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Please think before you buy into the Conservative Right’s view on cutting Social Security
This article is from Just The Messenger:
There Still Is No Social Security Crisis: Truth About the 2012 Social Security Trustees Report
April 24, 2012
Excerpts:
There Still Is No Social Security Crisis
By Richard (RJ) Eskow, April 23, 2012
“‘Medicare and Social Security’ don’t have a long-term problem: Medicare has a problem. No amount of spin or double-talk can change that. This year’s slight downturn in Medicare and Social Security finances was caused by the financial crisis of 2008, as lost jobs and wages led to lost revenue for the program. And that disaster was caused by the deregulation of Wall Street, which was carried out the same bipartisan crowd that’s now pushing cuts to these programs … Now they want ordinary Americans to take a hit to both their Social Security and Medicare benefits. A Social Security cut would be needless and counterproductive, and the nation would be better served with a benefit increase … What’s more, since Social Security is forbidden by law from contributing to the deficit, it’s absurd to connect its financing to discussions of the Federal debt. Medicare’s another story. Unless we address the runaway cost of providing health care to seniors, our Federal budget and are entire economy are in dire trouble. Notice, however, that we said ‘address the runaway cost’ and not ‘shift the runaway cost,’ as the Republican proposal would do.”
,…, “Social Security is essentially healthy, and its long-term issues can be fixed by lifting the payroll tax cap. A “Grand Bargain” to cut Social Security and Medicare will only make things worse. What we really need an overhaul of our health system to remove the corrosive effects of the profit motive on our medical economy – but they don’t want to talk about that.”
,…, “The report released today by the Trustees of the Social Security Administration has already occasioned some of the usual nonsense from the wealthy and highly-funded insider group represented by Clinton and his peers in both parties”.
__________
Richard (RJ) Eskow is a well-known blogger and writer, a former Wall Street executive, an experienced consultant, and a former musician. He has experience in health insurance and economics, occupational health, benefits, risk management, finance, and information technology. He has a somewhat unique perspective on the current financial crisis, since he worked for AIG for a number of years (although not in its infamous Financial Products division).
Richard has consulting experience in the US and over 20 countries. Past clients include USAID, the World Bank, the State Department, the Harvard School of International Public Health, the Government of Hungary, as well as corporations and investors. He has experience in financial and data analysis, systems design, operations, and management.
Related articles
- Social Security And Medicare Running Out Of Money (fox2now.com)
- More Falsehoods About Social Security And Medicare (duanegraham.wordpress.com)
- Social Security Is Still Doomed Sometime in the Future Based on Questionable Assumptions (mikethemadbiologist.com)
- Social Security and Medicare: Behind the Numbers and the Spin (crooksandliars.com)
- Social Security, Medicare Reaction Reflects Partisan, Election-Year Divide (npr.org)
- Insolvency, tax cuts, military spending and social security (dailykos.com)
Why I still like Ike…
All Hat, No Cattle posted this picture with quote (one I’ve used before and keep in my quote collection.) Makes you wonder what will happen to the current Repiglicans…
It is “they are stupid” that stands out.
The extra $40.00…
President Obama in a live speech today defended maintaining the tax deduction to the Middle Class to say that it is $40.00 a paycheck. What difference, the critics say, does $40.00 make?
Thinking about this as I went out for groceries in Martinsburg, I passed by gas stations where the price was now $3.85 a gallon for regular. Only two weeks ago it was 40¢ a gallon less. Given my regular driving record, that adds $40.00 to a biweekly part of my monthly Social Security payment.
In other words, $40.00 is a lot of money when you’re not sitting on a pile coming in from your low-taxed investments.
Since Republicans don’t mind cutting taxes on the wealthy, but don’t want to continue the payroll cuts on the other 90% of us, maybe our answer is not to drive ANYWHERE anymore. Of course, then, a lot of people won’t get to their jobs. Or get their kids to school. Or make doctors’ appointments.
The world changes and we get poorer.
And meanwhile our state, local and federal governments are doing nothing to bring the once regulated price of gas down to where we can afford it again.
