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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama To GOP: I’m Serious About Cutting The Social Safety Net - TPMDC
Obama To GOP: I’m Serious About Cutting The Social Safety NetSahil Kapur - TPMDC
March 14, 2013, 7:23 AM
<snip>
President Obama is seeking to push Republicans to work with him on a grand deficit bargain by first assuring them he’s willing to cut entitlements, and then attempting to scrape off enough of them who will in turn agree to raise new revenues.
House Republicans emerged from a rare meeting with Obama on Wednesday afternoon saying he assured them he was serious about cutting programs like Social Security and Medicare in order to reduce the long-term deficit.
“It was a really great first step,” said Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI). “He did express a willingness to give on entitlements.”
“He focused a lot on entitlements,” said Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL).
Other Republicans expressed similar sentiments to reporters as they exited the meeting. Some voiced frustration at his insistence that safety net cuts be paired with new tax revenues — that central division remains, as senior Republicans still aren’t willing to go there. Yet others signaled that they did not trust him to follow through.
<snip>
More: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/house-gopers-obama-told-us-he-wants-to-cut-entitlements.php
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bowens43
(16,064 posts)on this issue he pretty much does what the republicans tell him to do
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Paging ProSense
Obama--The answer is to cut Social Security and Medicare. By the way, what was the question?
snooper2
(30,151 posts)he's been slackin' right? 
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)I never thought I'd see the day when a Dem President even suggested cutting the Social Safety Net programs, lie about them helping with the deficit, in case you don't know, SS had ZERO to do with the deficit, and then have to hold my breath once again and hope that Republicans would refuse to accept that offer.
It's a disgrace. And there is simply no way to try to excuse it.
When he gives in some more on tax cuts for the wealthy and Republicans finally get everything they want, I look forward to the excuses we will be expected to believe.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)Is this part of an elaborate scheme to box Republicans into a corner, or is he really trying to make that deal?
It all will become clear at the point that a deal is struck. If it doesn't include the Buffet rule and an end to things like the oil depletion allowance and carried interest, then clearly it is a sellout.
I don't like the idea of means-testing Medicare and Social Security at all. Starting down that path just gives the Republicans yet another battle front for eventually killing those programs. Obama could start with a threshold of $150K income, or example, and in each Congress, they could whittle that down to the point that essentially nobody would be getting those benefits. And when nobody benefits, nobody is willing to pay into the programs. Mission accomplished.
I think Obama understands that, so I am hoping this is part of a dance leading to 2014.
Marr
(20,317 posts)"yes" for an answer.
At this point I don't think there's much of a question left regarding Obama's performance on this issue. From putting Alan Simpson at the head of his 'search for answers' committee to repeatedly offering to make these cuts, it's pretty clear that SS/Medicare cuts are one of his big agenda items-- not a concession.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)and therefore he can make the best PR position by appearing flexible.
And part of this can be a stalling maneuver. The fact is that if the economy continues to improve, the deficit will just not be a compelling issue. It has already come down almost by half, and by the end of this fiscal year, COULD be as low as about $600Bn.
Every time the deficit drops on its own through recovery, more of the GOP leverage flies out the window.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Well now.....Is Obama using a bait and switch...Medicare idea is great...Chained C.P.I.
can always be overturned down the line. As the economy slowly improves and with the on going population change, Perhaps the C.P.I. thing will be dealt with down the road.. After all the right wing is becoming more irrelevant every day!!!
LooseWilly
(4,477 posts)SS tax (6.2 % of income paid by employee, 6.2 % paid by employer- or self if self-employed ... with a drop to 4.2% for the employee portion in 2011 & 2012 ... which rose back up to 6.2% for employees for 2013) is only charged on the first $106,800 of 2011 income and only up to $110,100 for 2012 income.
This means that, if you earn 400,000 of income in 2012 (on your w-2), you will only pay SS taxes on the first 110,100. the remaining 289,900 is completely SS tax free.
Raise the ceiling by 100K... and SS will take in an extra 12.4% on every earned dollar in-between.
As for medicare... add an extra .5% for employer and .5% for employee?
