We Must Act Now to Save Social Security and Medicare - Jane Hamsher/FDL + Bonus Article !!!

[WillyT]

We Must Act Now to Save Social Security and Medicare
By: Jane Hamsher - FDL
Friday July 15, 2011 12:37 pm

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You would have to be in deep denial to listen to the President’s speech this morning and not realize, with crystal clarity, that Social Security and Medicare are on the chopping block. It’s not a matter of “if” but “when.

Right now as Dave Dayen says, the only game in town is the McConnell/Reid plan, which calls for the creation of a Catfood II commission to recommend cuts that would get and up-or-down vote in Congress. It’s a prospect that the Social Security looters have been salivating over for years. No amendments, no discussion. A tried and true way to pass the wildly unpopular “shared sacrifice” cuts to Medicare and Social Security which have appeared in every plan so far.

In fact, the only quibble Obama expressed this morning with the Simpson-Bowles plan is that they cut too much from defense spending. ”Shared sacrifice” means it’s okay for senior citizens to be plunged into poverty, but we apparently draw the line at Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

President Obama supports raising the retirement age to 67 according to the Huffington Post, which as Jon Walker points out effectively voucherizes the program for people ages 65-66. That’s exactly what Paul Ryan wanted to do. Obama is publicly supporting means testing, which threatens to turn these programs into welfare programs — one of the ways that the GOP has been trying to get a foothold into Social Security and Medicare, with the hope of destroying them, for decades.

President Obama tried to lecture progressives this morning, to tell us what we “should” be thinking and feeling right now, which is apparently to adopt his neoliberal policies. No thanks.

<snip>

More: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/07/15/we-must-act-now-to-save-social-security-and-medicare/

:evilgrin:

:hi:

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McConnell proposal would force major review of entitlements
By Greg Sargent - PlumLine/WaPo
Posted at 10:56 AM ET, 07/15/2011

<snip>

Larry Kudlow, who’s plugged in with Congressional Republicans, scoops a key new detail about the emerging Mitch McConnell proposal to transfer control of the debt ceiling to the president:

McConnell is negotiating now with Sen. Harry Reid for a large-scale package that will allow the debt ceiling to rise unless overturned by a two-thirds vote. If a White House debt-ceiling deal comes through with $1.5 trillion of spending cuts, that will be part of the package. Right now, it’s not completed because enforceable spending caps have not been determined.

The key part of the new McConnell package is a joint committee to review entitlements in a massive deficit-reduction package. Unlike the Bowles-Simpson commission, this committee will be mandated to have a legislative outcome — an actual vote — that will occur early next year. No White House members. Evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. No outsiders. This will be the first time such a study would have an expedited procedure mandated with no amendments permitted. Also, tax reform could be air-dropped into this committee’s report.

A source with knowledge of the emerging proposal confirms to me that while nothing has been finalized, this is where the discussions are headed.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mcconnell-proposal-would-force-major-review-of-entitlements/2011/03/03/gIQA50iAGI_blog.html

:shrug: