The Hill News

Cutting the health and retirement benefits Americans have earned over a lifetime of hard work is no way to reduce our nation’s budget deficit. We wish to emphasize a point that has been overlooked during this debate on the debt: without programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, millions of middle-class and low-income Americans would be one illness away from bankruptcy or one stock market slide away from poverty.
 
We lead organizations representing the most diverse cross-sections of America â€" in age, race, income and disability status â€" and have watched with growing concern as politicians in Washington consider harmful cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid instead of cutting wasteful spending and closing tax loopholes to lower our budget deficit.
 
Trying to balance the budget with across-the-board cuts to Social Security and Medicare would undermine the security that is so important to middle class families. And wholesale ! changes to Medicaid would hit the elderly, children, the poor and individuals with disabilities hardest â€" exacerbating the already tragic lingering economic impact the recession has had on these communities.
 
These proposals represent a giant step backward from basic American values of fairness and hard work.

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