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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 07:10 AM Nov 2013

Filthy Rich CEOs Are Lobbying to Cut Medicare, Social Security and Push the Retirement Age Back

http://www.alternet.org/economy/ceos-against-grandmas




David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell, has more than $134 million in his personal retirement fund. If I were sitting on a nest egg that big, I might feel a bit sheepish about telling ordinary grandmas and grandpas to take a cut in their Social Security payments.

But Cote — and leaders of many other large corporations — don’t see it that way. In fact, as Congress prepares for yet another budget showdown at the end of the year, the loudest calls for Social Security cuts are coming from CEOs who will never have to worry about their own retirement security.

Two lobby groups have organized CEOs into an austerity army. One is the Fix the Debt campaign, which is spending tens of millions of dollars on slick PR tactics to garner public support for cutting popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. More than 135 chief executives have signed up as Fix the Debt spokespeople.

The other is the Business Roundtable, a 40-year-old club for about 200 of America’s most powerful CEOs. The Roundtable doesn’t sugarcoat. They want everybody to work until age 70 before they can get Social Security.

Like Cote, these are people who are sitting on massive nest eggs of their own. According to a new report by my organization, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Center for Effective Government, Business Roundtable CEOs have retirement accounts worth $14.5 million on average. That’s enough to generate a monthly retirement check of $86,043 starting at age 65. By contrast, the average monthly Social Security check is only $1,237.
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Filthy Rich CEOs Are Lobbying to Cut Medicare, Social Security and Push the Retirement Age Back (Original Post) xchrom Nov 2013 OP
This is why poor people shouldn't vote like they are rich madokie Nov 2013 #1
Generally speaking. "poor" people, by which I am guessing you mean people with the least money, jtuck004 Nov 2013 #11
It's not actually the poor that are the worst in that regard Fumesucker Nov 2013 #2
It's just organized crime pretending to be legitimate corporations. fasttense Nov 2013 #3
No man should be so rich he has nothing left to buy but his government. aquart Nov 2013 #4
I'm going to quote you Half-Century Man Nov 2013 #5
This should be posted everywhere!!!! Nt newfie11 Nov 2013 #8
K & R Thinkingabout Nov 2013 #18
CEO job descriptions make no mention of ethics ... Scuba Nov 2013 #6
And why not? It's THEIR money, after all. DiverDave Nov 2013 #7
Gerrymandering needs to be stopped! Nt newfie11 Nov 2013 #9
How do these shitstains sleep at night? moxybug Nov 2013 #10
they're sociopaths Skittles Nov 2013 #17
Welcome to DU. Change has come Nov 2013 #19
Their hysterics about Social Security.... paleotn Nov 2013 #12
Hey xchrom... Did You Catch THIS ??? WillyT Nov 2013 #13
cool. i gave it a rec. nt xchrom Nov 2013 #15
he's not as old as I thought hfojvt Nov 2013 #14
These filthy rich CEO's disgust me! City Lights Nov 2013 #16
That's it!! I'm dusting off the guillotine!! \nt randomelement Nov 2013 #20
Message auto-removed Name removed Nov 2013 #21

madokie

(51,076 posts)
1. This is why poor people shouldn't vote like they are rich
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 07:25 AM
Nov 2013

if the poor didn't buy into the guns, gays and abortions bullshit put forth by the sob's we wouldn't be in this mess. Well at least we wouldn't be in it so deep

Poor people quit voting like you are rich. simple solution

 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
11. Generally speaking. "poor" people, by which I am guessing you mean people with the least money,
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 09:47 AM
Nov 2013

don't vote. Many of them are children, many are aged and/or in poverty, work at jobs which don't allow them to vote, etc.

It is the people with money and education who decide, since they have the food to have the energy, the education to read and understand their rights and responsibilities, the freedom (have never been a felon), gas and a car to get to a polling place, extra time wherein if they are working their job allows them to vote or they aren't spending 12 hours away trying to ride a bus back and forth to their job - things they often take for granted which others don't have.

Respectfully, the only solution, simple or not, is for the people who have more, who have enough so they can do things like sit on their ass in front of a computer typing on an Internet site, to vote as if everyone else mattered.

