Social Security

The favorite defense of Social Security by progressives harkens back to Franklin Roosevelt who famously said:

”I guess you’re right on the economics. They are politics all the way through. We put those pay roll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program. Those taxes aren’t a matter of economics, they’re straight politics.”

Read below the fold...

A few days ago, Goldman Sux CEO Lloyd Blankfein was "interviewed" by a CBS tool, giving him an opportunity to explain that entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are just too expensive to continue. Yes, it's old news, already reported earlier here and here. But what I totally missed is that Blankfein's math is waaaaaay off, creating an opening for some LTEs. Read below the fold...

Seriously, if you want to wipe out large numbers of people, why bother with entitlement cuts when you've got high-tech weaponry available? It's fast, impersonal, and you can just hose down whatever's left and voila! Problem solved!

Unfortunately, it looks like Obama prefers the slow, painful method of saving us from the debt.

From a Healthcare NOW email [bolding added]:

Just because President Obama won another term doesn't mean that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are safe. Far from it. Obama's seeking a "grand bargain" with the Republican-controlled House by January 1.

Read below the fold...

Gang of Six -- Cartoon
Are you ready for some "shared sacrifice?"
DonkeyHotey photostream, flickr

[Hat Tip to Mr. Alexa for tipping me off to this leak.]

White House Grand Bargain offer to Speaker Boehner
Obtained by Bob Woodward Sun Nov 11, 2012 11:58 AM EST

Below are documents obtained by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward that show a grand bargain proposal the White House was prepared to make in July 2011, in order to reach agreement with the House Republicans last year. This is how Woodward described the documents on Meet the Press this morning:

"This is a confidential document, last offer the president -- the White House made last year to Speaker Boehner to try to reach this $4 trillion grand bargain. And it's long and it's tedious and it's got budget jargon in it. But what it shows is a willingness to cut all kinds of things, like TRICARE, which is the sacred health insurance program for the military, for military retirees; to cut Social Security; to cut Medicare. And there are some lines in there about, "We want to get tax rates down, not only for individuals but for businesses." So Obama and the White House were willing to go quite far."

Read below the fold...

So, the chronically conscience-deprived “Obama bubble people” and the new club of morality sell-outs, the “I held my nose but was proud to have voted for Obama” group, have put another nail in the coffin of American democracy by backing the man whom Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report has savvily labeled the “more effective evil”.

This coalition of willfully naive Democrats have secured for Obama four more years of profound executive power -- not only legitimate but the illegitimate power Obama has already begun vastly amassing for himself -- to finish off the democracy he and his corporate overlords have achieved such progress already in destroying. Read below the fold...

Candidates Who Backed Bowles-Simpson Plan To Cut Social Security Went Down In Flames

Charlie Bass: Bass was a strong supporter of the Bowles-Simpson plan, and the plan’s authors even personally endorsed him. He was defeated last night by bold progressive Annie Kuster.
Bob Kerrey: Kerrey, a Democrat, endorsed the Bowles-Simpson plan and got their endorsement in return. But promising to cut Social Security did not mobilize voters on his behalf, and he lost to his Republican opponent.

Read below the fold...

Enact Fiscal Austerity With A Delay, Orszag Says

Here's my own "partial" transcript of Orszag's words:

"To get a significant debt limit increase, I think there's going to have to be some entitlement reform, as part of that.

If I were in the Administration, I think the single best thing to do (cut/reform) at this point, is Social Security.

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I don't watch the Sunday morning political talk shows. Haven't for a couple years now. The only one I allow myself to watch sometimes is "Up" with Chris Hayes since ever once in awhile some actual alternative voice pops up like the wonderful Occupy the SEC woman whose name I can't remember. Read below the fold...

Here's the Strengthen Social Security website.

https://twitter.com/Alexa__Blogger/status/264586834045190144

PLEASE RETWEET ME! :)

“If a dog won’t come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.” -- Woodrow Wilsonafter claiming "to reduce poverty among the very poor." Read below the fold...

FDR on Social Security
DonkeyHotey's photostream, flickr

Below is the first of a number of short video clips of three former Greenspan Commission staffers and a moderator discussing Social Security reform, past and present.

I decided to post these clips in the form of a Tweet in hopes that readers would be willing to retweet them, if they think they merit it. I apologize that these clips are not embeddable. Read below the fold...

The Grand Bargain Fiscal Cliff deficit hysteria is the end game in a sophisticated, multi-year version of three-card monte.

For this illustration, we’ll use the shell game version where the slicks hide a ball under a nutshell. Under one shell you've got bank money. Under another shell you have the national budget money. Under the third shell you have social program money, let's call it Social Security.

The object of the game is to take all three balls without anyone noticing, and if the institutional legitimacy of the shells get destroyed, well . . . . Read below the fold...