9
7
5
From the time she entered Congress through the present,
Halliburton Democrat Marcy Kaptur has continued along a path towards ending
Social Security.
In 1983, Marcy Kaptur entered Congress ready and determined to undermine the senior citizens in her district and she hit them square between the eyes before they even knew what had happened. As one of her first votes she stood alongside Dick Cheney in pushing through the largest cut in Social Security in American history (HR 1900, 1983). Kaptur's and Cheney's votes cost millions of workers all or most of their Social Security, As time has shown, that vote was just the start of Kaptur's sticking it to the seniors and American workers.
In Kaptur's first strike against American laborers, those hardest hit were U.S. Postal Workers. At that time, the Post Office was the largest single employer in the United States. Let's look at how Kaptur's actions affected real people. Esther, a typical senior working for the Post office, saw her Social Security go overnight from an amount that would have helped with her retirement to zero in the event of retirement. Esther was a lifelong Democrat, who had raised a family and spent much of her life helping those less fortunate. Her vacations were arranged around church conventions, where she practiced what was then known as Christian charity, supporting causes like peace and helping the poor and sick. Esther had been planning on retiring, but like thousands of other postal workers, who were victims to Kaptur's and Cheney's devastating Social Security cut, Esther had to continue working for as long as long as feasible. Esther continued to labor until after she was 88 years old. But with Kaptur and other opponents of Social Security being unwilling to retract the devastating Social Security cuts they had made, Esther saw her Social Security disappear in a puff of smoke and had to live out her retirement without it.
After that initial vote, Marcy Kaptur continued to assist Dick Cheney's offensive against Social Security. Much of the Bush/Cheney war financing plan was designed to drain the Social Security trust fund so that Congress would have no choice but to lower cost of living increases and raise the Social Security age on the way towards eliminating Social Security altogether. Without this unnecessary looting of the fund, there would never been any reason to worry about Social Security until 2060. However, with Kaptur's consistent votes to use these funds to pay for the Bush/Cheney war offensive, Kaptur played a major role in creating a Social Security crises. This Social Security crises that Kaptur and others created was then used as an excuse to further slash Social Security and to threaten the very future of Social Security.
It is not just Social Security that has been undercut by Marcy Kaptur. She voted to allow corporations to terminate employee pension funds (Roll Call 422, 2006)). With Kaptur's Social Security cuts and her support for corporate termination of pensions, Kaptur is no friend to workers.
Marcy Kaptur acquired her title as a "Halliburton Democrat" by rubber stamping funds for private war contractors, funds that kept Dick Cheney's Halliburton solvent at a time when it was going under. Now, as a result of Kaptur's more than 80 major votes to fund Halliburton and other war profiteers, Halliburton is thriving as the Social Security fund plummets. In turn, many war profiteers are top donors to Kaptur's current re-election campaign. It appears to be a quid pro quo.
Kaptur's priorities of placing war profits over Social Security have paid off lucratively, paying for misleading ads aimed at getting Ohio seniors and workers to vote against their interests. Those ads fail to state that Dennis Kucinich has been the best friend Social Security and the American workers have had, steadfastly refusing to raise the retirement age, refusing to cut cost of living increases, refusing to join Marcy Kaptur in depleting the Social Security fund and especially in refusing to join Kaptur in setting back workers' rights eighty years. Workers have earned their pensions and they need leaders, like Kucinich, who will fight to protect those pensions. Workers have a right to demand that Kaptur turn her donations over to them to replace the pension funds and Social Security funds they've lost, thanks in large part to her.
While Kaptur has been well rewarded for her attacks on Social Security and employee pensions, Dennis Kucinich has to rely on constituents for donations. Fortunately for Kucinich, people are looking at voting records and facts. Kucinich always turns down corporate contributions and this has placed him at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to election funds and ad money. Kucinich is relying on the intelligence of workers and seniors to know who their best friend in Congress is.
Will Ohio's 9th District voters vote their own interests on March 6, 2010 and return Dennis Kucinich to Congress or will they go with the corporate propaganda and return Kaptur on her path towards ending Social Security and terminating remaining workers' rights? Informed citizens hope the answer is another term for Dennis Kucinich. But to win, people will have to walk precincts, show copies of voting records and educate those voters who let high priced campaign ads think for them. March 6th will be a test of the American spirit. As Ohio votes, the prayers of workers across America will be with Dennis Kucinich.
