From Roots Action:
At President Obama’s first post-election press conference he stressed his eagerness to work with Republicans.
Without being asked about Medicare or Social Security, he urged “deficit reduction that includes entitlement changes.”
Reporters didn’t ask about the option of cutting military spending, and the President never brought it up.Does this sound like ingredients of a Grand Bargain you’d like to see?
There’s a real danger that President Obama will revert to offering cuts in Social Security and Medicare in exchange for token tax increases on the rich. The so-called “fiscal cliff,” which isn’t nearly as scary as the media claim it is, is our best bet for eliminating the Bush-Obama Tax Cuts For The Rich.
UPDATE: The Republicans are doing everything they can to stop the “Grand Bargain,” much to the delight of progressives. Boehner Wants Obamacare On The Chopping Block In Debt Negotiations.
#1 by Larry Bergan on November 15, 2012 - 6:22 pm
I signed the petition Richard; probably the ten thousandth one since I got the internet. I’m probably the worst bargainer in history, but Obama needs to hire an expert. This is ridiculous, considering that Obama got an obvious mandate from the people in this election.
#2 by Shane on November 15, 2012 - 8:30 pm
As many people have pointed out, we just elected a conservative president. The GOP should be happy, but since they have no idea what words like “socialist” and “Muslim” mean they are beside themselves….
#3 by Larry Bergan on November 15, 2012 - 8:58 pm
I guess they think socialist=communist=Stalinist=mass murderist – OVER HERE! That’s the best I can come up with.
#4 by Nathan Erkkila on November 16, 2012 - 1:38 pm
The way the baby boomers screwed the younger generations, I do not believe that they deserve social security.
#5 by Richard Warnick on November 16, 2012 - 1:58 pm
Have mercy on us boomers, Ronald Reagan raised the Social Security tax in 1984 so that we had to pay for the retirement of the generation ahead of us and for our own, too. And they postponed the retirement age to 67.
Almost nobody has pensions anymore, 401(k)s are good for Wall Street but not the middle class, and savings accounts pay less than 1 percent. So we are clinging desperately to the one remaining defined-benefit plan that’s left: Social Security.
#6 by Richard Warnick on November 16, 2012 - 2:36 pm
Social Security isn’t an investment program. It’s insurance, designed to insulate you against poverty in your old age. You can’t outlive Social Security benefits or lose them in a stock market crash.
Social Security provides most of the income for more than half of people aged 65 or over.
#7 by cav on November 16, 2012 - 2:59 pm
GOP hates those policies, as it reminds people that government and taxes can be a force of good.
#8 by Larry Bergan on November 16, 2012 - 9:15 pm
Nathan:
Social security is based on how much you contributed to society. I get a statement every year since Clinton, telling me how much I made and giving me an idea of how much my benefits will be.
Of course this only takes money into account.
True American heros like Daniel Ellsberg won’t get a cent more from SS. I really tend to think that money wasn’t what he was after anyway.
Your statement at #4 is way too broad.
#9 by Larry Bergan on November 16, 2012 - 9:32 pm
Also:
Alan Grayson and Ron Paul forced the federal reserve to release one year of records and found that 26 trillion dollars – trillion, with a T were given out behind our backs.
Grandma – baby boomer – only bent down to pick up a penny off the street.
Watch this:
And Grayson got reelected. Things are getting better all the time!
#10 by Richard Warnick on November 21, 2012 - 10:56 am
UPDATE: The Republicans are doing everything they can to stop the “Grand Bargain,” much to the delight of progressives. Boehner Wants Obamacare On The Chopping Block In Debt Negotiations.
#11 by Larry Bergan on November 21, 2012 - 5:58 pm
I heard Gary Herbert made the deadline required to have Utah implement it’s own form of “Obamacare”.
I think I would feel safer having the Federal government tell us how to run the thing. What’s “Garycare” going to be like?
#12 by cav on November 22, 2012 - 12:06 pm
“When loudmouthed people tell you they wanna do X, and you point out an obvious way to accomplish X which they vehemently reject, then you know that X is not their real goal.” –D. Derbes
#13 by Chaim Weizmann on November 22, 2012 - 1:43 pm
Sort of like how Obamacare didn’t accomplish X, even thought Obama said he wanted to do X and claims that Obamacare does do X. It doesn’t, so he obviously doesn’t care about X.
#14 by Larry Bergan on November 22, 2012 - 4:30 pm
This is about simplifying things by getting to the lowest common denominator:
Healthcare shouldn’t be a capitalist endeavor.
Some things just aren’t about money. If that makes Republican heads explode, that’s too bad. When you have to go to Cuba to get decent healthcare, or cross the border into Mexico to get affordable dental work done, that should be a wake-up call.
#15 by cav on November 22, 2012 - 5:00 pm
It appears that – contrary to conventional, serious-people wisdom – we are actually rappelling down the putative Fiscal Cliff:
http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/112012-634082-federal-deficit-falling-fastest-since-world-war-ii.htm
#16 by Larry Bergan on November 22, 2012 - 6:11 pm
Retrieve the 26 trillion dollars the Federal reserve gave away in one year and the fiscal cliff starts to look like a frolic in the hay, other then the fact that the earth is fighting back.
Focus!