AFSCME retirees and members of a key allied group, the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA), are ramping up their fight to stop Project 2025 and the right-wing effort to destroy Medicare.
Tuesday marks the 59th anniversary of Medicare, the federal government’s cherished health care program for retirees. To mark the occasion, retiree activists gathered on Capitol Hill to spotlight the dangers to Medicare if Project 2025 is implemented. The draconian blueprint for a second Trump term was cooked up by Donald Trump’s advisers and veterans from his disastrous first term.
The activists also protested outside the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation — the think tank that drafted Project 2025.
Thanks to Medicare, 56.6 million Americans aged 65 and older have guaranteed health coverage, according to the ARA. Rather than shoring up this lifesaving program, Project 2025 would tear it down.
“Trump’s Project 2025 threatens our Medicare benefits. We’re not going to let him or his friends at The Heritage Foundation do away with health care that millions of seniors depend on to live. We need to make sure we vote for Kamala Harris,” said Shandala Richburg, a retired corrections worker and president of Maryland Retiree Chapter 1.
If Project 2025 becomes reality, Trump would undo the progress the Biden-Harris administration made in reducing prescription drug costs. He would repeal the $35 per month cap on insulin costs for seniors on Medicare. Trump would also end the government’s ability to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma and end Medicare’s $2,000 per year cap on out-of-pocket drug costs that begins in 2025.
AFSCME Retirees have called attention to these dangers before, but they bear repeating because of the insidious nature of the threat posed by Project 2025.
ARA points out that thanks to the Biden-Harris administration, Medicare covers all recommended vaccines for free, penalizes pharmaceutical companies that raise the price of a drug more than the rate of inflation, and is negotiating lower prices on 10 of the most expensive drugs to help seniors and taxpayers. But all that progress would be in jeopardy if Trump is reelected.
“Project 2025 would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and drastically cut Medicare. The $35 cap on insulin, the $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs, and Medicare’s ability to negotiate for lower drug prices would all disappear. That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris,” said Bette Marafino, a retired community college professor and a member of Connecticut Retiree Chapter 4.
Besides gutting Medicare and causing retirement insecurity for millions of people, Project 2025 — which would outlaw public service unions like AFSCME — contains hundreds of other extreme policy recommendations that would transform the entire federal government. It would gut health care and retirement benefits, destroy public education, wreck the economy, and wreak havoc with reproductive rights and immigration.
The whole project is designed to crush the freedoms of working people and retirees and benefit the wealthy at our expense.
An excellent way to derail this trainwreck of a project is to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, who has AFSCME’s full support. Don’t just stop with Harris. Vote for pro-worker candidates at every level.