Related articles
- Obama says “enough is enough,” I agree but I suspect we are talking about two different things (quinnscommentary.com)
- White House Will Renew #40dollars Campaign On Twitter (readwriteweb.com)
- Why Congress Must Extend the Payroll Tax Cut Through 2012 (whitehouse.gov)
- David Plouffe: “Here we go again” (whitehouse.gov)
- $40 Means Being Able to Afford My Daughter’s Medications (whitehouse.gov)
- President Obama Pushes Congress to Extend the Payroll Tax Cut Through 2012 (whitehouse.gov)
- White House renews #40dollars campaign (politico.com)
- Obama: Payroll tax cut fight isn’t over yet – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
- President Obama asks America to make its voice heard on payroll tax cut (dailykos.com)
The House of Representatives represents who?
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
One of the options you have when you’re retired like me is to spend time watching the members of Congress debate on C-Span. Indeed, watching them deal with legislation on Budget, Education, Health and other human services is an example of people speaking to each other but not listening to one word the other person says. You get what I mean?
Right now they are debating on “Rules for Changing the Federal Budget Process Bill.” No, they aren’t changing the budget. They are changing the RULES to change the budget as law.
Republicans are saying things like “tax cuts cause higher revenues.” Democrats are saying that “Inflation increases the amount of money needed to carry out necessary programs” like Social Security or Medicare.
At least one (Democrat, I guess) has quoted Grover Norquist‘s favorite statement that he doesn’t want to eliminate government… he just wants to shrink it…until it is small enough to drown in a bathtub. (btw, was Grover Norquist ever elected by anyone, anywhere to serve in Congress as they decide on things like this?)
In the long run, if you are a.) a Democrat proposing legislation or b.) presenting a proposal by President Obama… even if legislation being proposed was sought previously by Republicans… you can assume that the large majority of Republicans will make sure nothing passes. That has been the situation since the 2010 election that brought in all the Tea Party folks.
Do not expect anything to happen this season that will actually solve our very serious problems. Ain’t gonna happen.
Oh, the Holidays…
You know it’s the Christmas season when you notice in your spam mail that they are giving you a “holiday discount” on Viagra. I’m not sure whether it’s for me to use in my holiday celebrating, or if it’s a gift for one of my mail relatives who are having secret troubles “getting it up” (in which case, how would I know?).
It all boils down to this being purchasing season. We just passed Black Friday with a number of reports on fighting in stores (one shooting that was on the news) and crowds lining up before midnight on Thanksgiving to give thanks for early openings.
Stores, of course, make a large percent of their annual revenue this month, sales or none, and folks everywhere lower their bank totals or pay out most of their Social Security checks on things that the receivers will often never use. We hear that sales will be lower this year than last do to the Recession which “ended” last summer. People have less income and are counting on the 1% to keep up the Christmas shopping totals.
Perhaps they won’t let us down this time.
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- Preparing for Christmas (bryanmarvel.com)
- Happy Holidays! Take 10%. (emmiesmeanderings.wordpress.com)
- Holiday shopping season off to strong start (oregonlive.com)
- I somehow doubt that I’ve won a thousand .dollar.Visa.Giftcard! (ask.metafilter.com)
- Government officials have their e-mail spammed too (examiner.com)
A quote for the evening…
Bernie Sanders in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN:
“If you look at the ideology of these right wing Republicans, more tax breaks for rich, cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, deregulate Wall Street after Wall Street caused this horrendous recession we’re in, more unfettered free trade so we can lose more jobs to China. Do you know how many people believe in that ideology? Maybe, 15, 20 percent max.
“The real issue is why Democrats aren’t winning by 30 or 40 percent.”
Yep. That’s the real issue. Looks like the media (as represented by Blitzer and buddies) are spending a lot of time pushing the Republican agenda.