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
2. It's not actually the poor that are the worst in that regard
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 07:37 AM
Nov 2013

Edit: This was supposed to be in reply to madokie above.

It's the middle class that think they are all going to be wealthy one day.



 

fasttense

(17,301 posts)
3. It's just organized crime pretending to be legitimate corporations.
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 07:41 AM
Nov 2013

In normal times greedy psychopaths would be heading major underground criminal enterprises. Mob bosses like Jamie Dimon would be running drugs and prostitutes. Instead they are CEOs. They want a starving suffering population to do their bidding. They want everyone to be intimidated enough to keep their mouths shut.

It's what capitalism always devolves into.

 

Scuba

(53,475 posts)
6. CEO job descriptions make no mention of ethics ...
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 08:06 AM
Nov 2013

... and the only value cited is "more money, more money".

DiverDave

(4,874 posts)
7. And why not? It's THEIR money, after all.
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 08:41 AM
Nov 2013

They have looted and stolen with impunity, why wouldn't they want to steal the rest?

They buy the laws that allow them to steal and the glad handing politicians just cash the checks.
We need publicly financed campaigns NOW.
A politician should not be able to take a NICKLE from anyone.
Money has subverted our democracy.

 

moxybug

(35 posts)
10. How do these shitstains sleep at night?
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 09:47 AM
Nov 2013

And are the investers in these companies paying for this PR barrage? And if so how does screwing millions of Americans of the palty social security payments they earned though actual contributions benefit average investors in say Honeywell stock? Sounds like some rich CEO's defrauding their investers so they can hold on to more of the money they'll need three lifetimes to spend.

Assholes.

paleotn

(17,778 posts)
12. Their hysterics about Social Security....
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 10:31 AM
Nov 2013

...really just involves the amount of Treasury debt the Social Security Administration is sitting on. Currently, these are US Treasury special issues, available only to federal government trust fund entities like Social Security. In short, it's like the government owing money to itself, but it's a hell of a lot of money. Here's SSA's latest investments held report.....

http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/investheld.cgi

Makes sense, because we wouldn't want the SSA just stuffing excess funds into the proverbial government mattress. By law, excess funds are invested in what's traditionally been considered the safest investment on earth....US treasuries....and earning a safe 3 to 4% return. Safely away from the clutches of Jamie Diamon and the rest of the Wall Street cons and sharks.

The problem for many of the wealthy is, at current income and out go projections, eventually the SSA will need back the money it's lent to the rest of the federal government. You know, the money our government spent on illegal wars and a bloated military, among other things. Of course, that will mean higher taxes on the very people bitching and moaning about SS. The bitchers and moaners figure if we cut benefits enough, increase the retirement age, etc. the slower SSN will need to redeem its treasuries and the impact on them from a tax perspective will be small to nonexistent, depending on the extent of SS cuts, of course.

As usual, it boils down to us keeping our stinking hands off their stack. Even though much of their stack was earned off federal spending, funded partially by borrowed money from Social Security. Ironic, isn't it, but not to them. It's their damn stack and they don't care if we don't get to benefit from our nations greatest generational contract, even though we've paid into it all our lives. No, they'd rather we worked until we died or lived in pre-SS poverty once we aren't capable of slaving for them anymore. They've got theirs a don't give a shit about the rest of us.

hfojvt

(37,573 posts)
14. he's not as old as I thought
Fri Nov 22, 2013, 11:23 AM
Nov 2013

I thought he would already be past retirement age, and still working. Many CEOs, I think, are in their 70s.

Cote, however, is only 61.

However, I note this from wiki

"In February 2010, Cote was selected by President Obama to be on the debt panel."

and this

"Cote is a Republican, but has close ties with President Barack Obama and the Obama Administration as a whole.[citation needed] Right after President Obama took office in January 2009, Cote was one of the few CEOs invited to the White House for a tête-à-tête with the President.[6] In November 2009, Cote was one of the 12 CEOs selected by the White House to host the US-India CEO Forum, which Cote and Ratan Tata Co-Chaired."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Cote

Somebody who is "calling for Social Security cuts" was "selected by Obama" before the 2010 elections, no less to be part of the Catfood Commission.

Still, as we all know, the only reason Obama has not been more progressive in office - is because of Republican obstruction.

Response to xchrom (Original post)

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