Question: Will Obama Supporters in DU Still Support Him if he Cuts Social Security & Medicare?

[jtown1123]

The President has recently announced he will look into the Catfood Commission proposals on Social Security and Medicare (raising retirement age, means testing, voucher program, etc.) He is very willing to look at these proposals to "reform" these programs.

If that does indeed happen, will you still support Obama? What's your last straw?

I am genuinely curious.

Politico Article "Obama to Blink First on Social Security":

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46430.html

[aquart]

1. No COLA for three years? HE ALREADY HAS.

Get that through your head.

[MineralMan]

6. No increase in Cost of Living, either, in the stats used.

President Obama does not set SS COLA amounts. In fact, he has absolutely zero to do with them.

The President cannot decree something and have it happen. That's not how things work.

[aquart]

18. If the COLA is based on a false set of figures, yeah, he can.

Anyone who tells you the cost of living has not gone up is a liar.

[sharp_stick]

26. What figures are falsified?

Maybe an understanding of how the statistics are set and have been set for decades is in order. Obama, and his administration, don't have the luxury to change the methods that are used to suit them politically I don't think can they?

Perhaps you can enlighten us as to the way the COLA is set and the figures that are used to calculate inflation? Please then tell us how they were falsified and who did that?

[MineralMan]

35. You really don't understand how our government operates,

do you? The President of The United States has very limited powers. The Executive branch is just one of three branches. What each can and cannot do is spelled out in the Constitution. Reading it is a good idea.

The President cannot dictate how COLA is set. Congress has to do that, you see. Expecting what cannot be done by the President from the President is going to be a disappointing expectation every time. Learning how the government actually works might help with defining your expectations. I recommend it.

[rucky]

42. And the "stats used" have little to do with actual cost of living:

Fuel prices, grocery prices - all going up faster than inflation.

[sharp_stick]

44. Not something to blame the administration for.

If and when Obama can change the rules of the COLA on his own perhaps but not now.

[MineralMan]

46. President Obama cannot change the system used to

set SS COLA. That's a Congressional thing. You knew that, right?

Note: I am a Social Security recipient.

[LuckyTheDog]

62. Nope

That was not Obama's doing.

[katnapped]

2. Yes they will

And no doubt they'll complain we're asking for too many ponies so we need to shut up and let the "adults" run the show.

[ixion]

3. Actually, the reason I can no longer support him is because

of his continuation of numerous Bush-era policies, and in fact extending those policies and further curtailing our civil rights.

THAT is something I simply cannot support, that, and his insistence on continuing the so-called 'wars' on (some) drugs and brown-skin people, er I mean 'terror'.

[bananas]

4. Of course they will, they are DINO's.

[pipi_k]

I'm confused...

So the only real Democrats will be the ones who don't support the Democratic president?

:silly:

[bananas]

33. No, Obama is a right wing authoritarian.

He's a centrist right wing authoritarian, as opposed to a crackpot right-wing extremist, but he is still a right wing authoritarian.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008


Hope this helps!

[MineralMan]

53. Interesting. When did President Obama fill out that

questionnaire, I wonder? The others, too. When did they all fill out the questionnaire?

Oh, wait...you mean that someone else filled it out for them? How quaint. And you present that as evidence? Really?

I filled it out. I doubt anyone named on your samples did.

[sharp_stick]

60. HAHAHAHA

I filled that in and found out that I'm as far out there as Joseph Stalin, but on no I bullshitted my way through each and ever fucking question. Just like whoever filled out the one you posted.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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

[emulatorloo]

19. and hypotheticals? If Obama mandates circumcision or bans fishing will you still support him?

[boston bean]

27. like the no public option hypothetical, or keeping bush tax cut hypotheticals? nt

[pipi_k]

32. Hah! Maybe we should start some nasty rumors RE: those subjects...

It would be interesting to see how many people believe they're true...


:7

[emulatorloo]

63. believe or not, those rumors are out on the internets!

There was even a website that claimed HCR would force mandatory sex change operations.

[liberal N proud]

50. Since I am and don't - it is of no concern to me

:rofl:

Some analogy there.


:rofl:

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

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

[T Wolf]

45. But, we ARE gonna take it. Like the good little children we are told to be. nt

[NaturalHigh]

7. I would hope not...

but nothing really surprises me any more. The Obama-worship is really disconcerting, especially when he just sold future generations of our country into debt.

[LiberalEsto]

9. You are SO right

I can't believe it myself

[Poll_Blind]

34. I've been here long enough to see people come on, make names for themselves as posters...

...push a particular (usually really specific viewpoint, and usually some terrible idea like privating social security), harp on it for months and months, try to hound other posters off the board (often in conjunction with one or more like-minded individuals) and then, usually after some pivotal event like in my example about privatizing social security the stock market crashing or whatever, just disappearing forever.

This is only related tangentially to Obama. DU is read by a lot of people and that makes it an attractive target for those who wish to game the user-base, hoping to change opinion. In a hypothetical where Obama does cut Social Security and Medicare, don't be surprised if you see a number of users coming on here day after day to support him, and to aggressively attack (or "swarm") people who don't, trying to control the message even if it means doing some nasty things to individual users. And then, don't be surprised if one day, when the damage is done, they all just go "poof!", like so many gloves pulled off of and discarded from unseen hands.

