BY: Delegates Bonita Maxon (RC 10) and Jeanne Bennett (RC 12)
The theme of the Convention and the upcoming year:
Total reported delegates and alternates to the convention: 3,428
Total delegates who reported onsite: 2,447
Total alternates who reported onsite: 32
Total all other registrants: 805
Election Results
President- Randi Weingarten 746,451
Secretary-Treas.- Loretta Johnson 747,655
Ex. Vice Pres-Mary Cathryn Ricker 747,930
July 12—Retiree Leaders Conference
We started by attending the general session which discussed How to Win Elections in Red Districts presented by John Ost, Director, AFT Political Department. He emphasized three goals for this November’s elections. They are:
- Restore power to working people
- Put a check on Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos
- Take at least one house of Congress and win Governors’ races. 50% of AFT members live in states with Republican governors.
Since Trump’s election, 44 state legislative seats have flipped from red to blue.
Recent polls and elections have shown:
- Voters are supporting labor issues, education, student debt, health care, and infrastructure projects.
- Local issues matter. For example, one Virginia candidate won on the issue of potholes and traffic.
- Millennials are very influenced by gun issues and immigration, but many have not voted.
The #1 issue for both Republicans and Democrats is the cost of healthcare. When healthcare costs go up, wages go down.
The tax cut plan gave huge amounts of money to corporations, but pharmaceutical companies raised prices. Similarly, insurance companies took the tax cut and raised premiums.
Goal: The goal is not to just win one seat in the US Senate, but we need to actually win two to gain control. Similarly, in the US House of Representatives, we don’t need to win 22 seats; we need to win 23 for control.
Social Security and Medicare: Keeping the Safety Net Secure
The presentation was given by Shaun O’Brien, Assistant Director for Health and Retirement, Policy Department, AFL-CIO.
Do we have a retirement security problem? Absolutely! A large share of working-age people is at risk of not being able to maintain their standard of living in retirement. In the private sector, just 16% of employees have a pension. 50% of retirees have income that comes solely from Social Security.
Pst to retirement age have any retirement savings, and among them, the typical family has $120,000 in savings which amounts to about $400 per month in retirement. IRA’s, ROTH accounts, and 401-K are not doing the job.
Social Security is not universal. Some jobs do not pay into Social Security, and one-fourth of public employees do not get Social Security or only receive modified Social Security.
Who receives Social Security?
- 4.2 million kids
- 4.1 million widows/widowers
- 42.4 million retirees
Half a million children/adults receive Social Security and are identified before age 21.
Both Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio have publically stated that Medicare and Medicaid need to be cut. Proposals have been discussed to tear the current system apart brick by brick. One way to do this is to privatize Social Security. Another way is to raise the full retirement age beyond 67. Lastly, there are proposals to cut the annual COLA.
How can we maintain and improve our Social Security System?
- Have millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share so that everyone pays into the system at the same rate (i.e. take off the cap which is $128,000 currently).
- Improve retirement security by expanding benefits. For example, in many cases, the oldest of the old have gone through their savings and need extra money.
- A surcharge on total income could be added. Many of the wealthy do not receive wages. They get stock options instead. FICA is only paid on wages, not on stock benefits.
Do we have a health care problem?
The United States has a health care problem, but it doesn’t have a Medicare problem; $17.90 out of every $100 goes to health care. Are we using too much health care? No. Are we getting better health care for our money? No, actually, the reverse is true. For example, look at infant mortality rates. Are we paying higher prices for care? Yes, we are. For example, bypass surgery in the United States costs twice the amount (i.e. $40,000 more) than bypass surgery in Switzerland. In 2014, the cost of Humira (a rheumatoid arthritis drug) in the United Kingdom was $1,300. In the United States, it was $2,700.
Who benefits from Medicare?
- 49.8 million people who are 65 and older
- 8.8 people with disabilities
- 500,000 people with end-stage renal disease (kidney failure)
Health care costs are going up faster than Medicare benefits. What are the choices we face with Medicare?
- Lower excess prices by requiring Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for the lowest possible prices.
- Change how we deliver and pay for care to improve efficiency and quality to reduce costs. For example, have accountable care organizations, all-payer rates, value-based purchasing.
- Cut benefits and shift costs to patients. Ways this can be done include: raising the age, implementing vouchers (vouchers are a set amount of money so they do not grow in value), privatizing it, increasing premiums, and high out of pocket costs.
The third and final seminar we attended was New Tax Laws—How They Impact Retirees
The presentation was given by Michael Piccinelli, Senior Associate, AFT Research and Strategic Initiative Department
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the new tax plan will add over one trillion dollars to the deficit over 10 years. The Trump budget proposed $1.7 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, disability programs, education, SNAP (children’s nutrition), and other vital services in the last budget that he submitted to Congress.
