Willaim Greider: President Obama Threatens Social Security

[Better Believe It]

Obama Threatens Social Security
By William Greider
National Affairs Correspondent, The Nation
December 9, 2010

The most dangerous feature in the president's proposed compromise on taxes is not the $700 billion tax cut for billionaires. It is the Trojan horse provision that threatens to destroy Social Security by undermining the longterm solvency of the social insurance system.

Barack Obama has proposed to knock two percent off the FICA deductions every worker regularly contributes to the Social Security Trust Fund, the money set aside for their future retirement benefits. Obama’s one-year tax relief sounds attractive and workers can surely use the money, but the consequences could prove deadly for the federal government’s most popular program.

Doubtless, that is not Obama’s intention—he regularly calls for strengthening Social Security—but the president has bought into a Republican proposition favored by conservatives who would love to do away with this New Deal creation. They know this will deprive the trust fund of $120 billion in annual revenue and that shortfall will sooner or later have to be made up to sustain future benefits. Can you imagine Congress finding $120 billion for Social Security amid all the other fiscal pressures?

For that matter, can you imagine Congress turning off this modest tax break for working people once it’s in place? If you believe that, you probably believe Obama is going to fight to recover the $700 billion tax giveaway to billionaires while he is in the midst of his reelection campaign.

Read the full article at:

http://www.thenation.com/article/157022/obama-threatens-social-security

[still_one]

1. If it isn't Obama's intention, then why is he doing it? /nt

[Carolina]

30. same reason HE, by executive order,

created the SS reduction focused Deficit Commission with the likes of Simpson and Bowles as co-chairs.

He is not for the common man.

[fasttense]

62. Every time the middle class and poor get a tax cut, their wages drop.

Obama's tax cuts in the stimulus bill have led to decreased wages in the past 2 years. This 2% cut will give a green light for employers to drop what they pay the middle class and poor by 2%. Employers know you will work for X amount of dollars. They know you are getting 2% more. They will cut your wages or benefits by 2%.

This is a very stupid idea if you are trying to give the middle class and poor a back door increase in wages. It is a smart idea if you are trying to cut wages and destroy Social Security.

Obama is NOT a stupid man. He is just simply a Hoover RepubliCON. He believes in supporting the oligarchy and "free" trade as his record indicates.

We are headed for major pain. The economy will get worse under these tax cuts. It will force wages down and it will increase speculation and gambling in the Stock Market, causing commodity prices to rise. (Because what else do the uber rich do with their extra millions besides ship it overseas?)

[femrap]

80. +1 nt

[chimpymustgo]

96. Good analysis.

[ooglymoogly]

83. When O says something in his Dem Kabuki masque;

You can bank on the opposite taking place behind the curtain. That is the Pug way.

[roguevalley]

39. good question. be prepared to be eviscerated by the 'good dem'

obama is god crew.

[awoke_in_2003]

52. come on, now...

pick up those pom-poms, you crazy leftist :)

[roguevalley]

61. okey dokey. :-D

[ProudDad]

40. It IS Obama's intention...

"End welfare as we know it"...

Gee, where did we hear that one before...?

[awoke_in_2003]

53. Bill Clinton, maybe. nt

[Javaman]

74. more like ronniey ray-gun.nt

[awoke_in_2003]

51. he is doing it...

because it IS his intention.

[Cherchez la Femme]

60. As Curly from the Three Stooges would say:

I'm a victim of coicumstance! :eyes:

[DrDan]

63. absolutely - he and his advisors know exactly the repercussions of this

[Poboy]

2. recommend

[kentuck]

3. And this:

"Don’t count on Democrats for doing anything that principled. "Today’s Democrats fail to understand the program," Altman said, "and so are not only blind to subtle assaults against it, but seem to conspire in those assaults. With the Republicans and the Democratic president, perhaps unwittingly, conspiring to destroy Social Security, the American people don’t stand a chance."

[awoke_in_2003]

54. "Complicit"-...

"meet the new boss, same as the old boss"

[Echotrail]

4. Agree! This is the most dangerous

especially as we enter the next two years with a GOP dominated Congress and a president who created and stacked a commission to kill Social Security.

We have been viciously conned.

