Social Security

Imagine if a bunch of Democrats started talking just like this? I know one that does and he's running for Congress: Norman Solomon

Originally published in the California Progress Report
By Karen Bernal
Progressive Caucus of the CA Democratic Party

We've had enough. The country has had enough.

As elated as we were when President Obama was elected in 2008, after a disastrous eight years under the repressive and war-mongering Bush Administration, the Obama Administration has been a major disappointment to the working class and Progressives of this country.

So much so that on July 30, the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party adopted a resolution criticizing President Obama for negotiating away Democratic Party principles to extremist Republicans, and suggesting that we may explore steps to "effect necessary change, including a possible primary challenge to President Obama." The resolution, overwhelmingly adopted at a meeting of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party July 30, did not say President Obama would not be that candidate.

The officers and members of the caucus are willing to meet with the President if he wishes to discuss our concerns. In fact, we would welcome the opportunity. Our Caucus leadership wishes HOPE BEYOND HOPE that President Obama will rework his priorities to respond to the needs of working class Americans in order to get progressive support in 2012.

I've been saving this link for over a year to use at the right time. And the reason I didn't hit submit is because I know there are a lot of true believers out there who still think that he, and the rest of the Washington Democrats, are on their side. The Democratic Party of FDR and JFK will be destroyed if they get away with this. Click the link below to go to the source to watch the youtubes

Obama and Social Security: NewDealDemocrat Tees Off

by NewDealDemocrat

Last week President Obama said that he will be "agnostic" as to any changes, including Social Security benefit cuts, that his debt reduction commission recommends. This is a far cry from his constant campaign rhetoric in which he promised to listen to all recommendations, but his plan was to raise the payroll cap on contributions.

This is a sad but necessary piece in which I lay out the evidence, which I believe is compelling, that Barack Obama's own words and deeds reveal that his real agenda all along has been to use a commission or summit to cut Social Security benefits, and that the campaign rhetoric was just a sop to anesthetize opposition. This for a program that, at worst, faces a shortfall 30 years from now, and that Obama himself called the cornerstone of the American social compact.

I notice my titles are getting longer and more bitter. I found I lacked the space, but this one should have read:

OBAMA’S REAGANOMICS ON STEROIDS: “Entitlement Reforms” a/k/a Ruthless Back-stabbing of Middle and Lower Income Americans by Raping and Disabling Their Social Safety Programs and Forcing Them To Postpone Retirement (Pretending They Could Manage to Stay Employed, Anyway)

I have just read a distressing article on Obama’s toxic Reaganomics sensibility by Eric Laursen in the indypendent.

The ever-hurtful coalition of what Laursen labels deficit hawks and free-market conservatives are having a field day during these dark and dirty Obama years. Obama and his administration amiably talk the talk of bipartisanship as they ruthlessly continue the Reagan and Bush devastation of the non-elite classes. Laursen calls out Obama for engineering us into a fatal economic direction that will damage Social Security for decades to come.

Laursen:

The quotes are real

They came from Obama administration officials Obama himself Organizing For America staff Obama supporters newspaper columnists various bloggers progressive activists and progressive critics

The Tax Deal: Why I hate it
Margie Metzler
Wednesday, December 08, 2010

President Obama has announced a “deal” with Republican leaders that leaves Republicans gloating and Democrats demoralized and depressed. It has been presented in the press as a two-year extension of tax cuts for the wealthy and for the middle class, in return for a one year extension of unemployment benefits.

First, keep in mind that this conversation is not over. There is yet no bill, and plenty of people are still fighting it.

But critically for seniors on Social Security, there is a one year “holiday” of the payroll tax, from 6.2% to 4.2%. The payroll tax is the tax that workers pay that goes to support people currently on Social Security. As soon as a worker earns $106,800, she has reached the “cap,” and the payroll tax is no longer levied until the next year. We have always advocated that raising this cap when necessary is the best way to keep Social Security solvent.

When I first read about the cut in payroll taxes its importance slipped right by me. A 2% cut; so what?

Let's just call this so-called "Deficit Commission" what it really is -- an attack on the middle class.

From the very start, right-wing Republicans have been using the commission as a platform to destroy Social Security. They want to cut benefits and raise the retirement age, knowing full well that it will throw millions of seniors into poverty.

It's wrong. That's why we supported candidates who stood strong for Social Security and that's why we're working today to hold them accountable to the promises they made.

Call your Senators right now and tell them Hands Off Social Security.

Call now at 1-866-529-7630 and tell Congress "No cuts, no raising the retirement age"

When we asked DFA members where they stood on Social Security, the answer was clear -- you said to stand strong for Social Security -- No cuts, no raising the retirement age -- and that is exactly what we're doing.

Stuff Alan Simpson Says.com

Meet Alan Simpson. He wants to gut Social Security. And he's in charge of the future of Social Security.
How's that? President Obama appointed him to lead a key Social Security commission. We don't know why either.

'I've made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know 'em too...We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits!'

'[To a women's rights advocate:] Call when you get honest work!'

See more here:

Sam Seder asks "Raiding Social Security for giveaways to millionaires?"

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Obama Will Fight with Us to Quash the Campaign to Loot Social Security -- Right?
By William Greider, The Nation - Posted on February 14, 2009, Printed on February 15, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/126898/

Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The pitch sounds preposterous to millions of ordinary working people anxious about their economic security and worried about their retirement years. But an impressive armada is lined up to push the idea--Washington's leading think tanks, the prestige media, tax-exempt foundations, skillful propagandists posing as economic experts and a self-righteous billionaire spending his fortune to save the nation from the elderly.

These players are promoting a tricky way to whack Social Security benefits, but to do it behind closed doors so the public cannot see what's happening or figure out which politicians to blame. The essential transaction would amount to misappropriating the trillions in Social Security taxes that workers have paid to finance their retirement benefits. This swindle is portrayed as "fiscal reform." In fact, it's the political equivalent of bait-and-switch fraud.

Examining Clinton & Obama’s Stances on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Universal Healthcare, Privatizing Social Security and Nuclear Energy: Democracy Now!

With Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a dead heat, we look at their stances on some of the most pressing domestic issues with Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, Max Fraser of The Nation and Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear. [includes rush transcript]

You can watch a video of this Democracy Now! interview here.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn now to the Democratic race, where Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in a virtual dead-heat that could last right up until the convention. The contest is so tight that Democratic Party chair Howard Dean has raised the possibility of a compromise if no clear nominee emerges by April.