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"I Guarantee You. Flat Guarantee You."

Jay's picture
Submitted by Jay on Thu, 03/07/2013 - 12:26am
Departments: 
Department of All The Damn Gall
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Class Warfare
Corporatism
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Economic Apocalypse
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Impeachment

"President Obama will under no circumstances agree to put your retirement at risk by privatizing Social Security, and he will reject any plan that slashes Social Security benefits."—Obama Campaign “Truth Team,” October 6, 2012

"I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security. I flat guarantee you."—Vice President Joseph Biden, to patrons of the Coffee Break Café, Stuart, Virginia, August 15, 2012

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Comments

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

"Truth team" just cracks me up!

* * *

Very nice. (The text wrapping didn't work out, so I tinkered with it)

tom allen's picture
Submitted by tom allen on

Then there's this knee-slapper, told by their supporters: "We'll hold Obama's feet to the fire after he's re-elected."

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

If you parse Obama's words, you see he isn't lying, exactly; he's conning people -- and especially people who want to be conned -- with lawyerly weasel wording.

Submitted by Hugh on

Anytime a politician says I guarantee you, hold on to your wallet. Increasing the retirement age or using the chained CPI won't reduce the nominal amount on the check for a recipient. It will reduce the overall amount the recipient receives over the course of their life. This has become typical of political speech. Embed a large lie in a small truth.

Biden's statement is more cryptic because he only mentions Social Security and not Medicare. If the cost of Medicare Advantage plans goes up, this would negatively affect Social Security recipients but not reduce their Social Security payments. But seriously who cares what a VP promises? In the event, Obama could raise the retirement age or go to the chained CPI and Biden could claim that these weren't "negative changes" and he meant no "negative changes" would happen. Or that any changes made actually strenghtened Social Security, etc., etc.

Alexa's picture
Submitted by Alexa on

"slash" benefits.

Biden made his statement on August 15 (Tuesday), and a "Biden adviser" walked it back on Sunday, August 19. [Thought that I had already posted it here, but maybe it was at another blog.]

So, here you go.

Excerpt from AP piece entitled "Dems Slam Ryan Over Social Security Privatization."

Last week, Vice President Joe Biden made a more sweeping guarantee during a campaign swing in southern Virginia, telling a customer at a diner that Social Security will not be changed.

"I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security," Biden told the customer, according to a White House pool report. "I flat guarantee you."

A Biden adviser said later the vice president was merely reassuring the woman that her benefits would not be changed. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

Here's the link to the piece.

Alexa's picture
Submitted by Alexa on

necks of all the hacks that work at Campaign for America's Future, Media Matters for America, MoveOn, the DNC, the DCCC, DSCC, Bold Progressives, Center for American Progress, MSNBC and all the other Dem propaganda organizations who KNEW all along that Biden's aide walked it back, but have used this statement to help re-elect the President, and raise money for the Presidential campaign, their organizations, etc.

And let's also not forget Jane's excellent diary about the barely aborted attempt by the Clintons to "reform" Social Security.

Here's an excerpt from that diary entitled, "How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security: Clinton, Gingrich, Bowles and “The Pact”

By 1997, Bill Clinton felt he had the upper hand with Congress and it was time for him to make historic moves. He had replaced Leon Panetta as Chief of Staff with investment banker Erskine Bowles late in his first term, and as author Steven Gillon tells the tale, Bowles brought a sense of order to the White House. Bowles planned to return to the private sector as Clinton’s second term began, but Bill and Hillary implored him to stay on for one final task: “fixing” Social Security.

President Obama has likewise entrusted Erskine Bowles with the task of chairing his own Deficit Commission, which is currently meeting in secret to address Social Security and other entitlement issues. . . .

Clinton had been trying to deal with Social Security for some time. In 1994, HHS Secretary Donna Shalala had appointed the 13-member Danforth Commission to advise on Social Security. She appointed three members from labor (including Richard Trumka), Republican Alan Simpson (appointed by Obama to co-chair his Deficit Commission with Bowles) and Pete Peterson (the hedge-fund billionaire funding much of the current economic work being used to justify dismantling Social Security). The Danforth Commission was always deeply divided and was never able to reach a consensus, largely due to the fact that the appointees had different perspectives, but Obama apparently learned that lesson: His 18-member commission already is packed with 14 members who support cutting benefits, and many who support some form of privatization. It takes 14 votes to pass any recommendation. . . .

IOW Lambert, I totally agree with you.

It's just that I believe that we haven't had a decent Democratic President (regarding our social insurance programs) since LBJ, LOL!

So, I'm for throwing out all the corporatist Dem bums and their faux liberal [propaganda] organizations, and starting over! :-)

Alexa

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