Quote of the Day – Looks like the Occupy Movement will benefit Obama
“While people were pretty evenly split on whether the administration favors the middle class, the rich or the poor, they were all but unanimous about which class the Republicans favor; 69 percent said Republicans in Congress favor the rich, while just 9 percent said the middle class and 2 percent said the poor. That’s a significant perception problem for the GOP, and the Occupy Wall Street protesters — for whatever bad press they have created and will create due to the actions of some participants — are rallying support against the very class that the GOP is thought to favor.”
I’m not sure the GOP cares… nothing else that has been said, polled, complained about or done has gotten them to listen to the Middle Class that they started to disable with Reagan. The day one of those turkeys comes out to Tax The Rich and gets the Republican Party behind him (or her) is the day the world will end.
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- Mitchell Bard: Income Inequality Is the Achilles Heel in the GOP Strategy to Demonize Occupy Wall Street (huffingtonpost.com)
- Elizabeth Warren: The Woman Who Would Throw Stones, Radicalize Your Firstborn And Make the Streets Run Marxist Red (skydancingblog.com)
- Obama camp: Perry flat tax “a far-right vision” (cbsnews.com)
- Study: Rich get a lot richer, outpace middle class (sfgate.com)
- Rich Man Rules (thedailybeast.com)
A serious quote for today… listen up:
Economist Paul Krugman
…compassion is out of fashion — indeed, lack of compassion has become a matter of principle, at least among the G.O.P.’s base.
“And what this means is that modern conservatism is actually a deeply radical movement, one that is hostile to the kind of society we’ve had for the past three generations — that is, a society that, acting through the government, tries to mitigate some of the “common hazards of life” through such programs as Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.”
- Paul Krugman
Be aware…be very aware. Remember it was the tea party audience at the recent Republican debate who yelled “Let them die!” when Ron Paul (a “doctor”? Really?) said the poor could get their own health policies if they wanted coverage.
What is becoming of our country? To think there is a percentage of our citizens who would believe in such a thing. I don’t care what anyone thinks of the limitations of Barack Obama. I don’t remember him EVER hoping that children and seniors would die for lack of medical coverage.
This is more than a little depressing.
New Poll pulls Obama ahead of Perry by 11 Points
Perry is heading down!
Last week when Perry pulled ahead of Obama in the polls, the tea party folks were cheering.
Looks, though, like Perry’s “Ponzi Scheme” statement on Social Security and Obama’s active push for the American Jobs Act has switched things around. It’s now 52 to 41 and still spreading apart.
In Republican-only polling, Romney is ahead with moderates, but perry is ahead with conservatives… and conservatives seem to be controlling the Party.
Plenty to watch out for…
Related articles
- Perry Looking Less Electable (politicalwire.com)
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- CNN Poll: GOP Voters Find Perry “Most Electable” (mediaite.com)
Which Candidate Sucks More? Bachmann or Perry?
It looks like the Republican Party has now given up decades of cross-country representation (remember when there were Moderate…even Liberal…Republicans?) and have taken on an identity from the far right, the religious right and the Tea Party.
They are not people of compromise. They are not people who respect (or even recognize) other religions or atheism as American beliefs. They are people who wish to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They want to privatize public schools and destroy teachers’ unions. They won’t create enough income to pay our worldwide debts… in fact many were willing to go into default.
And now they seem to have focused on three candidates: Romney, who changes his opinion and point of view daily depending on the audience… who rejects things he accomplished as Massachusetts Governor… and who, frankly, is living a lie; Bachmann who has taken on representation of the Tea Party… whose knowledge of American History is constantly displayed as, at the least, flawed… who also lies or miscommunicates her own history, both personally and in politics; and Perry, who throws out accusations like “treason” and “socialist” like they were confetti…who uses his religion to mold his constituency… and who also lies or creates illusions about his record and reputation.
So I come down to the question: Who sucks more? Bachmann or Perry? Let me know.
Tar and Feather the Politicians…
Ralph Nader - "The Spoiler" - if it were not for him, Gore would have been President and we would probably not be in this position right now.
As we go through the weekend with both Democrats and Republicans more concerned with which side “wins” or “loses” than with the concerns and complaints of the general public, we rapidly approach the August 2nd Deadline.