There are better solutions to fix these programs... but that's not really the point. The point is that Republicans WANT to cut them... and Obama is letting on that he's willing to join in if they'll help eliminate the arbitrary sequester budget cuts, and substitute some taxes for a portion of the cuts.
Someone will have to be sold down a river...
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)are not going to buy into that under any circumstances!! My hope is that Obama has some kind of plan to lure them into thinking their getting cuts, while in reality they are not......
if he is getting ready to diminish SS cuts... There would be only one reason for doing so which I can figure....That he could become part of a fraternity which has tried to disrespect and humiliated him for 4 years and now wants to become part of this exclusive club.
Remember what Groucho said!!!! Might apply...
LooseWilly
(4,477 posts)If Obama offers cuts and the Republicans make an agreement, I'm pretty confident that he will carry through with said cuts.
I don't think it's any sort of concern with joining the fraternity which you seem to refer to. I get the impression that Obama is still convinced that there is a "beyond partisan" set of policies that he wants to be a part of developing. A set of policies that is unconcerned with any past struggles, but instead tries to develop "new solutions" based on the "changed conditions" of "today".
In other words... I think Obama really wants to re-invent the wheel, policy-wise, and has convinced himself that doing so will produce a hovercraft.
Pretend that workers are no longer being exploited by owners, but rather being offered gainful-work-opportunities; and pretend that owners are entrepreneurial job-creators, rather than greed-mongers who're looking to cut costs at the expense of workers ("human resources"
in order to bank greater profits... and a whole new dynamic of policy and progress "appears on the horizon".
Presto change-o, abra cadabra... a brave new world!
Workers will no longer need to rely on Social Security, because they will have "gainful-work-opportunities" to see them through...
Ironic that Obama should be endorsing the Hamilton Project of the Brookings Institute, since Hamilton was the father of Political Party Partisanship...
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)What is seeing as being gainful $15.00 an hr? Believe me No one is gonna support that crap, including 90% of the middle class who supported him during the election.... I don’t think he’s that stupid but if he is,. It will destroy the Democratic Party as we know it. Maybe thats a good thing!!
My original post was in some jest.But sometimes I feel he want’s in at the “golf club”...
JoeBlowToo
(253 posts)It seems he just can't help himself.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)(Big Hat Tip to RogerFox over on MadFloridians op re SS.for this information. It's PDF....but the first pages are mindblowing for how well they've done so far in strategy)
-----------
Achieving a Leninist Strategy (1983)
Stuart Butler and Peter Germanis
"... the strategy must be to propose moving to a private Social Security system in such a way as to ... neutralize ... the coalition that supports the existing system." (p. 555)
"The next Social Security crisis may be further away than many people believe. ... it could be many years before the conditions are such that a radical reform of Social Security is possible. But then, as Lenin well knew, to be a successful revolutionary, one must also be patient and consistently plan for real reform."
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1983/11/cj3n2-11.pdf
Wounded Bear
(64,328 posts)
does that mean?
SS is not in crisis. That is a manufactured meme straight out of the Disaster Capitalist handbook. Create a crisis and then take advantage of it. Now they've progressed to: create an artificial crisis and take advantage of it.
We're screwed.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)and Heritage are together on the "Lenin Revolution" of SS from the PDF from CATO Institute. You have to read the Playbook there. It was written in 1983 and so far they are going according to plan...
It's very creepy. Sort of like when we found out Project for a New American Century (PNAC) had plans in place for when there was a "New Pearl Harbor" and they instituted them after "9/11."
It's all planned about "Social Security's Privatization." The script is so clear in that paper from CATO at the link. 
bananas
(27,509 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)bananas
(27,509 posts)
loudsue
(14,087 posts)These people are megalomaniacs.
hootinholler
(26,451 posts)Isn't Cato Koch funded?
KoKo
(84,711 posts)-----------------
Political activities of the Koch brothers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch are the sons of the late Fred C. Koch. Their father founded the second-largest privately held company in the United States, Koch Industries. After having bought out two other brothers' interests, these two brothers remain in control of the family business and fortune left to them by their father. They also control the Koch Family Foundations.
