Medicare

The Assault on Medicare
Editorial

No one who has reviewed the changes in Medicare proposed by the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in the Congress has any doubt regarding the motivation behind the legislation. Corporate-tied conservatives made a commitment to begin the process of privatizing Medicare and they are now delivering on that commitment.
Under the guise of creating a prescription drug benefit, the proponents of the legislation , in fact, crafted a scheme designed to enrich pharmaceutical companies while saddling seniors with high co-pays and costs that will continue to make needed medicines unaffordable for millions of citizens. Worse yet, the legislation seeks to use billions of taxpayer dollars to break up the Medicare program and hand the pieces over to the same for-profit concerns that have made the U.S. health care system one of the costliest and most inefficient in the world. So corrupt is the legislation that it actually bans initiatives to lower drug prices.

Getting our Mal den City Councilors Accountable

After watching the city council meeting Tuesday April 8th 2008 I was initially thinking I was having a confusing "Senior Moment". After listening with patience I see we have a divided city council with an agenda and that the City Council President should be called to task for putting out a non paying appointment for Trustee to the Cemetery Department out for "bid". The trustee resigned changed his mind applied after" bids" closed,
After a long discussion and a review back and forth and even after asking the City Solicitor and getting an opinion no agreement on the situation was reached and even after the original trustee was confirmed it was left open for re-consideration. It seemed at least one long time councilor was embarrassed by the prolonged discussion. It seems "no rule of law" on city "books"
My take on the situation was that some councilors feel that they should resist the rights of the citizens of Malden to participate in Municipal decision making and object to the Council president reaching out to the general public to invite them to participate in THEIR LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
The city planning board (at great expense) ran a "Vision For Malden Workshops throughout the
City with great participation.
Mass Senior Action Metro North Chapter participated and saw one of their concerns addressed.
Maximize and improve citizen participation in municipal decision-making:
The high level of citizen participation is another important and distictive problem to be solved in Malden. Citizens serve of boards and commissions and help fomulate policy and advise the city council.
THANK YOU CITY COUNCILOR CHRISTENSEN FOR TRYING
Malden Senior
Howard McGowan
349 Pleasant Street
Malden, Ma 02148
781 324 8076