A New Year's Resolution

 

From http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

With the beginning of a new year, most of us are making resolutions. Like the denizens of Sesame Street, we all want to become smarter, stronger, and kinder in 2018. New Year's Resolutions are nothing new. Historians have traced the practice back at least 4,000 years, to the ancient Babylonians

I recently became aware of a list of New Year's Resolutions written by one of my heroes, folksinger Woody Guthrie. This icon in the battle for economic justice and equality wasn't highly-educated. However, he was very smart. The two pages pictured above were written by Guthrie as "New Years Rulin's" on January 1, 1943, while living in New York City:

1. Work more and better                    18. Stay glad 
2. Work by a schedule                       19. Keep hoping machine running  
3. Wash teeth if any                           20. Dream good
4. Shave                                             21. Bank all extra money
5. Take bath                                       22. Save dough 
6. Eat good (fruit, vegetables, milk)   23. Have company but don't waste time 
7. Drink very scant if any                   24. Send Mary and kids money
8. Write a song a day                         25. Play and sing good  
9. Wear clean clothes - look good      26. Dance better
10. Shine shoes                                  27. Help win war - beat fascism  
11. Change socks                               28. Love mama  
12. Change bed clothes often             29. Love papa  
13. Read lots good books                   30. Love Pete  
14. Listen to radio a lot                       31. Love everybody
15. Learn people better                       32. Make up your mind                                    
16. Keep rancho clean                        33. Wake up and fight 
17. Don't get lonesome                      
 
Many of Guthrie's folksy resolutions concern person hygiene (such as take bath, shave, change socks, and wash teeth-if any). Some are aimed at improving his personal relationships (love mama & papa, learn people better). Others try to improve his finances (save dough, bank all extra money) or his psyche (read lots good books, dream good, keep hoping machine running). All of us could stand some improvement in these areas.

But Woody leaves the most important resolution for last-"Wake-up and fight!". Woody certainly followed his own advice. His lifetime was spent fighting for workers, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. This should also be the most important resolution for all progressives in 2018. We must "wake-up and fight". We have huge battles facing us at the local, state, and national levels.

In Wisconsin, we must restore balance to our Supreme Court. We must take back the Governor and Attorney-General offices. Like our Virginian brothers and sisters, we need to contest every legislative election in an attempt to regain progressive majorities in Madison.

If we intend to make Wisconsin a place to be proud of again, we need to help elect people who will make drastic changes in how our state is run. We need common sense gun laws and common sense environmental protections. We need policies that increase workers' salaries instead of cutting them. We need to improve public schools and reject school privatization. We need to defend reproductive rights.

On the national level, we must fight each and every regressive policy coming from the tantrum-prone toddler who occupies the Oval Office. We must return to net neutrality. We must reject a return to harsh marijuana law enforcement. We must push for a sane foreign policy. We must rejoin with the rest of the world to fight global heating.

We must continue to resist the efforts of Congress to steal healthcare from Americans. We must enact DACA into law. We must defend Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. We must stand-up against attacks on unions, the environment, and women.

We can only be successful at the national level if we re-take the House and the Senate. For our part, we have to defend Tammy Baldwin's Senate seat and make progressive gains in Wisconsin's House delegation.

If he was still alive, Woody Guthrie would be with us in our 2018 struggle. After all, he wrote a song in the early 1950's, protesting the discriminatory renting policies of Fred Trump, the Orange Dotard's father. Woody would certainly be leading the resistance against the administration of Fred's racist son.

Like Woody Guthrie, we must keep our "hoping machine" running. 2018 needs a strong effort from each and every one of us. We must all make a resolution to be active in campaigns, donate what we can, march, and call our Congresspeople in 2018. We must all "Wake-up and fight !".

With continued hard work and luck, we will win. If we all resolve to put-in our best efforts in 2018, we will prevail. We will take back our state and our country. As the lyrics to one of Woody's best songs promise, "There's a better world that's a-coming !"

Who Will Defend Social Security and Medicare?

The GOP scheme to give giant tax cuts to billionaires and corporations is well on its way to becoming law. The plan will blow an unprecedented $1.4 trillion hole in the National Debt. In order to make-up for the Republican largess to their rich donors, huge automatic cuts in spending will likely kick-in. An estimated $25 billion per year will be taken from Medicare alone.

But that is not enough punishment for those retired or near retirement. After finishing their job of enacting the largest ever transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich, Republicans will just be hitting their stride. Next on their agenda? A total and complete gutting of both Social Security and Medicare.

Much buzz has been made over Paul Ryan's interview yesterday on Denver right-wing radio. Most of the conversation centered on Ryan's next plans for his GOP majority. Ryan boasted, “We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit. ... Frankly, it's the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the healthcare entitlements — because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking.”

The interviewer asked if Ryan was making an impact on Trump when talking to him about the importance of Medicare "reform". Ryan responded, "This is my big thing for many, many years. I think its the biggest "entitlement" that's got to have reform."

It is no big surprise that, with Republicans now in power, Ryan plans to gut the Social Security and Medicare benefits you have earned. After all, this has been a central feature of Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" manifestos for years. In these documents, Ryan has advocated the privatization of Social Security and replacing Medicare with discount coupons for private insurance. 

Ryan claims that even as a college student, he was dreaming about gutting the safety net. While everyone around him was thinking about dating and classes and parties, young Paul was pondering the block-granting of Medicaid. He was wondering how he could deny healthcare to millions of Americans.

But Ryan cannot destroy Social Security and Medicare all by himself. He needs the complicity of the entire Republican Party. How does the rest of the Wisconsin Congressional delegation feel about taking a wrecking-ball to your retirement security? Do they share in Ryan's youthful fantasy?

Certainly, Jim Sensenbrenner is on-board. In a 2016 statement, he said, "Every day that goes by, the situation grows worse and will require more drastic changes to the Social Security and Medicare programs. The time to act is now. The health and security of all Americans depend on it.”
 
Sensenbrenner's record on the two crucial programs for retirees leaves something to be desired. He has earned an abysmal 5% Lifetime Rating from the Alliance for Retired Americans (AFRA). Jim got a "thumbs down" rating on 10 of 11 key Medicare votes, as reported by MedicareVotes.org. He is certainly not an advocate for his district's older constituents.

Glenn Grothman is no better on strengthening these programs for retired Americans. He has a 0% lifetime rating from the AFRA and "thumbs down" on all three of his three key Medicare votes.

Senator Ron Johnson just admitted that he is OK with adding 2 to 3 trillion dollars to the National Debt to fund GOP tax cuts for the wealthy. Yet, he claims that we cannot afford the programs that keep so many of our elderly out of poverty. He famously compared Social Security to a giant Ponzi scheme. He voted for Paul Ryan's plot to turn Medicare into a discount coupon plan. Johnson has certainly earned his failing 2% lifetime rating from the AFRA.

In stark contrast, Senator Tammy Baldwin and Representatives Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan, and Ron Kind have earned 100%, 100%, 100%, and 89% Lifetime ratings, respectively from the AFRA. The four Democrats in Wisconsin's Congressional delegation are 7/7, 9/10, 4/5, and 10/11 for "thumbs up" on key Medicare votes since 2003. Wisconsin Democrats stand with our state's seniors.

There is no more clear cut difference between the two major parties than on Social Security and Medicare policy. Wisconsin Congressional Democrats consistently vote to preserve the programs, while state Republicans vote to demolish them. We know which party is looking-out for the interests of retired Wisconsinites and those who plan to retire someday. We know which party's candidates deserve to be sent to Washington in 2018.