So, perhaps they will give themselves a one week extension to figure out how to end this… perhaps even REALLY compromise on a solution. I tell you what would end this now… a consortium of the richest folks in America… called by a Warren Buffett or a Bill Gates perhaps… who INSIST on returning to the tax levels they were at under Bill Clinton (when they all made significant monetary advances anyway). Greed, however, is stronger than Good, so I don’t think anything like a voiced opinion by wealthy folks will ever happen.
We are also getting to the extremes… and that brings out people like Ralph Nader (the Spoiler) who is now pushing for a primary challenge to Obama to bring out progressives and liberals dissatisfied with the President’s concessions to the Right. And , of course, the unchangeable Tea-Party Congressfolk can still do plenty of damage before the 2012 elections… the first time Americans can repair the mess they made for themselves in 2010.
If there were a way to just keep the politicians, the corporations, the lobbyists and pigs like the Koch Brothers out of all this and have a national referendum on raising the debt ceiling and sharing the tax burden mor equitably… a referendum that would stand as law… we might see a different world. But that will never happen, either.
We are in a deep and slippery-sided pit and climbing out seems damn near impossible. If they cut my Social Security payment and I can’t afford to do this blog anymore, I’ll be heading to DC with my pup tent and sleeping bag, with signs and my megaphone, and I would ask everyone in the same situation to join me.
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Beginning the last few days of July and waiting for this @#^&* Congress to do something about the debt ceiling…
Michael Parenti
We’re getting awfully close to that August 2d Deadline (1 week from tomorrow) and it doesn’t look like the House and the Senate AND the White House can get together on ANYTHING (especially without using whatever they do as a 2012 election strategy event.)
I’m beginning to hope none of these clowns ever get elected again and we return the country to King George the Third and let him raise the ceiling (what? He’s dead? Crap!)
Doing some history research, I came across the book “Democracy for the Few” by Michael Parenti which was published in 2008 and updated in 2010 (incidentally he gets into my personal peeve of Monsanto with it’s poisoned farmlands and manipulated seedlings in his section on the corporatization of the country.) Taking us back to the Founding Fathers and the Constitutional Convention, Parenti shows us that things are not so different now as they were then… the control of proceedings was held by the wealthy who responded with fear when demands were made by the masses, and gave in as little as possible:
… or, to put it more bluntly, the rich used politics to manipulate the people.
So the Republicans now want a plan which raises no taxes and which will be debated, without solving the problems, right up to the elections at the end of 2012, meanwhile ruining our credit and bond ratings with other countries (and with Social Security which it could conceivably wipe out since the surplus funding we are told over and over again will hold Social Security safe until 2035 in the same Federal Bonds which are being devalued.
Obama has done more than the Republicans, and much more than his Democratic allies, to move to the center and find concessions which would help all levels of our society. Democrats have tried negotiating from Biden’s committee on down only to be faced with opposite leadership walkouts (“I’m taking my bat and going home”) and regular upping of the agreeable compromises (btw, there are NO agreeable compromises here.) Republicans seem to have two needs to fill here: 1. Support their Corporate Funders, and 2. Make sure Obama is not reelected in 2012. In other words, to hell with the American society.
I don’t know what entertainment is forthcoming on C-Span 1&2 this week… I don’t know if I can watch any more of this.
I have to get ready for a middle-class uprising.
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- Politics Of Fear and Social Security… (nostone2011.wordpress.com)
- 8 Charts You Must see To Discuss The Debt Ceiling (businessinsider.com)
- “Super Congress” of 12 Proposed As Solution to Debt Ceiling Impasse (fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com)
- Boehner ends debt talks with Obama (money.cnn.com)
- Get Rid of the Debt Ceiling (localpaper.wordpress.com)
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Signing the Pledge
We are pleased to add Grover Norquist to the Ranks of the Inverted
Republicans have signed so many pledges… not to raise taxes under any circumstance (like the government going totally out of business), not voting for any law that gives a woman control of her own body, making sure that marriage and family raising is as good for African-Americans as it was under slavery… you know the drift.