The Koch brothers contribute a large amount of money to conservative, libertarian, and free-market individuals and organizations.[1] They have given more than $196 million to dozens of free-market and advocacy organizations.[1] Tax records indicate that, in 2008, the three main Koch family foundations contributed to 34 political and policy organizations, three of which they founded, and several of which they direct.[1][2]
MORE AT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)Which is nothing more than a double-dip by the rich into the poor's coffers.
WTF Obama?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)...it was trillions. And if he knows what's good for his future, he better go along with the welfare for the wealthy.
Four more wars, for progress.
Colorado Rambler
(40 posts)I have had my reservations about Obama since before the 2012 election. He has been gradually cutting "safety net" programs for quite some time now. Still, he was elected a second time with the mandate to keep Social Security/Medicare intact, as well as raising taxes mostly on those who can most afford it - not on us working stiffs. He seems to be turning his back on the popular support he has in this country in order to give a little more to the tea party each time's there's a fiscal deadline.
Further, his administration has not gone after the criminal crowd in the "too big to fail" gang. The people who plunged this country into a major recession have been allowed to skate. What's up with that?
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)
NCarolinawoman
(2,825 posts)Does he care?
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)The republicans are forcing Obama to cut Grandma's social security.
It is clear Obama is NOT a socialist.
But the republicans will stop at nothing to take what they can from Granny.
New republican motto: "Like taking pennies from an old lady."
forestpath
(3,102 posts)
librechik
(30,957 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Loyalty to the goodness of a program or an ideal isn't part of his rhetoric. He means what he says.
For months he has become increasingly strident about reaching not just a bargain but a "Grand Bargain".
I see it perfectly natural for a pragmatist to rationalize that deal requires "Great Compromise"?
ProSense
(116,464 posts)..to know is that Republicans lie. They also claimed he said he would approved the Keystone pipeline in that meeting.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2500701
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2500921
Still, the key clue here is that even the President's proposal doesn't cut Medicare.
The President basically left it up to Congress to work out the details, which is why Boehner is still pissed today.
Obama to GOP: "Our biggest problems in the next 10 years are not deficits"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022506142
steve2470
(37,481 posts)If not, this is very disappointing, to put it mildly.
indepat
(20,899 posts)compliments of a Dem President who would be continuing to govern to the far right of center, possibly sounding the death-knell for Dems and democracy. 
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)If anyone doubts are President fights for the things he actually believes in, doubt no more. He has been tireless in this battle. He didn't even wait until the inauguration to charge forward, and he hasn't allowed a week to pass ever since without pushing his agenda.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"No one, including Ryan, has fought harder to destroy social security."
...we're lucky that Ryan isn't as bad as the President. I mean, maybe we should take Ryan up on his offer and save ourselves from the utter destruction this President is about to unleash, right? Surely, Ryan's budget is better than anything the President would sign, and it's coming.
Boehner: Obama needs to spend more time talking with Democrats
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/14/1193979/-Boehner-Obama-needs-to-spend-more-time-talking-with-Democrats
What would we do without Republicans?
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)I will be blunt: I am sick of this shit.
I am beyond sick of this shit. It's ludicrous that I need to call my Congressman to stand firm against our own party's President. But I do. And not only on this issue. Obama has a laundry list of fucked proposals he wants, from Keystone to Free Trade to Cyber "security."
If the Democratic party goes along with this we are parting ways.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)I am beyond sick of this shit. It's ludicrous that I need to call my Congressman to stand firm against our own party's President. But I do. And not only on this issue. Obama has a laundry list of fucked proposals he wants, from Keystone to Free Trade to Cyber "security."
If the Democratic party goes along with this we are parting ways.
...you should call and tell your Rep to support the GOP budget, at least it's not as bad as the President's.
Where on earth did you get the claim that Obama want's Keystone?
President Obama Shows No CISPA-like Invasion of Privacy Needed to Defend Critical Infrastructure
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022370043
"If the Democratic party goes along with this we are parting ways."
That is until 2016, right?
