Now attacks on
Social Security are
coming from
all sides of
the aisle.
(so says the
Washington Post)
Never mind that the Social Security Program is solvent and will be so until the year 2038. It makes absolutely no difference to lawmakers either Republican-Teahadists or DINO’s. The Social Security hatch job is in their crosshairs.
As reported in the ultra-conservative WaPo's by Lori Montgomery This time over Social Security, where a vocal and powerful Senate leadership is saying "hands off" against those who have swallowed the austerity Kool-Aid; led by Harry Reid.
This asshat, poor excuse for a journalist writes: “Meanwhile, Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank, plans to release a memo Friday arguing that the deficit has emerged as an uncommonly powerful political issue and that 2012 voters will reward the party that takes bold action to restrain government spending — including overhauling Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“In our view, Republicans are winning this fight,” the memo says, according to an advance copy provided to The Washington Post. “They are winning by taking on an issue that voters believe is serious; they are winning on candor; and they are winning by being on the side of reform. Democrats — who ran on change — are quickly becoming the status quo party on the budget.”
This appears to be the case, since the Post argues that Social Security benefits should be cut, that made no reference to the the trust fund. The article tells readers:
"Social Security is the single largest federal program, dispensing about $700 billion last year to nearly 60 million people, the vast majority of them retirees. Since the program’s creation in 1935, the cost of Social Security benefits has been entirely covered by payroll taxes paid by current workers. This year, however, payroll tax revenues are projected to fall $45 billion short of covering benefits, and the problem is projected to grow as the number of retirees balloons compared with the number of working adults."
The Post is now describing the repayment of the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund as a "problem," implying that it wants to default on these bonds. This is a strong position for a newspaper to take, especially in a news story.
It is worth noting that the interest and principle on the bonds held by the trust fund come primarily from the individual and corporate income tax. These taxes are progressive. This means that defaulting on the bonds, which are owed to the country's workers, would be a massive upward redistribution of income, since the wealthy could then pay less in taxes.
The Post has a long history of supporting policies that lead to an upward redistribution of income such as the TARP bank bailout, trade agreements like NAFTA that put downward pressure on the wages of ordinary workers, and stronger patent monopolies for drug companies. The policy of defaulting on the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund is consistent with this policy of redistributing income to nation's wealthy.*
| Social Security Coalition Seeks Signatures on Pledge to Protect Retirement Program | |
| By: David Dayen Monday August 9, 2010 12:53 pm | |
The coalition mobilizing to defeat any benefit cuts or privatization of Social Security has created a pledge that they will try to get members of Congress to sign during the August recess. Here is the pledge, in full:
Social Security belongs to the people who have worked hard all their lives and contributed to it. Social Security is a promise that must not be broken. If you pay in, then you earn the right to benefits for yourself, your spouse and your dependent children when you retire, experience a severe disability, or die.
We need to strengthen Social Security, not cut it. That is why I oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits, including increasing the retirement age. I also oppose any effort to privatize Social Security, in whole or in part.
The pledge, a sort of left-leaning answer to the Grover Norquist anti-tax pledge, will be presented to members of Congress at town hall events across the country.
The Strengthen Social Security coalition includes over 20 progressive groups, including the nation’s biggest labor unions, MoveOn.org Political Action, Democracy for America, the Campaign for America’s Future, the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the Economic Policy Institute, and more.
MoveOn, which has been among the most active in the Social Security fight in recent weeks, blasted out an email to their members asking them to sign the pledge, so they could put pressure on Democrats in Congress to do so. Last week, MoveOn started running ads against Steny Hoyer for his comments on raising the retirement age, and sent around a fact sheet about the myths surrounding Social Security.
To stop the cuts, we need to send a crystal-clear message to members of Congress: Americans reject benefit cuts, and we expect them to do the same. Can you sign our promise to oppose cuts to Social Security? We’ll use your signature to pressure them to sign a pledge protecting Social Security while they’re home for recess. But we need a strong response to make our point.
MoveOn’s shorter petition says, “I oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age.”
PLEASE GO TO THE LINK AND SIGN THE PETITION IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE SO ALREADY.
·