Well, I think it is time that Democratic candidates had pledges to sign. My first one would be a pledge to arrest Grover Norquist for impersonating an elected official when he tells real elected officials what they can and can’t do. I’m sure if we look into it further, we’ll find that he has messed with our country’s economy primarily for his own benefit. Oh, and in that pledge, let him never be eligible for Medicare or Social Security.
Then maybe we can take a look at a pledge to go after Eric Cantor. 
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- Up is Down (fdlaction.firedoglake.com)
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It’s July Fools Day…
We’re getting ready to celebrate the 4th with Congressmen everywhere sucking down hotdogs and beer and telling us all how they love America and will get our budget balanced and get the evils out of government. Then they get into their Koch Brothers paid cars and head for the next community cookout so they can check it off on their itinerary.
Meanwhile, we decide not to spend too much this weekend. There’s a good chance these dipshits will let the government close down and my Social Security check won’t be there in August, so I have to save cash now (gosh, does this mean I’m helping to lower the economy further because I’m not buying anything?) for basics through the end of summer.
And while I know there’s no fool like a July fool, I’m afraid the fool is me because I didn’t prevent these guys from doing all this (but now you’ll never catch me buying a Bounty paper towel.) You didn’t either.
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June is turning out to be a miserable month…
Do you know the feeling when you go in to your auto mechanic‘s operation to get a headlight replaced and walk out with an estimate for over $1,000.00 worth of work or your car is going to fall apart within the next 3000 miles?
Or how about having a computer with only two weeks left on the warranty that your 
local repair guy couldn’t handle and he sent you to another place 60 miles away and then this guy said it would have to be shipped to Apple to have them look at it… meanwhile you’re still wai
ting?
Or the little part-time job you were told you’d have in June when it was presented last April just never came through?
Or that your built in depressive personality is caught up in what seems like the destruction of 
government, especially relating to senior citizens like you who depend on Social Security and Medicare and you don’t feel like there is anything that can be done about it?
And don’t forget, you are five weeks away from the next Social Security check and this month’s problems have already eaten up the one you got last Wednesday…
Well, that’s where I am as the month ends… and, on top of that, I’m feeling more lost and alone than usual (Cymbalta or not) and, at many times during the day, these feelings keep me frozen in one place, unable to accomplish ANYTHING.
This morning I made one or two major screwups on the radio show… thankfully Ralph Petrie called in and corrected at least one… and I left having little or no confidence in my broadcast abilities. I’m not at all sure what will happen with tomorrow’s podcast… assuming the telephone connection doesn’t screw it up like last time…I still haven’t had one episode that sounded at all good or where I would listen to me given the choice.
I have to go do the dishes before Elly gets home and I don’t feel like getting out of my recliner (I 
also aid I’d make a pie… yeah, sure!).
I hope July is better… at least we’ll have the Contemporary American Theatre Festival to kick it off… and I can remember how my Theatre career fizzled in the seventies.
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Why I love (and support) Bernie Sanders…
As the debate over deficits ramped up in Washington today, Sen. Bernie Sanders laid out the compelling case not to slash programs for working families. Any deficit reduction package must rely on new revenue for at least half the reduction in red ink, he added in a major address in the Senate. Sanders spoke at length about what caused deficits (wars, Wall Street bailouts, tax breaks for the rich) and how to shrink them (more revenue from the wealthiest Americans to match spending cuts). He urged fellow senators not to yield to Republican congressional leaders who “acted like schoolyard bullies” when they walked out of budget negotiations. And he urged President Obama not to accommodate them again on the backs of working Americans, the poor and the Elderly. He summed up the situation in a letter to the president that had been signed by more than 18,700 people by the time he completed his speech.
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Thoughts on turning 65…
So I have now outlived my father by a dozen years or so… something I never thought I would do. I am retired (actually, I had to retire early a year ago due to the crummy job situation for guys in their 60s) and I’m on Medicare (until the Republicans destroy it along with Social Security.)
