You In ?


Elizabeth Banks …
As a working mom in Hollywood today, I’m lucky to have the resources I need to take care of myself and my son. But that wasn’t always the case.

When I graduated from college over 15 years ago, I was unemployed and uninsured. I turned to the only place that would provide me with health care at a rate I could afford: Planned Parenthood.

What Mitt Romney forgets when he says he wants to “get rid of that” organization is that, for many women, the fight over Planned Parenthood isn’t controversial — it’s about our health.

I recorded a quick video sharing my own Planned Parenthood story — and why I’m proud that my president supports this great organization.

Check it out, then make a few calls to let other women know why it matters to you.

One in five women will rely on Planned Parenthood for medical services like cancer screenings and pap smears at some point in their lives. Seventy-five percent of Planned Parenthood patients have incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line — for many working women, the organization is quite literally a life-saver. It is the leading women’s reproductive health care provider and advocate. It’s there for us when no one else is.

The fight over Planned Parenthood is part of a larger debate about issues that, for most women, are intensely personal decisions: birth control and reproductive health. But now more than ever, it’s important to talk to women about our personal experiences and ask them to step up and get involved — the Republicans who want to take us back to the ’50s need to know the consequences of their actions.

For me, birth control wasn’t originally a tool for preventing pregnancy. It was prescribed to me when hormonally-induced migraines kept me locked up in dark rooms for days. I took it again when I had painful cramps. And when I wanted to have children, I got on the pill again, because it helped regulate my cycle for IVF. Thanks to family planning, today I’m the proud mother of a one-year-old son.

That’s why I’m working hard to re-elect President Obama. He respects and values women. He knows that the government has no business restricting access to affordable birth control, cancer screenings, and the preventive care that Planned Parenthood provides. President Obama has not compromised on women’s rights — he’s fighting for us.

So we’ve got to fight for him. Help spread the word by making a few calls and sharing your story with others about why these issues matter to you:

Why-I-Support-President-Obama

Thanks,

Elizabeth Banks

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Worker and Economic Rights at Risk


While Mitt Romney announces Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential pick today, a politician who will tout the same failed policies that have benefited only their deep-pocketed donors, tens of thousands of working families will launch a campaign to demand elected leaders support an agenda that gives economic rights for all.

The rally for the middle class today is about people, not secret money. It stands for everyone, not just Wall Street. We’re fighting for our economic rights, for a more secure future for all of us. 

Click here to sign your name in support of working families and real economic justice for the middle class.

The demand is simple. All of us should have a right to full employment and a living wage, full participation in the electoral process, a voice at work, quality education and a secure, healthy future.

All of these rights are vital to getting our country back on track and making it work for everyone, not just the Mitt Romneys and Paul Ryans of the world. But if you can’t be in Philly today, you still can get involved.

With the election only three months away, we need to start working together to hold politicians accountable for their votes on these issues and make sure they listen to us after November. Today, Mitt Romney doubled down on his drive to destroy the middle class by selecting Paul Ryan, someone who wants to end Medicare as we know it, kill jobs for working families, and give tax breaks to the rich.

If you believe everyone should have basic economic rights, show your support here by clicking on the link and tell us what issues matter most as we head into Election Day:  http://go.aflcio.org/2ndBillofRights.

Thank you for everything you do.

In Solidarity,

Nicole Aro
Deputy Director
Digital Strategies, AFL-CIO

P.S. You can follow today’s event in Philly live at the Workers Stand for America website.

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a message from .. NARAL Pro-Choice America


NARAL Pro-Choice America

Rush Limbaugh is at it again.

He came to Mitt Romney’s defense by calling NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood “death squads.”

Tell Romney a real leader would stand up to a bully like Limbaugh.

We’ve all heard about Rush Limbaugh’s rants attacking strong women. Thanks to pro-choice people like you, he faced an onslaught of criticism for his offensive language against Sandra Fluke.

Well, he is at it again.

Yesterday, he came to Mitt Romney’s defense by calling NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood “death squads.”

First, he claimed that the “Democrats [are] funded and underwritten by Planned Parenthood and NARAL,” and then said, “If they’re not death squads, I don’t know what is.”1

Limbaugh’s inflammatory rhetoric is outrageous and needs to be condemned. Join me in calling on Romney to stand up to Limbaugh’s remarks.

It’s alarming that a politician who is running for the highest office in the nation fails to address Limbaugh head on.

When Limbaugh went after Sandra Fluke, Mitt Romney refused to call for Limbaugh to apologize. Instead, Romney cowardly said, “it’s not the language I would have used.”2

Will Romney duck Limbaugh’s incendiary language a second time?

Tell Romney that a real leader would stand up to a bully like Limbaugh. Make sure he knows that when he refuses to denounce Limbaugh for his offensive language, he fails women.

We’re not going to let these outrageous attacks on women’s freedom and privacy go unanswered.

In solidarity,

Nancy Keenan

Nancy Keenan President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

1 – “Limbaugh On Planned Parenthood And NARAL Pro-Choice: ‘If They’re Not Death Squads, I Don’t Know What Is’,” Media Matters, August 8, 2012 2 – “Romney Fails the Leadership Test,” The Root, March 5, 2012

A political organization, NARAL Pro-Choice America is the nation’s leading advocate for privacy and a woman’s right to choose.

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