Conservative, libertarian and business groups seized this opportunity, providing the supposedly grassroots groups with massive financial backing.īankrolling, schooling and organizing the motley protesters provided wealthy, right-wing ideologues like the Koch brothers with a mechanism to convert their personal agenda into what appeared to be a movement.Įarly on these right wing subsidizers, from Heritage Action for America and FreedomWorks to Club for Growth and the Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, opposed the Affordable Care Act. Soon after President Obama was first elected, a ragtag bunch of protesters, egged on by rabid right-wing talk show hosts, took to public squares with Gadsten Flags and signs protesting the Wall Street bailout, government in general and any attempt to cut Medicare or Social Security. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who proposed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that House Republicans forget about defunding the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicare instead. And the guy who shoved first was Tea Party darling Rep. Last week, though, the GOP threw Tea Partiers under the bus. Tea Partiers, in return, took up the Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act, seeking to deny health care for 50 million uninsured Americans while insisting no one touch their health insurance – Medicare. While privately laughing at a group that would demand the government keep its hands off of a government program, Republicans propped up Tea Partiers, with corporate-backed groups like Americans for the Prosperous giving them untold millions in funding. Right now, though, Tea Partiers should be cursing their Republican bedfellows. In the early days, the iconic image of D.C.-hating Tea Partiers was a sign reading: “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.” Occasionally their protest placards added a little profanity to that directive. District 13 United Steelworkers (USW) District 13 includes the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.District 12 United Steelworkers (USW) District 12 includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.District 11 United Steelworkers (USW) District 11 includes the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.District 10 United Steelworkers (USW) District 10 includes the state of Pennsylvania.District 9 United Steelworkers (USW) District 9 includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina and the Virgin Islands.District 8 United Steelworkers (USW) District 8 includes the states of Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.District 7 United Steelworkers (USW) District 7 includes the states of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.District 6 New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario.District 4 United Steelworkers (USW) District 4 includes the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and the territory of Puerto Rico.District 3 Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, Yukon.

District 1 United Steelworkers (USW) District 1 includes the states of Michigan and Ohio.Sign-up for email updates from your union!.Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR)

Hands off medicare