I’m doing things now which make no money, but actually fulfill a whole bunch of internal needs. I do 
the radio show as John Case’s co-host on Friday mornings (and substitute for John on his other days when he is away), I do my Tuesday Podcast, I work on community theatre projects every now and then,,, and, of course, I maintain this blog, which I have done since 2004. I’m involved in 
the Community Garden (which my wife runs) here in Shepherdstown… and I did some work on the establishment of the Morgan’s Grove Market. So, all-in-all, I seem to have plenty to do (including housework, which, while Elly is the one working, falls mostly into my lap.)
I guess 65 isn’t so bad… and were it not for the lousy economy and the growing threat of conservative destruction of the things that made America great, life would be lovely.
I hope everyone has a nice day… like I do on most of my birthdays I’m going to drive around aimlessly for a while and look at the local scenery. Usually I bring a dog. This year I may bring two.
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- AP-GfK Poll: Medicare doesn’t have to be cut (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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I am curious about the Conservative concept of “Socialism”
“Those in power are blind devotees to private enterprise. They accept that degree of socialism implicit in the vast subsidies to the military-industrial-complex, but not that type of socialism which maintains public projects for the disemployed and the unemployed alike.”
- William O. Douglas, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1969
Whenever one of the Conservative (read Republican) members of our Congress, or those campaigning for the Presidential nomination, discuss Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid. or unemployment funding, you are certain to hear the word “socialism” pop up with an extremely negative cloaking. It has happened so frequently that the word has lost any of it’s original meaning (“a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole” – Webster’s) and, indeed, has been connected to everything from community farming to Communism.
Socialism appeared as a concept in the early 19th Century in France (“socialisme’) which came from the concept of “social” 
(needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities : we are social beings as well as individuals) or “society” (the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community)…a term which itself goes back to the 16th Century.
The fact that our 21st century civilization shows that the need for the companionship of individuals, states and countries in order to face potentially devastating changes in climate, creating non-polluting energy methods to protect our air and water and educating our children to eventually take over the mess that has been made on our watch, is so obvious that 
many don’t see the forest for the trees.
Our job should be to make the trees visible to all, and especially to the people we elect to office… the people who make the rules and allot the funds to give us those necessary services.
And it’s not like the anti-socialist campaign of the current Conservative is something new, urged on by Corporations that are concerned… apparently by Federal regulation… only of making profits for a limited number of shareholders and executives. Justice Douglas’s quote from over four decades ago points out that it has been present for awhile. In fact, if we go back further to when Eisenhower warned us about the “military industrial complex”, something his whole career had given him great 
insight into, we see our post-WWII economy as a challenge we never met.
Have you wondered why, in all the discussions of the budget and raising of the debt ceiling, we have not heard people yelling for cuts in the military expenditures that keep our remaining industrial giants flowing in dough. As a whole “community”, the military/industry mix is about as socialist as you can get. Add to that the VA medical system which provides the closest thing to “socialized medicine” (another concept that Conservatives would like to deny the average guy) that exists in the world today. This system, by the way, is praised by just about every politician, probably out of guilt from sending so many of our young soldiers into a life of crippling disabilities.
It is time to make a strong change of focus in our social environment, something which is not going to happen if we leave the decisions and actions to politicians. Republican or Democrat, they keep their jobs because of election funds for advertising 
and lobby persuasion with highly focused corporate contributions. As we saw, for instance, in the 1940s and 1950s, many cities lost the public transportation systems of mini-railroads that gave people inexpensive commuting transport … without parking, fuel and other expenses… due to the money spent by the automobile industry on lobbyists and state and federal (and local) political campaigns. General Motors even bragged about it in public.
