Lawmakers, Citizens Ask Super Committee To Wake Up

U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Rep Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) led an event on Thursday in which hundreds of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries gathered together to ask the Super Committee to “wake up” and take entitlement programs off the table.

“This country in fact does have a serious deficit problem but the reality is that the deficit was caused by two wars unpaid for, it was caused by huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in the country, it was caused by a recession as a result of the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street,” Sanders declared at the event.”If those are the causes of the deficit and the national debt, I will be damned if we will balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor. That’s wrong.”

Along with the lawmakers who called on the Super Committee to stay away from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts, community leaders related their personal stories and struggles and how Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts would affect them.

“I want a country that rich people can care about people and not only about profits and that means not cutting Social Security, not cutting Medicare and not cutting Medicaid,” Vermont native Virginia Humphrey passionately stated before the crowd. “I want Congress to wake up.”

As the event ended audience members began to chant, “We are the 99%”  and revealed their plan to deliver alarm clocks to Super Committee members’ offices to symbolize their campaign for Congress to wake up.

PICO National Network led a group of around 50 individuals to Super Committee member Senator John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) office with alarm clocks ringing in their hands as they chanted “Hey Kerry, Wake Up.” 

The Super Committee’s deadline to cut $1.2 trillion from the nation’s budget by November 23 is fast approaching.