Social Security belongs to the American people. It is not Obama's to bargain with. [View all]

[Triana]

Last edited Thu Apr 11, 2013, 05:49 PM - Edit history (5)

I voted for Barack Obama twice, however I can no longer defend him since he is advocating unfair and unnecessary cuts to Social Security.

President Obama OWES the American people a clear explanation:

• WHY he is choosing to advocate for cutting SS after repeatedly promising not to?

• WHY he is buying into the debt/deficit propaganda and the austerity bullshit when it's clear that austerity has not worked anywhere else in the world and when virtually EVERY economist says it's JOBS that ought be priority #1 for fixing the economy, NOT cuts!

• WHY he is insisting in coupling the need to "do something" about SS with talks about the deficit, when SS has not added ONE CENT to the deficit. Talks about any "fixes" to SS ought to be separated from debt talks and any fixes to SS can wait since the program is fully solvent for at least another 20 years. Why now?

• WHY he insists on CUTTING SS when other options that most Americans support and which are MUCH less damaging are available - such as raising or removing the FICA cap, or raising FICA tax rates - yet these options are NEVER mentioned or discussed by his admin. Why is that?

Social Security IS OUR MONEY. It is not an "entitlement". It is an EARNED BENEFIT and we have every right to an explanation as to WHY this president is CHOOSING to "bargain" it away in some unnecessary, immoral, unfair, and ill-conceived plan which we know has its roots in a group of very wealthy men who have sought to destroy the program since it was created. WHY is he helping them do it?

President Obama needs to be cornered with these questions. Preferably by some very angry voters who supported his (re)election - however I doubt he has the guts to face them after what he's done on this issue - which he surely knows is wrong, unfair, and grossly immoral.

It is unconscionable to force our nation's elderly, sick, disabled vets, and our poor to suffer even more to pay down a debt which THEY didn't create and which Social Security hasn't added one cent to.

I KNOW this president knows better than this. The American people certainly do. But he likely won't face them on this issue. I wonder how he can even face himself.

He's lost my support. If I wanted policies like this, I'd have voted Republican. I don't want them. I didn't vote for them. And I never will.

In the clip above, Barack Obama said:

"John McCain's campaign has suggested that the best answer for the growing pressures on Social Security might be to cut cost of living adjustments or raise the retirement age. Let me be clear: I will not do either."

In regards to this, a friend commented thusly: "I find him scary, because his image/words/speeches do not match his deeds."

This comment says a lot. I've had people in my life like this: Jekyll-Hyde types. They were two-faced, not trustworthy. You don't want them in your life and you don't want them in power. President Obama's Jekyll-Hyde problem in regards to Social Security is one example of why.

We expect Republicans to conscienceless and diabolical. Not Democrats. And that's what this proposal to cut Social Security is: conscienceless and diabolical. Particularly so since it was Democrats who created and have consistently protected this program. And mark my words, Republicans will use Obama's willingness to cut it as part of their 2014 campaign against Democrats. They've already started.

I wrote previously about Pete Peterson and his "Fix the Debt" lobbying apparatus, and about how Obama's two appointments to the "catfood commission" are its top leaders - Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. You can see my post about that and other issues here.

Though he made these appointments, perhaps many people thought that they were just some sort of window dressing and that surely a Democratic President would not seriously advocate cutting Social Security. No Democrat has ever done that. They were wrong about him. I was wrong about him.

This issue is a defining one for Barack Obama and his betrayal is worse than just betrayal. It's a Chicago gangster-style knife in back of the majority of Americans for no reason other than achieving a "grand bargain" with obstinate Republicans who've been hellbent on destroying Obama, Social Security and this country practically since their existence.

I can assure President Obama that Americans do not appreciate his presumptuously bargaining away their retirement savings needlessly and unfairly as part of a package to appease the most extreme, greedy, dangerous, unethical, hostage-taking, uncompromising contingent of our government and business sectors who want their hands on our money, and have for decades.

These money-hoarding, greed-driven factions don't care if any middle-class or poor Americans live or die from one day to the next. But most Americans rightly expect an allegedly Democratic President to care. It turns out he doesn't. Some goddamned "grand bargain" with the most greed-driven, impossible and unproductive contingent that has ever existed in Congress is more important to him.

And there's no other reason for this. None. Well, except this one, very nicely pointed out by TheNation magazine:

In fact, there is an even bigger lie concealed by the fiscal scolds and ignored by witless media, too. Again and again, self-righteous critics have portrayed Social Security as the profligate monster borrowing from the Treasury and sucking the life out of federal government. Guess what? It's the other way around. The federal government borrows from Social Security. The Treasury has been borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund for 30 years, and the debt to Social Security beneficiaries now totals nearly $3 trillion. The day is approaching when that money will be needed for its original purpose: paying Social Security benefits to the working people who contributed to the fund.

That is the real crisis that makes the financial barons and their media collaborators so anxious to cut Social Security benefits. They would like to get out of repaying the debt—that is, giving the money back to the people who earned it. The only way to do this is cut the benefits—over and over again. Count on it. If the president and Congress succeed in this malicious scheme, they will come back again and again to cut more and more. If the politicians join this sordid conspiracy, voters should come after them with pitchforks and torches.

You can read the entire article here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/173771/will-voters-forgive-obama-cutting-social-security

And as for the question of whether voters will forgive Obama for cutting Social Security - the answer is a resounding: "HELL NO!"

Social Security belongs to the American people. It's OURS. It does not belong to President Obama or Wall St. It is not HIS or THEIRS to bargain with.

How dare you Mr. President.

© 2013 Seven Bowie

SOURCE: http://www.sevenbowie.com/2013/04/social-security-belongs-to-the-american-people-it-is-not-obamas-to-bargain-with-how-dare-you-mr-president/

(I am the author)