April 25 Program: “June 17 is the 40th Birthday of the War on Drugs—What You Can Do to End 40 Years of Failure”

Monday, April 25, 2011

11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Miyama Main Hall, Harris United Methodist Church

Nuuanu Ave. and South Vineyard Blvd.

Ample parking - driveway off Nuuanu Ave.

Agenda:

11:30 Luncheon: Various Pizzas, Salad, and Dessert  by Lyn Moku—$5.00 Donation

11:45   Welcome, Introductions and Remarks, Larry Geller, President

12:00 Program:   “June 17 is the 40th Birthday of the War on   Drugs—What You  Can Do to End 40 Years of Failure” Guest Speaker Jeanne Ohta, Executive Director, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii

12:20 Questions and Answers

1:00 Adjourn 

Republicans aim big guns at Medicare and Medicaid

by Larry Geller

This tweet just in, from Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner

If this guy is scared, I figure I should be scared. Checking it out, I found this headline story from this morning’s Democracy Now:

GOP Proposes Sweeping Changes to Medicare & Medicaid

In news from Capitol Hill, Republican House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan is set to outline a budget plan today that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending over the next decade and make sweeping changes to the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. Medicare now pays most of the healthcare bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans. The Wall Street Journal reports Ryan’s plan would essentially end Medicare as a program that directly pays those bills. Healthcare advocates say the proposal would shift more healthcare costs to older Americans, while the block grant proposal for Medicaid would lead to reduced benefits and make fewer people eligible for the program. Ryan appeared on Fox News Sunday this week.

Rep. Paul Ryan: "Medicare itself, literally, crowds out all other government spending at the end of the day. We can’t sustain that. We have got to get Medicare solvent."

The original content of this program is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

They say that “seniors vote.” It seems that just voting may not be enough. Without action between elections, those that we have put in office will take away everything we have.