The question is “how do we do it?” There are no easy answers, but I’m pretty sure it will take a lot of time and will begin on a very local level. Here in Shepherdstown, WV, our recent completion of a 10,000 square foot Community Garden allotting 10′ 
by 10′ growing plots to locals who have no planting areas in their town houses or downtown apartments is a good example of modern socialism. At a very low fee (starting at $20 and going up to $30 if you take three plots), which has paid for deer fence construction and publicity to get members, and with volunteers for construction of the fence (and the donation of land and so much more from a local entrepreneur who has created a neighboring public market to serve local farmers and craftspeople), community interdependence has resulted in community celebration.
This only one concept of local change which can be achieved. Tie that together with activities that follow such as expansion of public libraries (which is part of both education promotion and public interaction), involvement in schools beyond their operations budgets, group purchase alignments for reduction of basic living costs, etc., and you have a good start at what can then expand to the state level… and eventually to the national top. This can also, I would hope, be the start of a new political 
structure, beginning in local government and expanding upward over time.
Now… if we can only protect ourselves from corporate corruption and maintain the basic concept of “socialism”… that our community organization is controlled by ALL of it’s members and not the artificial “Citizens United” persons funded by the corporate bankbook.
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Where did the American united national character go?
A long time ago, in my youth in Connecticut, I remember a really different country than we have now. I didn’t learn about the Federal Government through C-Span, which, of course, didn’t exist back then, but through the Bristol Press and the Hartford Courant (and, occasionally, the Waterbury Republican.) These were the newspapers that came to our house, either by paper boy or by my father bringing them home at night from the Bristol Pharmacy after the 10 PM close.
My parents were moderate Republicans (a concept which doesn’t seem to exist any more), but some of my family 
were Democrats (My Uncle Pete, my Grandfather, my Aunt Helen… etc.) They all got along together. And they were part of a middle class that spent my first thirty years on this globe (I’m 65 next Tuesday) increasing their social and financial strength in a growing economy that was available to most of the population…not just the top 1%.
I tripped over a quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a two term Republican and hero of WWII… Republicans and Democrats respected the man… that relates to our latest political conflict.
Ike said this on November 8, 1954:
“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
Now it seems that those of negligible number or obvious stupidity are no longer a tiny splinter group, but a small 
control force with names like Koch Brothers, or Rupert Murdoch, or Grover Norquist, who are adamantly against the country solving it’s economic problems by fair taxation of all economic levels. Nor do they want the remaining middle class, or the even poorer classes that much of that middle class is joining, to have access to adequate Social Security (if they have access to it at all) or Medicare or Medicaid or Food Stamps… you pick out any of the civil advancements we’ve made over the decades and it seems that this small control force is guiding the Republican Congress members into national devastation.
Part of their secret weapon in defying Ike’s prediction is in the creation of the Tea Party… getting a group of middle 
class or lower people to commit crippling torments on themselves… and then blaming progressives, and, indeed, our President for them. How did the rich get the not rich to carry out their self mutilation?
One way was to spend lots of money on Republican politicians, on political lies during elections and on encouraging racial and social segregation feelings among folks with a history of the same and a minimum of intellectual dexterity. You can tie this to a previous administration (Read Bush II) that decimated the
money kept aside for Social Security, leaving filing cabinets loaded with IOUs that were never intended to be paid while they cut the settled tax rates for the very rich… tax rates that never stopped them either being rich or getting richer … leaving no more expected income for the needs of government.
And the Tea Party folks BELIEVED all this crap. What must the laughs have been like at the Koch Brothers family cocktail gatherings? What was John Boehner‘s thoughts of getting progressive legislation stopped as he played at his golf outings? Those of us entering the world of Social Security/Medicare supported retirement have much different thoughts. Those who will retire ten years from now have even less positive expectations to think about.
I am frustrated with much of what is happening… and aside from making statements in my blog, or on my podcast 
or on the Friday Morning radio show where I am a co-host… don’t see what I can really do about it. I continue to vote and never miss an election, but my level of winning, the level of any progressives winning, is well below 50%… I live in the midst of conservatives and small thinkers, and of Democrats who might as well be Republicans.
We have Corporations that are treated by our Supreme Court’s conservative majority as individual citizens, with no control of the money spent by such private power. We have oil companies that make billions in profits, but receive billions from our government as subsidies.