I have seen it over the years again and again and again, though the hardcore version of it (what I'm speaking about) is not necessarily happening all the time.

It is a curious phenomenon and I know I'm not the first old-timer to notice it. You might read the disclaimer in my profile because the farther right Obama goes the more chimerical things could get here and it helps give you a useful way of looking at some of the absurd situations which might arise.

We don't really know who or what is on the other side of that computer screen, writing those messages. It's worth remembering that.

PB

[NaturalHigh]

41. +1...

and then a few more after that.

[MilesColtrane]

58. Are you saying that Karl Rove has recruited an army of undead Obama supporters to...

hype this tax bill on the internet?

[somone]

8. But, but, but, but the president says we MUST do something about the deficit

[katnapped]

14. And don't forget the salient point

"If you don't agree with the president cutting Social Security, you're a racist and saying you want Sarah Palin in the WH"

[somone]

30. Yes, I'm soooo scared of Sarah

and the race card is sooo over-rated in poker...

Pretty despicable - and destructive - scheme by a so-called Democrat. Of all people.

[gristy]

10. what Obama supporters?

I mean, really.

[Fire1]

24. You'd be surprised. n/t

[lamp_shade]

36. ..

:thumbsup:

[emulatorloo]

11. "POLITICO ARTICLE"

= rightwing hacks..

[jtown1123]

13. Actually, Politico is not the right wing hack paper. Those would be The Hill and Roll Call.

[emulatorloo]

22. Check out the funding when you get bored someday, or do a MediaMatters searh

Hill and Roll Call, yeah.

[mmonk]

12. If they are not blinking now, they never will.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[emulatorloo]

16. Worth noting that when Obama tackled Medicare FRAUD, Republicans claimed he was "cutting Medicare"

[SidDithers]

Has he cut Social Security and Medicare?...nt

Sid

[TBF]

23. He has started the process by agreeing to cut the payroll tax which funds

social security. Without funding it will be much easier for the repubs to cut it when they take over in 2012.

[mmonk]

48. Right wingers call it "starving the beast".

[Beetwasher]

17. When He Doesn't, Where Will You Move Your Goalposts?

[SidDithers]

21. +1...nt

Sid

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. What's Obama going to do when he runs out of things to give his pals(R)?

[TBF]

28. He'll retire and work for a hedge fund, or just give speeches to them.

Plus he's got his book royalties and government pension. Notice his pension is not on the chopping block.

[Better Believe It]

25. It'll be a lot more than Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block

[TBF]

29. No kidding. nt

[somone]

38. They're targeting the whole New Deal and the premise behind it

and Obama deserves much blame as their enabler

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

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

[lamp_shade]

40. .

[QC]

37. Of course they will. n/t

[JustAnotherGen]

39. No

I would not. And I will hold every single Democratic Senator responsible if they get don't loud, abrasive, and vicious to prevent President Obama from working around them with the Teapublicans. If they do - then the Democratic Party no longer even has a right to exist.

[subterranean]

47. That would be the last straw for me.

I'm sorry, but if he cuts Social Security and/or Medicare, especially after this tax giveaway to the rich, he'll lose my support. The same goes for any Democrats in the House or Senate who vote in favor of it.

I won't vote Republican, and I'll still support progressive candidates and issues, but I don't think I'd be able to vote for Obama even if I hold my nose. I hope it doesn't come to that.

[stray cat]

49. DUers antagonizing DUers with Flame Bait - no wonder the GOP wins!

[liberal N proud]

52. BINGO!!!!!!

+1000

[neverforget]

54. And President Obama making a deal with Republicans has nothing to do

with this?

[sharp_stick]

57. I suppose it does

but if Obama and the GOP came out together and stated that the sky is blue I'd put money on the exact same people saying the same thing and being just as loud about it.

I find it interesting how the complainants have moved away from the unbelievable din surrounding DADT the last few days. A lot of the same complainants IIRC who were saying that Obama's lack of action on DADT was "The last straw", the "line in the sand" etc. Now it's all oh the deficit oh no the tax cuts are extended..here is "the last straw", the "line in the sand" etc.

A lot of folks around here move the goal posts well enough that they should consider giving John McCain and Joe Lieberman lessons in the art.

[Occulus]

61. Mote, beam, etc. n/t

[Karmadillo]

51. You betcha!

nt

[treestar]

55. Don't trust people looking for a last straw

especially when it's imaginary. Makes it look like the sole goal is the same as the R. one. Just to get rid of Obama. Nothing else.

[awoke_in_2003]

56. yes, they will. nt

[MadHound]

59. Yes, I'm sure some will

And the rationalizations for such a move will be hilarious if the consequences of the action won't be so dire.

[GOPBasher]

64. I like Obama, but if he cuts SS , Dems are toast for a couple generations.

He can't, cut SS or raise the retirement age. He MUST know he's dead in 2012 if he does that. As far as Medicare goes, I definitely don't support cutting services. HOWEVER, the COST of Medicare should decrease, in the future, if we get our health care costs under control. (I think some of the HCR should accomplish that.)