Labor & Employment Law

Nevada Alliance Members Mobilize Against Angle?s Attack on Social Security, Medicare

By Mike Hall

Nevada Republican U.S. Senate nominee Sharron Angle made many extremist statements during her primary campaign, and some of the most egregious involve her goal to eliminate Social Security and Medicare and privatize those two vital senior safety nets.

During a May 2010 debate on the public affairs show “Face to Face with John Ralston” Angle said, “We need to phase Medicare and Social Security out in favor of something privatized.” She repeated these views around the state.

Now that she must appeal to a much broader and far less extreme electorate than the right-wing Republican base in her race against Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), Angle has become much less vocal about her plans to eliminate Social Security and Medicare.

But the Nevada chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans is making sure Nevadans hear how she stands for gutting the nation’s senior safety net.

Wednesday in Las Vegas and yesterday in Sparks, the Alliance held “Red Alert” meetings to mobilize seniors and ensure Angle’s radical agenda stays in the spotlight. Says Nevada Alliance President Scott Watts:

Seniors think Sharron Angle’s ideas are risky and dangerous. Just imagine what would have happened if we had privatized Social Security. Given over $10 trillion in asset values that have disappeared in the stock market recently, it is clear that letting Wall Street gamble with the program and your retirement security is not the way to go.

He says that Angle’s plan to eliminate Social Security for future retirees means

our children and grandchildren would fend for themselves in a retirement system completely dependent upon the whims of the free market… Clearly we cannot trust Wall Street gamblers with our retirement security.

With some 16,000 members in Nevada, Watts says the Alliance will ask each of its members to educate 10 of their fellow retirees on these important issues and will also  phonebank, send direct mail, and canvasses members to spread the word.

We will be educating Nevadans of all ages on the sharp contrast between Sharron Angle and Harry Reid on Social Security and other vital issues of our time.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 18, 2010 (boomark / email).