There is another President, even earlier than Eisenhower, who also had a vision of what could happen in our society:
“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of
private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. ”
Be afraid, my friends. Be very afraid.
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Looks like Harry Reid is going to make Senate Republicans commit themselves to Ryan’s Budget on the Senate floor…
I don’t know if you saw Rachel Maddow last night, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I – Vermont) made a statement that picked my ears up.
Sen. Harry Reid (D - Nevada)
After commenting on the devastating results the Ryan Budget would have on the lower and middle classes (destruction of Head Start, dismanteling of Social Security, turning Medicare into Coupon Care giving seniors an $8,000.00 coupon instead of coverage – something a senior diagnosed with cancer can spend in the first week), he announced that Harry Reid has a strategy which will benefit Democrats in the upcoming election… He’s going to bring the Ryan Budget to the Senate floor for an up-or-down vote. Then all the Republicans who vote for it can be held to it (like the House Republicans) and take the loss in 2012.
In the House, Boehner appears to be wobbling and, perhaps, pulling back on the Ryan fiasco… especially after several local Town hall meetings have attacked Ryan and others about the cutting of Medicare and other problems with his budget – like giving more advantages to corporations and the richest 1% of our population:
Boehner’s recent statement:
“It’s Paul’s idea. Other people have other ideas. I’m not wedded to one single idea, but I think it’s — we have a plan. Where’s the president’s plan to deal with the nightmare that’s facing Americans?”
Organizations like Americans United for Change have another view of Boehner’s being unwedded to Ryan:
“Sorry Speaker Boehner, there’s no ‘take-backs’ or distancing from this one — you and the 224 other House Republicans that voted for the Ryan plan for turning Medicare into Coupon Care now own it.”
So let’s keep an eye on the Senate when they come back (When do these guys actually WORK?), I guess next week. Let’s see if Harry Reid actually pulls it off.
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Here’s what the President proposed today…
Is the guy we elected back?
According to TPM:
- A debt failsafe that will be triggered if the debt-to-GDP ratio hasn’t stabilized, and begun to decline by mid-decade. This will include automatic spending cuts, and reductions in tax subsidies, but no tax increases. Social Security, Medicare, and low-income programs will be exempted. It will not tie the government’s hands in the event that an economic downturn requires fiscal stimulus.
- Cuts to discretionary spending, compatible with those in the Bowles-Simpson recommendations.
- Defense spending cuts, contingent on a thorough review conducted by Secretary Robert Gates, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Obama himself, and savings generated by winding down operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Strengthening the Independent Payment Advisory Board, created by the health care law to recommend and implement cost savings reforms to hold down the cost-per-Medicare-patient.
- Simplifying the formula for providing federal matching funds to states for Medicaid, which would automatically increase in the event of a recession
- This is a big one — Obama will propose using Medicare’s purchasing power to reduce prescription drug costs for seniors
- Reductions in agricultural subsidies
- Comprehensive tax reform, which reduces loopholes, simplifies the system, allows the Bush tax cuts for high-income earners to expire, and reduces the corporate tax rate.
It may not be everything we want… and it may need the infusion of the Congressional Progressive Caucus that I presented earlier today… but this started to sound like the Obama we elected. My question is will he stand his ground on letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire. He’s going to go head-to-head with Boehner and the Tea-Party-Controlled Republicans who have said they will not support any increase in taxes.
I’m not sure a deal can be made here, so there will have to be another strategy… and it won’t be pretty.
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Need a laugh this afternoon?
I was desperate for a laugh this afternoon when I turned to Suburban Guerilla and found this posted by Susie:
Signs of the Great Recession
I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can’t afford batteries.
CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.
I saw a Mormon polygamist with only one wife.
If the bank returns your cheque marked “Insufficient
Funds,” you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America
Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.
My cousin had an exorcism but couldn’t afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
A picture is now only worth 200 words.
The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.
Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!
And, finally…
I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call centre in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.
Thanks, Susie, I needed that.