A major change to Education and Health Care Policy includes the expansion of the 529 College Savings program. Formerly, this was for college expenses. Now, it has been expanded to include K-12 private school tuition and expenses. Tuition for religious schools is included as well. This is really a back-door voucher plan, and it benefits the wealthy far more than the middle and lower classes. It will funnel money to fund private schools and take money away from public education.
How will the new tax plan effect corporations and the top 1%?
- There is a new 20% deduction on the income of certain pass-through-businesses. Pass-through-companies were defined as LLC’s, Koch industries, etc. This plan will not help your local dentist or small business person.
- There is a big corporate tax rate cut.
- It will increase the initial exemption for the estate tax to $11 million.
- It lowers personal income tax rates, too.
This is not good for the funding of public schools or public services (ex. police, firefighters, EMT’s, etc.), nor is it fair taxation. How will the tax plan effect individuals?
- It doubles the standard deduction and eliminates personal and dependent exemptions.
- The standard deduction amounts increase to $12,000 for individuals, $18,000 for heads of households, $24,000 for married and jointly filing and for surviving spouses.
- If you are 64 or older, blind or disabled, you can tack $1,300 on to your deduction.
- 7.5% AGI can be deducted for medical expenses, but this ends on January 1, 2019. There is a cap on state and local tax deductions. Taxpayers who itemize can only deduct their state individual income, sales and property taxes up to a limit of $10,000 in total starting in 2018.
- Itemized deductions will be repealed in 2025.
However, as you read the above, keep in mind that the IRS doesn’t even have a full-time commissioner. This tax plan is discriminatory to states that fund health care and education. However, many questions are unanswered at this time since the new tax laws are unclear.
The average tax cut in 2019 will be:
$100 for the poorest 20%
$400 for the next 20%
$800 for the middle 20%
$1,400 for the next 20%
$2,770 for the next 15%
$12,470 for the next 4%
$55,190 for the top 1%
As you can see, the lower personal income tax rates benefit the rich or the 1% instead of the average person.
Forbes magazine stated, “On average, high-income seniors will receive a substantial tax cut, while those with low and moderate incomes will pay roughly the same in taxes as they do today."
The projected deficit of the tax cut will trigger automatic spending cuts without additional Congressional action in many mandatory federal programs, including Medicare.
Throughout the entire presentation, it was emphasized that all of this could change or be repealed. Again this points to the importance of the outcomes of the November elections.
On Saturday morning we heard how the opioid crisis affects all AFT members, whether they are health professionals, educators or public employees, and learned more about ways to address the crisis. Large pharmaceutical companies, often dubbed “Big Pharma” have played a role in creating and feeding the opioid crisis.
There was a great deal of discussion on a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Effective September 1, 2019, 70 cents of each member’s per capita shall be set aside for a joint AFT Militancy/Defense Fund.
Also on Saturday, we heard a senior from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Mei-Ling Ho-Shing) and Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. They both spoke on the importance of voting and getting others out to vote in the November elections besides other issues. At 4 PM we marched the streets with a band and stopped to hear other speakers. It was 90 plus degrees and hopefully it made some news channels. It was “The March for Equitable Funding for Public School.”
The more important Resolutions that were approved are as follows.
Resolution 11—In Support of the Affordable Care Act and Expanding Healthcare for All, adopted as amended by committee.
Resolution 61—Condemning the Trump-Ryan-McConnell Tax Cuts for the Rich, adopted.
Resolution 10—Opioids: A Global Epidemic, adopted as amended by committee.
Resolution 14—Condemning the Actions of Student Loan Servicer Navient, adopted.
You can also find the action on resolutions here: https://www.aft.org/news/action-resolutions
There were several Special Orders of Business: One was against Trump’s Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. Another was “A Crime Against Humanity” which discussed the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy, which has separated children from their asylum-seeking parents.
Other speakers were Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and our own NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. Clinton received the AFT Women’s Rights Award. Andy spoke about NYSUT’s Member Engagement Program which has members speak to members to sign the Union cards. During the public speaking time, at least 20 people came to the mikes to tell how many of their members reinstated their union membership. In addition, many stated the percentage of new union members that they had signed up. Another highlight was speaking to nurses at the University of Vermont in Burlington by Skype. The nurses were on a two-day strike.
The last day of the convention we heard NY Assemblywoman Christine Pellegrino speak. She represents the 9th AD and formerly taught school until her election in 2017. She was elected in a predominantly Republican area and defeated an incumbent. She encouraged members to run for an office in their area. Also, it had been mentioned several times during the convention that 400 AFT members are running for office for the November elections.
You can also read much more about the convention by going to https://www.aft.org/aft-convention.