DNC - Seniors and Retirees

$2 Trillion in Retirement Accounts Lost

This afternoon, the Associated Press reported that retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion in the last 15 months.

Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday. [...]

As Congress investigates the causes and effects of the financial meltdown, the House Education and Labor Committee was hearing from retirement savings and budget analysts on how the housing, credit and other financial troubles have battered pensions and other retirement funds, which are among the most common forms of savings in the United States.

"Unlike Wall Street executives, America's families don't have a golden parachute to fall back on," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the panel chairman. "It's clear that their retirement security may be one of the greatest casualties of this financial crisis."

Yet, John McCain stlil wants to privatize Social Security.

And while Sarah Palin is in Florida promising that John McCain will "protect' entitlement programs, his economic advisers are telling the press that there will be massive cuts into Medicare and Medicaid. Perhaps she hadn't read in the newspapers her what her campaign wants to do just yet.

Categories: Democratic Party News

Dow Plummets to Lowest Point Since 2004

This weekend, campaign advisers to John McCain say they want to "turn the page" on the economic crisis and explore new depths of dishonorable and sleazy campaigning. This morning, the Dow Jones sank below 10,000 points for the first time in four years.

Wall Street joined a “selloff around the world” today, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 400 points and falling to below 10,000 for the first time in four years. As the AP reports, the “markets have come to the sobering realization that the Bush administration’s $700 billion rescue plan won’t work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets, and that many banks are still having difficulty gaining access to cash.”

Think about it -- while untold thousands of Americans lose their life savings or retirement funds because of the greed of Wall Street, John McCain wants to "turn the page" on the financial crisis.

Then again, we've seen this before from John McCain. He knows a thing or two about thousands of Americans losing their life savings.

Categories: Democratic Party News

John McCain: A Risk We Cannot Afford to Take

John McCain says he wants to deregulate the healthcare industry just like he and his allies like Phil Gramm did to the banking industry. Watch this latest advertisement from the Obama campaign:

Categories: Democratic Party News

GOP Dirty Tricks in Florida

A new presidential election cycle, same old, Republican dirty tricks. It appears John McCain's deception infects every part of his campaign. Tampa Tribune:

Staff at the Hillsborough County Democratic Party offices in Tampa have been getting barraged with phone calls from party members who have received what they say are deceptive mailers.

Some of the mailers sought support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain; others simply asked for a donation to the Republican National Committee. Most of the voters who have received them are elderly and registered Democrats, local party officials said.

"I still don't understand their angle," said Michael Steinberg, the county Democratic Party's executive committee chairman. "Frankly, it doesn't really make any sense."

One possibility, he suggested, was "vote caging." By sending the mailings to registered voters in envelopes that can't be forwarded, groups can compile lists of voters who might have moved or are part-time residents. Those lists could then be used to challenge the voters' registration and prevent their absentee ballots from being counted in the general election.

An editorial in the St. Petersburg Times calls the mailings some of the "sleaziest campaign tactics."

It apparently uses incorrect or fraudulent voter identification numbers, and it arrives on official-looking forms titled "voter registration tracking forms.'' One of its devious aims appears to be to build lists to challenge the eligibility of legitimate voters. Such an effort to confuse older voters is contemptible, and McCain should denounce it.

Categories: Democratic Party News