Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been attacking the Obama administration for “cutting” Medicare, and Romney has promised to restore these cuts. While Romney is saying that he will protect Medicare, in fact he is protecting health insurance companies, while out-of-pocket costs for seniors will go up.

In April of 2012, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) did a report on the impact of Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal, which was later passed by the House of Representatives, on health care. An analysis of the CBO report by Fight Back! shows that this plan would shift the burden of health care to poor, elderly and disabled people. This would cause millions of poor, seniors and disabled people to lose insurance and it would cause millions to pay much more for health care.

Another reason to march on the RNC

San Francisco, CA – While millions of retired Americans are struggling to make ends meet and millions more working people who have been laid off don’t know how or if they can ever afford to retire, laid-off corporate executives are living in another world. Take General Electric Vice-Chairman John Krenicki, who is 50 years old and retiring at the end of 2012 because of GE’s restructuring plans. GE will be paying him $89,000 a month for the next ten years (about a million dollars a year, or $10 million total), after which he can receive GE’s executive pension. In addition, Krenicki is getting stock options and stock valued at almost $15 million, and a bonus of almost $3 million, for a total golden parachute worth almost $28 million. In exchange, Krenicki promised GE that he wouldn’t work for a competitor for three years.

Another reason to march on the RNC

San Francisco, CA – While millions of retired Americans are struggling to make ends meet and millions more working people who have been laid off don’t know how or if they can ever afford to retire, laid-off corporate executives are living in another world. Take General Electric Vice-Chairman John Krenicki, who is 50 years old and retiring at the end of 2012 because of GE’s restructuring plans. GE will be paying him $89,000 a month for the next ten years (about a million dollars a year, or $10 million total), after which he can receive GE’s executive pension. In addition, Krenicki is getting stock options and stock valued at almost $15 million, and a bonus of almost $3 million, for a total golden parachute worth almost $28 million. In exchange, Krenicki promised GE that he wouldn’t work for a competitor for three years.

San José, CA – On July 6, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that only 80,000 net new jobs were created in June. This was less than most mainstream economists predicted and far less than what is needed to put the millions of unemployed back to work. So it was no surprise that the official unemployment rate stayed the same from May to June, at 8.2%.

Most of the countries in the euro-zone, which includes most of the major economies of Europe (Great Britain and Switzerland being two notable exceptions), are now in a recession. The zone’s largest economy, Germany, is rapidly slowing. This growing crisis of overproduction among the capitalist economies of Europe is having a worldwide impact, with Asian economies and the U.S. being affected by slowing trade and growing fears of another financial crisis.

On June 1, the Labor Department reported that only 69,000 net new jobs were created in May, less than half of what economists had expected and less than a third of the relatively strong job growth of the December through February period. Immediately the Republicans and the Romney campaign blamed President Obama and his policies, especially the health care reform act. The Democrats and the Obama administration quickly fired back, blaming the Republicans for blocking their economic stimulus proposals in Congress.

San José, CA – On June 1, the Department of Labor released its monthly report on unemployment and employment for May, 2012. The report said that only 69,000 jobs were added in the U.S. economy in May, less than half of what professional economists had been predicting. Even worse, the report revised earlier estimates of job growth in March and April down by another 49,000 jobs.

San José, CA – In the first five months of this year, more than 400,000 jobless workers have been cut from collecting unemployment insurance benefits under the Federal Extended Benefits (EB) program. Another 100,000 will also lose their benefits when the EB program ends at the end of May, bringing the total to more than a half million unemployed who will be losing their benefits.

San José, CA – On Feb. 29, federal Extended Unemployment Insurance benefits will end unless Congress agrees to continue the program. Republicans in Congress are threatening to block the extension unless they are able to cut benefits and make federal workers pay for the cost of the program.

San José, CA – On Dec. 22, the leadership of the Republicans in the House of Representatives said that they would sign on to a bipartisan compromise to renew federal Unemployment Insurance benefits. This compromise had passed the Senate by an 89-10 vote earlier in the week. The House Republican action came after intense pressure from the unemployed, Democratic politicians and even Republican Senators after the House of Representatives had voted down the compromise bill on a 229-193 vote on Dec. 20.

San José, CA – On Dec. 9, Republican Congressman Dave Camp of Michigan introduced a bill, H.R. 3630, that would cut federal extended unemployment insurance benefits from a maximum of 73 weeks to only 33 weeks. In addition, the bill allows for a number of new hoops for jobless workers to jump through in order to get unemployment insurance benefits, including mandatory drug testing.

San José, CA – On Friday, Dec. 2, the U.S. Department of Labor said that the official unemployment rate fell to 8.6% in November, from 9.0% in October. Despite being the lowest unemployment rate since March of 2009, the fall in the unemployment rate was mainly due to the more than 400,000 jobless workers who gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

St. Paul, MN – Chanting “Money for human needs, not for stadiums,” members of the Welfare Rights Committee, the Minnesota Coalition for a Peoples' Bailout and supporters from OccupyMN gathered outside Senate Taxes and Local Government and Elections committee hearing, Nov. 29, at the State Capitol building. The committee was holding an informational hearing on proposals to build a new stadium complex for the Minnesota Vikings football team owner – a New Jersey real estate developer named Zygi Wilf.

_Second of four-part series _

Editor’s note: This is the second article of a four-article series. The first article was titled, “ Who are the one percent?” This article describes the working class, who make up most of the 99%. The next article will be about the rest of the 99% who aren’t part of the working class. The last article will talk about how the history of racism and national oppression is important to understanding what is behind the 1%-99% divide and how the 1% enriches itself while maintaining its privilege and power.

On Dec. 31, funding for extended federal Unemployment Insurance will expire. If funding is not renewed, almost 2 million jobless workers will be cut off from their benefits in January and almost 4 million more will lose their benefits by the end of May, 2012 – all at a time where the official unemployment rate is still 9%.

Minneapolis, MN – About 800 people blocked a major bridge here, Nov. 17 in a march demanding jobs. Police declared the protest to be an unlawful assembly and arrested 11 people who sat down in an act of civil disobedience. The 10th Avenue Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River, was closed for about an hour.

Milwaukee, WI – Protesters in Milwaukee occupied a bridge here, Nov. 17, as similar actions took place across the country. Roughly 200 people gathered in Carver Park in a working-class Milwaukee neighborhood, then marched to the Highway 43 bridge, where they met with about 100 other protesters intent on civil disobedience.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 union activists, as well as OccupyMN participants and others, rallied outside the University of Minnesota’s McNamara Alumni Center on Nov. 8 to protest a speech by Wells Fargo CEO Jon Stumpf.

Minneapolis, MN – Following a march on the banks here, October 29, more than 40 people attended a teach-in organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Entitled, “How capitalism works, and why it doesn’t work for the 99%,” the event brought together activists for a serious discussion on what is wrong with the capitalist system.