Cave in Obama puts Social Security and Medicare in budget deal
Michael Collins
(Washington, DC 3/22) Yesterday we found out that President Barack Obama put Medicare and Social Security in the budget deal mix; timely but not thoughtful. What a profile in cowardice. Maybe not. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that cutting these two programs is part of the Obama Money Party agenda. That's the elegant explanation and explained below.
Here's what Bloomberg reported (thanks to Lauren Hallahan's list for the tip):
"President Barack Obama told Senate Democrats that they should be open to changes in entitlement programs to achieve a long-term budget deal, according to several lawmakers who attended a meeting with him on Capitol Hill today." Bloomberg, March 21
Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. In fact, without the annual appropriation of Social Security funds , cash flow for the government would experience serious cash flow prolems. Each year, Treasury takes Social Security tax revenues to fund the general budget. Treasury leaves an IOU promising to repay beneficiaries down the road. The promise is guaranteed by the "full faith and credit of the United States of America." Who would take the word of the (s)elected "crooks and liars" given all the betrayals we see on a regular basis?
PermalinkGoldman, Other Welfare Queens Tell Us Forget Social Security-Medicare Until 70
Michael Collins
(Washington, DC 1/21) A long standing Money Party front, the Business Roundtable, wants you to wait until you're 70 years old before you get Social Security and Medicare benefits. This is just a reprise of the November 2012 dictate from the king of corporate cronyism, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. (Image: DonkeyHotey) (Greenspan statement)
The boss announced, "So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained." Lloyd Blankfein, CBS News, November 2012
That's easy for Lloyd to say. He makes tens of millions of dollars a year without so much as lifting a finger. You can be sure that Blankfein has a deluxe health insurance and retirement plan.
US Elections: From the “Lesser to the Greater Evil”and the Demise of Critical Liberalism
James Petras
Introduction
There is ample evidence that the Obama Presidency has pulled the US political spectrum further to the Right. On most domestic and foreign policy issues Obama has embraced extremist positions surpassing his Republican predecessor and in the process devastating what remained of the peace and social movements of the past decade. Moreover, the Obama Presidency has laid the groundwork for the immediate future promising a further extension of regressive policies following the presidential elections: cuts in Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Incumbents and their opposition compete over hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funding from wealthy donors, which they will have to repay in the post-election period in billion dollar handouts, subsidies, tax abatements, anti-labor and environmental policies. Not a single positive proposal was put forth by the Obama campaign but numerous militarist and regressive social policies were articulated. The Obama campaign ran a fear campaign, playing off of the reactionary proposals of the Romney-Tea Party alliance: a cover for his own record of unprecedented military spending, sequential wars, immigrant expulsions, mortgage foreclosures and Wall Street bailouts.
Romney Blows It, Picks Paul "Dr. Death" Ryan
Michael Collins
AP tells us that Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan is the pick for the Republican Vice President slot. AP August 10 (Image)
We know one thing for sure about Mitt Romney. He is not a big game player, you know those stars who always do their best in playoff or championship games. Faced with the most important choice of his sputtering campaign, Romney blew it. He chose a boring, rightist Congressman from the Milwaukee suburbs. Paul Ryan may look good to Romney but his supporters preferred another by far, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
Ryan compensates for his boring demeanor with a truly mean spirited political program that threatens to deny medical care for many seniors if his budget is enacted. He swaps out government payments for vouchers in a system that will make medical care unaffordable to seniors. That should sell well among those seniors who prefer a premature, unnecessary death caused by a lack of medical care.
Nice work Mitt!
Super Congress in Session - More of the Cruel Charade
By Michael Collins
Wall Street and the big banks owe $1.5 trillion for the bailout (at least). The Super Congress needs to cut $1.5 trillion over ten years. Get the money from Wall Street and cancel the Super Congress. Problem solved.
Last month’s debt ceiling crisis was resolved when Congress and the Obama administration made a deal to cut trillions in federal spending over the next ten years. Congress identified the easy cuts, the low hanging fruit so to speak, for a total of nearly $1.0 trillion. At the same time, Congress and the White House created the “Super Congress” committee of six senators and six representatives charged with cutting another $1.5 trillion. (Image: Lucy White with permission)
The committee has unparalleled power to draft legislation, without the normal legislative processes of debate, deliberation, modification, and amendments. If seven of the twelve committee members vote in favor of the budget cutting legislation by the November 23 deadline (see chart in appendix III), the bill will be submitted to the entire Congress for an up or down vote. The bill will not be subject to any modification or change. Debate will be very limited. (Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Text-pdf)
The War on You
By Michael Collins
Let the word go forth from Washington! The corporate rulers occupying our nation's capital have declared war on just about every citizen.
Have no doubt: those in the upper ranges of the top 1% of wealth in this country (aka The Money Party) want to kick you to the curb.
They want to reduce your social security and make you go broke paying for medical care.
They want to lower your wages and trash your retirement.
They ignore the clear facts that we've had negative job growth since 2000 and the situation is just getting worse.
They want to ship jobs, factories, and entire businesses overseas and give companies that do that a big fat tax credit for doing so.
They've been given so much for nothing for so long. Now, they're ready to take it all. It's their time!
Obama's Budget Betrayal - Questions and Answers
By Michael Collins
Question: Why did President Obama put Social Security and Medicare on the table in the budget negotiations when 80% of the people oppose cuts to these programs?
Answer: The president is not in office to represent those people. He was selected, funded and carried over the finish line by corporate America. Look at the appointment of Wall Streeter Timothy Geithner, the bailouts, and the failure to prosecute any of the crooks who caused the current recession. He's serving the people who put him in office. Those people don't need Social Security and Medicare.
Choreographed Budget Cave In - The Money Party Stabs Citizens in the Back
By Michael Collins
So this is how it is going to be:
"After putting controversial cuts to Social Security and Medicare on the table in negotiations with congressional Republicans over a plan to raise the nation's debt ceiling, President Obama still doesn't have a deal in the works." Chris Moody, Yahoo News, July 7
Who told President Obama to put "controversial cuts on Social Security and Medicare on the table"? Hasn't the president seen his public opinion polling numbers lately? He is consistently at or below 50% job approval. (Image)
Didn't he pay attention to the special congressional election in the highly conservative, long-time Republican upstate New York district that elected a Democrat for the first time in years?
Isn't the President Obama aware that there's an election coming up; that many of the people he is so willingly and openly betraying rely on Social Security to live and Medicare to stay alive?
What planet does he live on? (Unless this is what he truly desires.)
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