An injury to all

Social Security and Medicaid are under attack. These are two government programs vital for the working class. They have one important difference. But the defense of both programs should be at the top of the list for the entire working class.

Social Security is known as an “entitlement.” That means it has already been promised to the workers, all the workers, who have made contributions to the program throughout their working life. Almost everyone is included, and everyone believes they deserve the payments.

High-paid workers, even managers, get Social Security pensions. Low-paid workers get enough to survive on, if barely. Dependents, including spouses, get pensions even if the work they did throughout their lives went unpaid—as in raising children. Disabled and injured workers also receive payments. It is an extremely popular program, as Bush is finding out to his dismay as he campaigns to tear it down.

Medicaid pays for health care, but only for the very poor. It has shortcomings, but it is much, much better than what would be available to poor workers if Medicaid were cut. Like welfare—which the Democratic Clinton administration began dismantling in 1996—Medicaid is more vulnerable than Social Security because it aids a smaller and more oppressed population. It has a smaller base of support among the working class.

When a program like Medicaid or welfare is undercut, this smashes down the very poor, including a disproportionate number of people of color. And that eventually drags the entire working class down.

The ruling class has aimed at destroying Social Security ever since the workers won the plan in the 1930s. Bush’s latest scam has the same goal. While pretending he wants to “save Social Security,” he says he needs to lower the payments to all but the very poorest workers.

Can anyone believe that Bush is acting in the interest of the very poor? No way. Just like his scheme to privatize Medi caid, this one aims to wreck it. His plan cuts pensions for the bulk of ordinary workers up to the most affluent.

His goal is to undercut the current, almost universal working-class support for Social Security by dividing the workers, so that the program, like welfare and Medicaid, is more vulnerable. A sign that people are beginning to see through this scam could be seen in the April issue of the American Association of Retired People’s newsletter. The AARP published two major articles, one defending Social Security and one defending Medicaid.

The old union slogan, “An injury to one is an injury to all,” should be on everyone’s mind as they mobilize to defend Social Security and Medicaid for the benefit of the entire working class.