[ooglymoogly]

84. This tax cut using SS is dangerous on many levels

It pits working folks against older folks who are already on SS. It breaks the well placed barriers between SS and the treasury looting it as they already have, but now without even a promissory. Talk about slippery...this prick is greased with vaseline and as big as a telephone pole.

[sirthomas66]

85. Exactly. Roosevelt is turning over in his grave. We will eventually

have to take to the streets--or perish. Just that simple.

[Poboy]

5. The silent unreccers are hitting this one hard.

[bobbolink]

Thank you for reminding me --- Rec'd

[emilyg]

50. me 2- Rec.

[jaxx]

6. More la-la land predictions.

No wonder people think the sky is falling. When the pundits write this crap, which is totally unsubstantiated, the people think it's true. It isn't. It's another Obama bash.

[BlueJac]

8. It's been la la land for 30 years now........

nice you noticed

[awoke_in_2003]

55. 30 years...

is about right- fuck Ron Rayguns

[kentuck]

9. Greider is probably the wisest person writing on economic issues today..

You discount him so readily.

[jaxx]

12. You're right, I do discount him.

And all the others who use their crystal balls to make predictions to fire up the anger. They don't know anything more than anyone else does. But they know how to push your buttons.

[bobbolink]

14. Are you going to take care of all the people left high and dry after SS is gone?

[jaxx]

17. Are you going to give me the bill # to read?

SS isn't going to be gone.

[bobbolink]

26. There are many reliable and much more knowledgeable folks who say otherwise.

I'll believe them, thankyouverymuch.

So, when people are left impoverished because their SS dried up, are you going to support them?

Or is your heart that hardened?

[JDPriestly]

47. The 2% cut to Social Security taxes is the first step toward

getting rid of Social Security.

It is morally wrong and, politically, the stupidest thing I have ever heard a politician suggest. It is unbelievably stupid. Most senior citizens could not survive without Social Security, and senior citizens vote.

I was at a meeting with my congressman recently, and the audience was decidedly opposed to Obama's tax compromise and especially to the cuts to Social Security taxes.

Obama is hurting Social Security. And it is just the first blow. We seniors are not important to Obama. And it really hurt him in the November election.

[Javaman]

75. Isn't it interesting how this proposal came out AFTER the election?

they knew it wouldn't have a snowballs chance in hell, just like their political careers, if it came out before.

time is everything when screwing the public.

[sirthomas66]

95. The damage would have been even worse than it actually

was. The Democrats would have lost more seats in the House and the Senate. Can you imagine what will happen in 2012?

[sirthomas66]

87. The question is: does he care? I doubt seriously if he planned

for a second term. Did you see where Romney today came out against the tax plan? I would be that he will be the next president. I don't know much about him.

[disillusioned73]

90. I did hear about that,

they are playing this perfectly. Romney has the ability of being an outsider and rail against OBAMAS debt busting deal. He's already backtracked on his similar "healthcare" reform that he himself pushed when Govenor... 2012 is gonna be a bumpy ride

[awoke_in_2003]

56. "SS isn't going to be gone"

to quote Dr. Evil- "thank you. I haven't laughed that hard since I was a little girl"

[neverforget]

93. They're just going to slowly starve it to death.

[Better Believe It]

29. They may know more than you. Have you considered that possibility?

[Skittles]

59. forget that one

she is a lost cause

[tomp]

65. of course not. obama, hyper-chessmaster in-chief knows more than anybody....

...who ever lived or ever will, even more than god.

[bluethruandthru]

66. and we mere mortals cannot understand his infinite wisdom or his

master plan that will save us all from the greed of the evil republicans. We should just trust in him and he will lead us to the promised land.

(sometimes I get carried away! :) )

[tomp]

104. yes, but who will save us from him? nt

[ipaint]

16. Pundit?

Nothing like wearing one's ignorance one's sleeve.

"William Greider is the bestselling author of five previous books, including One World, Ready or Not (on the global economy), Who Will Tell the People (on American politics), and Secrets of the Temple (on the Federal Reserve). A reporter for forty years, he has written for The Washington Post and Rolling Stone and has been an on-air correspondent for six Frontline documentaries on PBS. Currently the national affairs correspondent for The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C."

Who Will Tell The People written in 1993 warned of the very corporate controlled government we have today.



