Medicaid and Medicare on July 7th at 7 PM at the Mt Kisco Public Library.
100 East Main Street

We also expect to do an event in Cong. Hayworth's district on either July
12 or 13 in conjunction with a statewide tour that will up at the FDR
Library in Hyde Park.

Meanwhile, we want to contact our Congressmembers and President. Below is a
suggested script and contact info. And we need letters to the editor.

At the end is a sign on letter we will send to our congressional reps.
Please let me ([email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) ) know if your
organization would like to sign on.

Please call the President and members of Congress and tell them deficit
reduction deals should take cuts to programs for low- and moderate-income
people off the table. Show them there is strong support for fair revenues to
prevent slashing our human and social infrastructure.

Here is a suggested script:

"Mr. President/ Senator _____/ Representative ______

In the negotiations to reduce the deficit, please hold firm and prevent
harmful cuts or caps to programs low- and middle- income Americans rely upon.
To fix our economy, we can and should be building up the American middle
class—not tearing it down. Such an alternative budget is provided in the “
People’s Budget,” presented by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Please insist on fair increases in revenues to prevent reckless cuts to
Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, and other essential services that allow our
residents and country to grow and prosper.”

Representative Nita Lowey
202-225-6506 (phone) 914-428-1707 (phone) 914-328-1505 (fax)
202-225-0546 (fax)

Representative Nan Hayworth
202-225-5441 (phone) 202-225-3289 (fax) 845-206-4600 (phone) 866-921-3842
(fax)

Representative Eliot Engel
202-225-2464 (phone) 202-225-5513 (fax) 914-699-4100 (phone) 914-699-3646
(fax)

President Barack Obama Comments: 202-456-1111

Senator Charles Schumer 202-224-6542(phone)

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand 845-875-4585 (phone) 202- 224-4451 (phone)

—————————————–

SIGN ON LETTER – send organizational endorsements to [email protected]_
(mailto:[email protected])

Working to Preserve Our Nation’s Social Infrastructure

Dear Congress members:

As representatives of Westchester's diverse coalition of community, faith,
human services, peace, and senior citizen organizations, we urge you to
protect the essential components of our human and social infrastructure in
the negotiations over the 2012 federal budget and public debt. The urgency of
increasing the debt limit should not be used to coerce the Congress or the
President to injure our country's social safety net and economic growth.

The deficit must be addressed, and we should do so through a balanced
approach that includes equitable increases in revenue and thoughtful reductions
in expenditures that do not serve the public interest, including wasteful
military spending that does not add to our security. Congress should focus
on the policies that will hasten the economic recovery and build a strong
foundation for our shared future.

We call upon the Westchester congressional delegation to provide
leadership in crafting a compromise fiscal package that will protect Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, housing, education and other
indispensable public programs. The goals of congressional action should be:

Protect low and moderate income people in budget and deficit reduction
proposals by opposing cuts in or the elimination of effective services, while
supporting expansions necessary to respond to growing need.

Prevent damaging structural changes in essential programs – changes such
as block-granting Medicaid and degrading Medicare by converting its benefits
to fixed vouchers whose purchasing power shrinks over time.

Support deficit reduction plans that include major additional revenues
drawn from equitable sources and that eliminate corporate tax loopholes. This
includes the recent call by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to divert the
money we are spending on wars to domestic needs and to the rebuilding of our
cities. (

Oppose rules and statutory changes that favor tax cuts over important
domestic investments.

A central problem in this Great Recession is a crisis of economic
inequality where the share of income for the wealthiest 1% of our state’s residents
has grown from 10% in 1980 to 35%. Just here in Westchester, The
Westchester Coalition for Hunger and Homelessness reports a 30-percent increase in
the number of people seeking food and shelter during 2010. Many of these
people are professionals laid off from their jobs and whose unemployment
benefits have expired or are insufficient to feed their families.

Rather than the cuts being debated in Congress, attention must be given to
strengthening these programs that are sustaining our economy and families.
To that end, we hope you will support the People's Budget developed by the
Congressional Progressive Caucus.

We cannot leave so many with so little means to participate in our economy
and expect the nation to be able to move forward. We are counting on your
support.

Sincerely,