Social Security, Medicare Reform: Geithner touts "effectiveness" of Reagan's Greenspan Commission

[Amerigo Vespucci]

VIDEO @ URL below.

Geithner: We're 'Deeply Serious' About Medicare, Social Security Reform
By Susie Madrak Sunday Feb 07, 2010 2:00pm

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/geithner-were-deeply-serious-about-me

Of course, Geithner is pushing the Very Serious Idea of reforming Social Security and Medicare. Doesn't everyone?

Considering that the Greenspan commission didn't actually work - at least, not the way that Geithner says it did - it kind of leads me to wonder what he actually means.

From This Week:

TAPPER: Do you think the fact that you guys are pushing the bipartisan commission is indicative of the fact that our political system is not capable of taking on the serious challenges our nation faces?

You and I know that the money, as Willie Sutton says, said, that -- why do you rob banks? Because that's where the money is. The money is in entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, things that you do not touch in this budget.

The fact that you need a bipartisan commission to recommend cuts or tax increases, doesn't that indicate that our political system is incapable of making these tough decisions?

GEITHNER: Jake, I am very confident in our ability as a country to bring people together and make sure we are solving these challenges and these problems. We've done it in the past, it is completely within our capacity to do as a country.

But of course, it requires you bringing people together across the aisle to step back from politics, to try to bring practical solutions to things that are very important to our future as a country. And the president is committed to do that.

We're going to give the Republican Party the chance to share in the responsibility and the burden and the privilege of trying to fix the things that were broken in this country.

TAPPER: Republicans are afraid this is just a back door for tax increases. Are you willing to say that tax increases are off the table for this commission? Let's sit down and talk about the long-term structural problems with entitlement spending?

GEITHNER: The president's view, and this is a view shared by many Republicans, and it builds on what we've seen with effective commissions in the past, like the Greenspan commission that President Reagan established to help restore the financial footing of Social Security, is that for this to work, you've got to bring people together to step back from politics, day-to-day politics, and to bring fresh ideas to solve these kind of problems.

That's the only way to do it, we think. And we're committed to doing that. We've got to do it on a bipartisan basis, and we're deeply serious about doing this.

[indepat]

1. MF Geithner: 'nuff said

[rfranklin]

2. Reagan robbed us--raised SS paycheck deductions and spent every penny...

That was what Cheney was referring to when he said "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." We were too fucking stupid to know we'd been robbed.

[truedelphi]

8. except by the time that Clinton was finishing up his years in the WH

he had restored those Reagan- era deficits, and he left the nation a surplus.

We have to remember to extend the blame for this to George Bush Jr.

George W never met a deficit he didn't like.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Know this about Timmy...

He has attended the Bilderberg Group meetings/
He is member of Council of Foreign Relations
He is a member of the Tri-lateral Commission.
( as is Bernanke).

Whahtever Timmy is for, is going to be very bad for us.
And now he says he is "deeply serious" about attacking Soc. Security.



Edited to add:

Project Censored has more info about this if anyone is interested:

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/22-obamas-trilateral-commission-team/

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Thanks for link.....

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. Guess this the "change" Obama meant: mandatory purchases of private health ins, privitize SS,

medicare. What an empty fraud.

[wildflower]

6. "The money is in entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security"

This is a quote from Tapper? Where is the mention of defense spending?

[upi402]

7. Obama's destined to be a better Republican than Clinton

He's used Clitnot's team and is swinging the bat at US!

we are so fucked and i just don't give a shit anymore what happens to 'mericuh ... effemall

[HillbillyBob]

9. The money is in entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,

To steal directly from our pockets w/o the benifit of the usual IRS round about.

[bvar22]

10. Heck of a Job, Timmie!!!

"Well, I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner and my entire economic team,” Obama said as he departed the White House for California yesterday.

"Nobody’s working harder than this guy. You know, he is making all the right moves in terms of playing a bad hand. And what we need to be doing is making sure that we are providing him the support that he needs in order to work through all these problems so that we’re able to deal with them more effectively in the future.”--- Barack Obama

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/9235987/Heckuva_job_Timmy__Barack_Obama_on_Timothy_Geithner/


If you work for a living, these people are NOT your friends.