Try and catch up before you attempt to smear someone.

[kentuck]

18. Thank you.

The ignorance is overwhelming.

[ipaint]

20. They don't want the truth to spread so they smear people who have long histories of not only

being right but also 100% on the side of democracy and citizens.

They defend corporate control and call it progressive. They defend the gradual dismantling of social security and call it liberal.

Sickening.

[jaxx]

22. Social Security hasn't been dismantled.

Corporations are let by way too easy, I agree with that. People who are always predicting, always being negative, always trying to start fear...I don't see where that long history is worth much. Sickening, yes it is.

I'm a liberal.

[ipaint]

24. I said...

gradual dismantling of social security.

Which we are now witnessing. I've been watching this since before reagan. Classic mo of the right wing.
Works every time because folks who haven't seen them in action for decades just have to experience another massive loss to learn their lesson.

Educating themselves on the history of the last 4 decades to avoid more crushing defeats is apparently too hard.

[jaxx]

25. I've been voting since 1968, I've seen it all.

The wingers have been trying to dismantle SS since it's inception. They hate the people.

[Hannah Bell]

31. the reagan-era deforms of SS were thought up by a bipartisan commision & voted into existence

by a bipartisan congress.

[eridani]

32. Cutting the payroll tax is just one part of the assault n/t

[jaxx]

19. So he's been jerking chains for 40 years?

Wow how impressive. It looks like conspiracy stuff.

[ipaint]

21. Up is down, black is white, the facts are yanking chains...

Authoritarian nonsense.

[awoke_in_2003]

57. and don't forget...

2+2=5, except when for when the party demands it equasl 4.

[ipaint]

23. dupe... wrong place nt

[Hardrada]

41. More paid corporate spewing.

[Bluebear]

48. You said it.

[JDPriestly]

46. Obama's tax cut compromise will move money that, without the 2% cut, would to into

the Social Security Trust Fund from that Fund into the general revenue fund. That is the money that many, many single people and couples without children (or with grown children) pay now into the Social Security Trust Fund and if the 2% cut goes through will include in their taxable revenue.

So, this 2% cut will not only destroy the division between the Social Security Trust Fund and the general fund, it will also transfer some money from the Social Security Trust Fund to the general fund. Granted it won't be the entire 2%, and some people will actually take the 2% home. But the damage this will do not only to the Social Security Trust Fund but to the entire concept of Social Security is not worth the few hundred dollars those people will get back.

I completely, totally oppose Obama's plan to for the cuts to the funding for Social Security. That is not how a Democrat balances the budget.

[Enthusiast]

73. Thank you. Nice post. nt

[Javaman]

76. So in other words...

he's barrowing from paul to pay peter with no intention of ever paying paul back.

[femrap]

81. +1 nt

[Le Taz Hot]

67. William Greider a pundit?

You might want to do some research. He's a best-selling author, reporter and lecturer with a LONG history of being RIGHT. A particularly enlightening tome was "Who Will Tell The People?"

[lumberjack_jeff]

91. Yet, you didn't offer any arguments for your opinion.

There is less than zero evidence that the Social Security shortfall that this bill will create will be filled from other sources.

[Bluebear]

106. Never does. nt

[BlueJac]

7. K&R

[Scurrilous]

10. K & R

:yourock:

[jannyk]

11. Emailing this to everyone I know! Kick & Rec!

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bobbolink]

15. the "Trojan horse" now has a face.

:cry:

[Poboy]

28. This idea has cartoon potential.

[WCGreen]

27. I brought this up last Monday and no one thought anything about it...

I don't mind getting vilified for going against president Obama, but I do like being proved right consistently day after day since last Monday...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/WCGreen/313

Recommend

[jtown1123]

82. I too have been shouting this from the rooftops for a week. Some more Info:

Fact Sheet: Why a Payroll Tax Holiday Undermines Social Security http://www.ncpssm.org/news/archive/payroll_tax_holiday/

NCPSSM Government and Policy Director Maria Freese discusses payroll tax holiday with KPFA Radio http://www.ncpssm.org/video/MariaDec10th2.wav

[sad sally]

33. In a year from now, the voices in congress calling for

this raid on the SS trust fund to end will be few and far between. Congress will be looking for massive cuts in social programs to make up the $120B, which will be met with scorn. So, in order to make things right, a bill to privitize the SS fund will be voted on. One of the four large "banks" will get the contract and steal the rest of the trust fund, investing it in foreign governments (mainly China).
The chumps (us) will be told to figure out how to invest and grow our own retirement plans, and if we fail, poor houses will reluctuntly be established to house us until we die of starvation or disease.
no good will come of this 2% payroll "holiday"

and how long will it be until employers ask for their contribution to also be reduced by 2%, under the guise of needing it to create jobs?

