Rallying the Democratic Base...1 of 3 >
Sept. 18, 2014 -- Looking towards the mid-term elections, Americans United for Change organized a “Hands Off Social Security and Medicare – We Earned It!” rally in Upper Senate Park on Capitol HIll.  Prominent Democrats addressed an audience which included many retiree union members.  (Above) Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, addresses the rally.
Center is Jan Chastain ("The Umbrella Lady") with here knitted pie chart of the discretionary budget.  She stated that Congress directed the GAO to insert Social Security and Medicare into the pie chart, which distorts it.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), introduced by American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, was very popular with this audience.  "America is on the leading edge of a retirement crisis," Warren warned. 
next >
From the press release:

"Ahead of the event, seniors from Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, and North Carolina will visit their Member offices among others on the Hill and call on them to sign The Golden Promise: A Pledge to Put Seniors First by Protecting Social Security and Medicare from Benefit Cuts, Privatization and Vouchers.  These guaranteed benefits earned through hard work have been credited with lifting generations of seniors, survivors, and disabled Americans out of poverty. They are a promise kept from one generation to the next, but right wing ideologues in Congress want to break that promise on behalf of the Koch brothers, Wall Street bankers, and the big insurance companies that back their campaigns.

"Four years in a row House Republicans passed budget plans crafted by Paul Ryan that would end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a system of private vouchers that won’t keep pace with the cost of health care and would force seniors to pay thousands of dollars more for their care. The Ryan plan also fast trackscuts to Social Security by requiring that in any year that the Social Security Trust Fund does not meet 75-year solvency that the President must then draw up legislation to change the program. This is nothing but a back door means for the Tea Party to revive their risky scheme to privatize Social Security and allow guaranteed benefits to be gambled away on Wall Street – a scheme that would have wiped out many seniors’ savings during the financial crisis of 2008.

"In response, advocates for strengthening - not privatizing - Social Security and Medicare will call on the GOP to start putting seniors before the special interests. The event will kick-off We Earned It, a national campaign to stop Republicans from gutting the promise of affordable healthcare, Medicare and Social Security. Learn more online at www.WeEarnedIt.org and follow along on Facebook and Twitter."