The TSC Story

     The Seniors Coalition made its first splash in Washington, D.C., by leading the effort to repeal the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988. TSC mobilized seniors across the country, and in 1990, succeeded in forcing Congress to repeal the wildly unpopular law. The grassroots rebellion against the act was immortalized by the scene of angry seniors blocking U.S. Representative Dan Rostenkowski's car as he attempted to flee a meeting.

     In the early 1990's, TSC again rallied American seniors against Hillary Clinton's attempt to impose government-run healthcare. Coalition supporters signed hundreds of thousands of petitions and made countless more phone calls to defeat Hillarycare.

     During 1990's, The Seniors Coalition stood nearly alone in warning the American people about the Social Security Trust Fund crisis. TSC was so outspoken in criticizing Congress' raids of the Trust Fund, that agents of the Inspector General of the Social Security Admnistration visited the Coalition's headquarters in attempt to stop TSC's campaign. The agents eventually backed off when confronted with the fact that U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan agreed with TSC's position.

     The Seniors Coalition continued to battle the Clinton Administration throughout the 1990s, focusing much of its efforts on repealing President Clinton's tax hike on Social Security benefits. By the end of the decade, TSC succeed in passing a partial repeal of the measure.

     Then, in 2001, The Seniors Coalition fulfilled one of its primary goals – at least temporarily. The hated Death Tax was partially and temporarily repealed after a long legislative battle. The tax was later completely repealed for one year in 2010.

     Medicare Part D – the senior citizens prescription drug benefit – proposed by President George W. Bush, was one of the most controversial and divisive legislative initiatives ever supported by The Seniors Coalition. The Coalition considered the opinions of a majority of its members and after much internal debate, finally decided to support new entitlement program. To date, the program has saved Medicare about $1,200 per Medicare beneficiary.  More seniors are today able to get prescription drug thereapies in their doctors' offices, rather than having to be admitted to the hospital to receive the same therapies.

     In response to the U.S. – Mexican Totalization Agreement, signed by President George W. Bush, TSC mobilized its national network of senior citizen activists to launch the largest grassroots campaign in the Coalition's history. The agreement calls for extending U.S. Social Security benefits to illegal aliens from Mexico and requires Congressional ratification. Thanks to nearly 1,000,000 petitions signed by senior citizens from across America, the treaty has not been sent to Capitol Hill for ratification. However, it still could be submitted for approval at any time and Congress must then vote to reject it within 60 days or it will automatically go into effect.

     In 2010, more than a decade after the defeat of Hillarycare, President Barack Obama succeeded in passing Obamacare, the government takeover of the U.S. health care system. Despite the Coalition's best efforts and massive grassroots lobbying, the highly unpopular initiative was passed on a party-line vote. Immediately after the measure was passed by Congress, the Coalition launched a national effort aimed at repealing Obamacare. That campaign continues in earnest today.