[Better Believe It]

34. First they will call for various cuts in benefits to make Social Security "solvent".

President Obama and major leaders of the Democratic Party in and out of Congress will support those cuts.

Ya gotta compromise!

[Poboy]

35. -

[lonestarnot]

36. Most idiotic idea I've ever heard from a dem. Never seen such shortsighted bullshit unless it is

intentional and I believe him to be a smart man, so yes intentional.

[Poboy]

88. Its really hard to come to any other conclusion. -nt

[leftstreet]

37. K&R

[Goldstein1984]

38. Rec

Sent this link to about sixty friends, asking them to forward.

[ProudDad]

42. Big K&R -- Greider knows what he's talking about...

and has for decades...

And this is the FIRST TIME IN HISTORY that the Social Security System's funding has been DECREASED!

This will make the system appear more in arrears so it's easier to maim...

And then drown in a bathtub...

[zalinda]

43. And this is something that the repubs didn't ask for

I can't remember where I read it, but when they came out of the room, they were confused but gleeful by Obama adding this to the bill.

zalinda

[hay rick]

44. K&R

[kentuck]

45. Kick one more time for the best economic analyst in America...

He may have lost a step but he still has a razor sharp mind.

[upi402]

49. This should be an alarm clock for us, a loud one

set to Spinal Tap 11.

[defendandprotect]

101. The warning sirens have been blaring since the day after the '08 election -- !!!

Since Obama began picking the "team" --

the team who created the original problems and profited from them --

and then refused to remedy them!

[avaistheone1]

58. I trust William Greider's take on this issue.

k&r

[tomp]

64. this part is extremely poor logic:

"Doubtless, that is not Obama’s intention—he regularly calls for strengthening Social Security...."

words vs actions. obama now has at least major attacks on ss under his belt.

when will we believe its destruction is what he actually wants to accomplish.

probably around the same time we figure out that the democratic party is a worse than useless collaborator with the republicans.

in fact, The Nation and the nation really ought to know better by now.

[scarletwoman]

68. Yeah, that struck me, too. Hasn't Grieder figured out by now that what Obama says

is NOT what he does? What Obama says means nothing.

"Doubtless", the destruction of Social Security IS Obama's intention.

sw

[grahamhgreen]

70. +1000.

[Poboy]

98. True.

[Name removed]

69. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LWolf]

71. +1,000

[Enthusiast]

72. Allowing ALL the tax cuts to expire

would have been far preferable to this disaster of a deal. Same for unemployment extensions. In the long term a society with a compromised safety net will be far worse.

[sirthomas66]

78. It can't even exist under our current structure and will become one

more reminiscent of India or China--without the fulfilling of some social needs.

[sirthomas66]

77. I have said this every day since the tax package was introduced. Yesterday

I had my first post deleted after a notable long-time poster here called me a name and told me to "enjoy my stay at DU" because of my statements against the tax holiday. My post wasn't even remotely against the rules, so I presume it got deleted as a lead thread in the group. Anyway, once again: Social Security has not had a tax holiday done against it in its 75-year history. Do this now by a Democratic President and approved by members of a Democratic Congress and this puts Social Security on a sure path to defunding. Are any of you in your fifties and sixties prepared to share your declining real incomes with a child forced into retirement poverty because they didn't provide for their retirement needs, needs that have been partially facilitated, though not perfectly, by Social Security? Are those of you who have planned your retirement using Social Security as a component, prepared to increase retirements dollars privately for what will be missing? For every year Social Security is not funded by the tax holiday, the future value of those missing amounts, dependent on time, is in the thousands of dollars. In a few short weeks, the Republicans will be taking over the House. Do you honest-to-God believe the Republicans are going to let the reduction in Social Security witholdings sunset? And what happens when the employer portions also gets reduced based on employer complaints of inequity? Will there be any defensive force against keeping the employee portion at 4.2% for another year--or another two years? Obama? Has anything you've seen in Obama led you to believe he will not acquiesce to the Republican's demand to maintain the lowered witholding, which progressively turns into a de facto defunding of Social Security? Would a sitting president want to sign off on what can be construed as a tax increase a year before or two years before a presidential election. Whether Obama has taken this this ill-advised course purposely or not, I don't know, but the appointment of the now defunct catfood commission leads me to believe this tax holiday was done purposely as a contingent plan to be used if the catfood commission failed. As Greider explains, this Social Security Tax Holiday is a Trojan Horse. This provision may well ultimately not only destroy Social Security but the Democratic Party as well.