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)If this video doesn't explain why he thinks Social Security and Medicare benefits need to be cut, nothing does:
srican69's post: Stunning visual display of wealth distribution .. absolute must see for EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022507452
loudsue
(14,087 posts)to start getting social security and medicare, and have NO OTHER WAY to earn money to help keep up with the rising costs of food, gas, insurance, medical costs, electricity, home repairs, and everything else you can think of. You know...all those things they DON'T count to see if we have inflation.
samplegirl
(13,989 posts)turn out this way for us? Why are we always the ones to sacrafice???
zeemike
(18,998 posts)And we never catch on that the good cop and bad cop work for the same people....the ones that pay their bills.
sangsaran
(67 posts)Once we're all working in Romney's beloved Chinese factories, they'll be satisfied.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)is to make sure those "about to retire" will be protected then work down to convince the young that SS will not be there for them. Tell the young that IRA's are where they can put more money away for their retirement. They go into the "resistence" that will be put up by the older people and so it's important to work hard on the young.
There's more but it's a long PDF. It's quite creepy. BTW...they had input from Heritiage Foundation.... The same ones who did the AFA that Romney instituted and Obama eventually ended up with.
Transferring the burden onto the workers has been happening to pensions in the corporate world for a long time. I work for one of the most secure companies in the fortune 500 (large utility) and now it too has finally forced a pension change on us. All new employees will be enrolled in a cash balance retirement plan instead of the defined benefit plan we have had for decades. These new employees will get a slightly enhanced 401K plan to make up some of the difference but that will be on the employees shoulders to have the discipline to max out their contributions. I did an analysis comparing the new pension plan to the old one and it results in about half the lifetime retirement payout. I've spoken to new engineers fresh out of college about this and they dont seem to care, they are just glad to have a job and retirement is so far away they cant even see it (I was the same way in my 20's). Our CEO is going to get a huge bonus for puttting this new plan in place. It will eventually result in hundreds of millions in increased profits for the corporation.
And now Social Security under attack using the same divide and conquer strategy of old versus young. Re-assure the older workers that they will still get the same SS benefit and then dangle a carrot in front of the younger workers, tell them the SS trust fund wont be there in 30 years and cut their future SS benefit.
loudsue
(14,087 posts)I don't think I can take much more of this.
ellie
(6,975 posts)I am so glad that I voted for him.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Oh wait, the answer to that would be: NEVER.
pediatricmedic
(397 posts)AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)To bargain. Seems like that's the only way to save the EARNED BENEFITS.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)And apparently, he's happy with that.
We've been completely taken.
Twice.
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)
Autumn
(48,962 posts)And that's a damn shame.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)Or is this more 16 level chess?
Rex
(65,616 posts)they always fall for this.
AnnieK401
(541 posts)to get something like that through.
grammiepammie
(81 posts)Please, let's just wait and see before we start with the Obama bashing.
CountAllVotes
(22,215 posts)Absolutely disgusted!!!! 
& recommend.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)We will get two corporate candidates again in 2016, too. Corporate money controls, floods, and has largely restructured our government and our electoral system, and both parties are purchased at this point.
That's why we have to focus not just on trying to prevent the individual betrayals as they occur, but on building national outrage and demand to CHANGE THE SYSTEM.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)to ferret it all out...but, day by day...
CountAllVotes
(22,215 posts)Just as the boomers are retiring -- the same people that paid more money into this system than any other group. Now it is their turn to collect and the corporate pigs are moving in for the kill. This sickens me! 
fer's !!!!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)
bigtree
(94,265 posts)I call bullshit on this title and the contents of the article.
'House Republicans emerged from a rare meeting with Obama on Wednesday afternoon saying . . .'
Saying WHAT that I should believe? What did the republican say? That's who we're taking our cues from now - just to slam the President with this bullshit line that he wants to cut the 'social safety net?'
More hair on fire bullshit. Just pure bullshit.
MadHound
(34,179 posts)Yeah, that's cutting the social safety net.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)airplaneman
(1,386 posts)The GOP will do whatever they can to get concessions in return for absolutely nothing.
-Airplane