Health care union members accuse Pa. chamber of "Scrooging" the ...

A group of union members took A Christmas Carol to the doorstep of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry in Harrisburg today. It wasn't a merry one.

Union members accused the chamber of putting its lobbying weight behind tax and budget cuts they say will amount to a stocking full of coal for middle class Americans who depend on Medicare for health care or who work in hospitals and nursing homes. The enacted a variation on Dickens' famous story and held up signs with statements including "Don't let your Medicare be Scrooged."

The demonstration echoed events being held around the county as Congress faces the "fiscal cliff" of federal spending cuts that will take place Jan. 1 unless Democrats and Republicans strike a deal that likely will require both spending cuts and tax increases.

The protesters were members of the Service Employees International Union, which has many members who work in health care facilities including hospital and nursing homes.

SEIU members said they want Congress to raise taxes on the richest two percent of Americans, and to enact no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. They accused the chamber of protecting the interests of the rich, and acting against the interests of middle class Americans.

"I think it's unfortunate we take such crucial policy issues and reduce them to sophomoric pranks," said chamber President Gene Barr.?

He accused the SEIU of promoting an erroneous idea that the nation's debt and deficit crisis can be solved with higher taxes on the rich and no changes to programs such as Medicare. While he wouldn't specifically state that the chamber would accept higher taxes on the wealthy, he said "income and inequality are an issue" and "we are not opposed to more revenue."

Barr further said that while the chamber doesn't want to take away the Medicare or Social Security of anyone who is already eligible, it's necessary to raise the age when people can begin collecting benefits. "If we don't don't have a serious discussion about what the age should be, we will be in a fiscal pit forever," he said.

Most of the SEIU members were staffers and health care workers with union leadership roles. They were in Harrisburg for a regular SEIU meeting. One of the protestors was Brennan Mills of Harrisburg, who is a certified nurse assistant at a local nursing home. Mills, 65, said she fears changes to Social Security that will prevent her from retiring in the near future.

Scott Young, 56, works in the department that performs MRIs at Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College. He said Medicare cuts would hurt hospitals, and the impacts would include preventing hospitals from giving cost of living increases to employees including him. Most health care workers are in the middle class, and cuts would hurt their ability to spend money and fuel the economic recovery, he said.

Failure by Congress to reach an agreement before Jan. 1 will trigger $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over ten years, and expiration of the George W. Bush tax cuts affecting the middle class and the wealthy. The spending cuts would involve deep reductions to federal programs including defense and health care. Many experts believe it would have a devastating impact on the economy, leading to increased unemployment and recession.

This story has been updated from an earlier version.

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/12/seiu_pennsylvania_chamber_of_b.html

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