[femrap]

79. I really didn't think

he could be worse than I expected. I'm in awe of his selfishness toward the elderly and the women who depend on Social Security more than men.

This nightmare is really getting out of hand.

[ooglymoogly]

86. This "tax cut" is a poison pill on many levels

It pits working folks against older folks who are already on SS. It breaks the well placed barriers between SS and the treasury looting it as they already have, but now without even a promissory. Talk about slippery...this prick is greased with vaseline and as big as a telephone pole.

[disillusioned73]

89. This whole sorted mess..

is starting to remind of the days of yore when "the left" was up in arms about negotiating from a position of weakness when it came to the single payer/public option debacle. We were continuously discounted as whiners and were told to "chill out, Obama f*cking got this", well we all know how that turned out.....

so tell me centrists.... should we STFU cause Obama "got this"?? What credibility do you have left??

[lumberjack_jeff]

92. "Sordid" n/t

[wilbureduke]

94. Jesus endorses social darwinism?

you know he does it is all over the place in the bible. can't remember the book and verse where i read but ya know it has to be in there for God's squad to say it... "the rich work harder than the poor so they deserve to keep it all"... "feeding the poor only makes them lazy"... "if the poor loved me as much as you do they wouldn't be poor"... and then of course my personal favorite that has been pushing me towards the edge of losing all faith in man kind since i first encountered in in the 70's and even more popular than then. PROSPERITY DOCTRINE, a long time repugnantican party best, check it out if you don't know about it. to me at least it is the base foundation of of the ills of the modern church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology

so everybody knows now Jesus, loves the rich more and that is how He shows it. which in turns means the poor deserve to be that way because they are... bigger sinner than rich. again for those not privy to this mental disorder... Jesus loves the rich and while "hate" might be too strong of a word he doesn't prefer the poor because they either are BIG sinners for not accepting Him or the other default, lazy. so either way its their fault and i escape any and all guilt for wanting to keep ALL MY GOD GIVEN WEALTH YOU GODLESS HIPPIE. i assure you if anyone had the nerve to ask any of them (palin, huckabee, rommeny, etc) about this they would answer in code words "oh, course".

this is the foundation for all of them and no one seems to notice.

[Poboy]

97. And this is a man that sat in Rev. Wright's church for years.

I was actually hoping he secretly agreed w/Wright. No such luck. His complete contrast/reversal of position can only mean he is an opportunist and completely craven.

[Better Believe It]

99. As we can now all see, Obama hasn't only turned his back on Rev. Wright.

[defendandprotect]

100. ... differences between the two parties seem to be fading ever faster .....!!

[defendandprotect]

102. Just want to mention this, however --

Neither the right wing propaganda over decades nor W's attacks on

Social Security were sufficient to destroy it --

Therefore, right wing/Elites changed their plans and simply changed tactics --


Simply put, a Democratic president is now doing it for them --

with a new stealth program to attack the very basis of Social Security -- it's ability

to fund the program.


Notice that the overall attacks on safety nets keep coming -- once they are

eliminated, everyone becomes even more vulnerable to the overall attacks on the

economy.


What provides more "Shock and Awe" than finding our own Democratic president involved

in deliverying this latest blow?

[Poboy]

103. Tried and true since NAFTA/Clinton.

[defendandprotect]

107. So true ... !!

:nuke:

[BlueIris]

105. When the rest of society wakes up, it will be too late. nt

[Poboy]

108. .

[Scurrilous]

109. Kick

:kick: