$35 dollar cap on Insulin drug prices taken away.
The Affordable Care Act cut back or repealed.
Social Security and Medicare reforms that hurt every day Senior Citizens.
Measures to combat extreme heat and reduce pollution that hurt Seniors stripped away.
Civil Liberties like reproductive freedom gone.
Fascism at our doorsteps with a return of Traitor and 34 Times Convicted Donald ‘I killed Roe v Wade’ and ‘I want to be dictator for a day’ Trump.
That is what Maricopa County Democratic Party Chairperson Patti O’Neal and Dora Vasquez of the Arizona Alliance of Retired Persons (AARA) warned in both prepared comments and questioning could happen if the people did not rally to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November at the Phoenix kickoff of Seniors for Biden/Harris.
At the inaugural event where Seniors gathered at the Biden/Harris campaign offices in midtown Phoenix to have fun playing bingo, Patti O’Neal gave the first remarks to the assembled group reminding them what Donald Trump did during the 2016 campaign with his attacks on the “disabled, prisoners of war, women, and immigrants.”
Saying it was critical to elect Democrats at the local and national level, the Chairperson reminded the senior citizens that Trump and his MAGA supporters in Congress and the Courts will follow through on what they say like when:
- Thanks in part to three Trump Supreme Court picks, they stripped reproductive freedom away after the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade.
- They, in several states, passed legislation that made it harder for people to vote.
- They announce plans, like Florida Senator Rick Scott, to “cut back Medicare and Social Security.”
After equating Trump with former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, she finished those comments by saying they should “take him (Trump) at his word. Another four years of Trump would have negative consequences.”
In a call to action to “all of us have many years of experience in this room,” she said, “think of what we can do with all that time and talent…for the future of America, it is now…We may just be able to save Social Security and Medicare for years to come to do that. We need to return President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris…”
Later in one on one questioning, Chairperson O’ Neil said she was worried for seniors currently enrolled and about to sign up for Social Security and Medicare if Donald Trump returns to office, saying “we’re talking about people’s lives here. This is a life and death situation.”
She also said that this election was a crossroads for the American Ideal, saying “Fascism is at its doorstep and they (Trump and his MAGA supporters) want to strip us of our rights and we’ve already seen it with women’s rights and their right to choose. Also immigrants and immigration. I think they just keep targeting people that are brown and black communities as well.”
Executive Director Vasquez spoke next, saying right away to the group assembled “we all know what’s at stake for seniors in Arizona this election. There are two roads before us. This could not be any clearer. We either reelect President Biden who will support our older Arizonans or we send Donald Trump back to the White House to gut the benefits and Health Care millions of seniors in America need and deserve.”
Ms. Vasquez then reminded the seniors what the Biden/Harris Administration has done for senior health care like expanding the Affordable Care Act, capping insulin prescription costs at $35.00 per purchase, taking on the pharmaceutical companies, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.
She said that while President Biden worked “to lower healthcare costs for seniors, Donald Trump only cares about helping himself and his ultra wealthy friends” and Trump could “leave millions of seniors with fewer benefits…In Trump’s America corporations win while seniors and their families lose... If Trump gets his way health care costs, higher prescription drug costs, and out of pocket expenses would go up for all especially seniors. He will gut protections for more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions like cancer asthma and diabetes.
Noting that “this cost saving (like the insulin prescription benefit and expanded subsidies for ACA) makes all the difference in the world for seniors who are on fixed incomes and may rely only on social security for income,” the Executive Director said that “because of President Biden, more Americans have health care insurance than any other President driving record low uninsured rates particularly for many who faced Health disparities in communities of color.”
Ms. Vasquez closed by stating:
“I will not stand by while Donald Trump tries to undo all this progress. Donald Trump wants to raise costs and strip away affordable health healthcare for thousands of arizonans. And I have a message for Donald Trump. Hands off our Healthcare and Medicare (there was a lot of applause after that sentence.)”
“We have a choice this November. Arizona’s voters will choose the candidate who has lowered health care costs for seniors and protected ACA for our children and our grandchildren... This race is tight and there’s a margin of error just like 2020. So that’s why we need to get out…So join me in working to re-elect Joe Biden together. We can finally reject the man who keeps sighting with his big Pharma donors while jacking up the prices for seniors and community. I’m all in for Joe Biden because I know he’s fighting for us and I hope you will join.”
Later in one on one questioning, Executive Vasquez also voiced concerns that a Trump return would mean for seniors with the repeal of the combating climate change provisions to the Inflation Reduction Act, saying:
“The climate investments in clean energy (in the Inflation Reduction Act) and that impacts our health and we will lose all of that (if Trump wins.) Air pollution in Arizona is at its worst. And we have asthma and other health conditions that it’s going to be a nightmare if we don’t continue under the Biden Administration.”
“One my other greatest fears that they will repeal the provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that have brought us clean energy savings from the Inflation Reduction Act… Funding for states to have grants like Solar for All and now we’re working on the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant that will help with the ozone layer that we live in and help people with weatherization assistance programs. Last year, 645 people in Maricopa County died from extreme heat related injuries. Over half of them were over the age of 50. I’m so afraid that if we go back to a Trump Administration, we will lose all that funding that will protect people from climate change.”
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