"clamnebula" wrote in message
...
Date: Sun Apr 25, 2004 12:29 pm
Subject: HAVE THEY NO SOULS OR BASIC MORALITY

http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i4retirees.htm

HAVE THEY NO SOULS OR BASIC MORALITY?
Republicans Unanimously Vote To Allow Employers To Rip Promised Retiree
Health
Benefits Out From Under Everyone's Nose
by John S. Ashton

APRIL 23, 2004 - "Retirees who qualify for Medicare would see their health
benefits cut or eliminated under a proposal approved Thursday by the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission.

"The commission voted 3 to 1 in approval of the proposed rule, with three
Republicans in favor and one Democrat opposing it."

So reports CBS News (see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in613305.shtml )

This election is about morality, plain and simple. The Republican Party
has
entirely lost its conscience. Promised, expected retiree health benefits
are one
of the most vital things a person depends on. Currently it is illegal for
companies to go back on their word and eliminate them. The Republicans -
unanimously - want to change that, allowing any employer who feels like it
to
simply go back on their word.

What employer won't? In an age when "cost cutting" and "downsizing" has
squeezed
current workers without mercy or morals while executive compensation has
grown
exponentially, there is no incentive at all for companies - en masse - to
not
choose to go back on their word and eliminate the health care benefits so
many
depend on or were planning on. There is no downside for the companies -
what can
a retiree do, quit in protest when they don't even work for the company?

Today, the 3 Republicans appointed by President Bush to a board that
exists not
to deal with healthcare in the first place but only discrimination in the
workplace had no problem, no moral values whatsoever, to stand in the way
of
them using what is supposed to be a minority protecting entity for the
sake of
assaulting the basic safety and security of millions upon millions and
Americans - all for the sake of corporate profits.

The EEOC. This is the tool that President Bush used to attack all retired
or
retiring Americans who had counted on promised health benefits, this is
the tool
that President Bush is using to stick America with something our elected
officials in the Congress just voted down.

As CBS reports, ".the new rule is identical to Section 631 of the Senate's
version of the Medicare Rx bill, which was killed by Congress "after
hearing
from tens of thousands of AARP members."

But President Bush doesn't care about the will of the people and the votes
of
their elected representatives. He has no moral code and doesn't value
either any
American people or democracy. Coldly and entirely without conscience, he
moved
against the will of the people to rip the health coverage away from a
seventy
year old woman being treated for cancer, an eighty year old man with a
heart
ailment, men and women with diabetes - suddenly, they'll lose their
coverage.
And the President was so determined to commit this horrible atrocity
against
millions of Americans that he went around Congress and used what is
supposed to
be a commission that protects workers from racism and discrimination to
commit
his entirely amoral, coldly brutal ends.

As CBS reports, "Unfortunately, the EEOC has turned a deaf ear to those
same
concerns and is now trying to accomplish through the backdoor what
Congress
refused to do directly in the law." The EEOC commission appointed by
President
Bush.


You left out some pertinent details, why am I not surprised.


"Such benefits are provided on a voluntary basis at the discretion of each
employer and the Commission is acting to preserve these valuable benefits
for retirees," Commission Chair Cari Dominguez, a Republican, said in a
statement.

The Times reports that several commission members argued that employers are
more likely to continue providing health benefits to retirees under 65 if
they are allowed to reduce or eliminate benefits for those 65 and older.

The rule change has the backing of the American Benefits Council - a trade
group representing large employers - as well as the National Education
Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

The language of the rule adopted by the panel says that it "is not intended
to encourage employers to eliminate any retiree health benefits they may
currently provide."

Before it becomes final, the proposed rule must go through further review by
federal agencies and the White House Office of Management and Budget.



Another example of why no good American, why no one who believes in
Democracy,
why no one with even the most basic moral values, can support President
Bush and
his brand of Bush/Limbaugh Republican scum.


Another excample of how democrats lie and distort.



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