Obama's Fiscal Commission: A Threat to Social Security & Medicare

Here's What's Going On

Yesterday, in acts of cowardice and cynical capitulation to the vocal 35% of the country yammering about "entitlements" and the federal deficit, the United States Senate and House conspired to vote to continue funding our country's wars of invasion and occupation to the tune of $60-billion while cutting $24-billion for things such as Cobra, unemployment benefits extensions, and other state aid programs!  In effect, the unemployed are being forced to ante up money they don't have to cover nearly half the ongoing cost of two wars behind fought on the national credit card.  So much for fiscal responsibility!

It should be as clear as one of Ella Fitzgerald's high notes, that neither house nor either party gives a pile of hammered rat dung about working families, the poor, the unemployed, or older Americans.  And, as part of the backroom deals cut by the Obama administration  to push through the "watered-down" health care reform legislation we have been burdened with the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  Clearly, it is up to you and me to preserve Social Security and Medicare for out children and grandchildren.

It must be noted right now that last winter, when certain budget hawks and deficit desperadoes in the Senate attempted to create a similar commission it was voted down due to pressure, in no small part, by grassroots activists and groups such as The Alliance for Retired Americans.  In order to get health care, the president ignored the will of the people and yielded to the demands of Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats and created this "Fiscal Commission" despite seeing its sound defeat in the legislative process.

Disturbingly,  the Commission contains numerous outspoken enemies of Social Security and Medicare.  Equally alarming is the fact that it is these commission members who will be voting on the final recommendations to be sent to Congress for an up or down vote.  Six panel members have a only a 6.5 percent out of 100% lifetime rating on the Alliance's Voting Record which measures how Senators and Representatives vote on legislation most affecting older Americans and their families.  This certainly augers the likelihood that they will spew out proposals to to cut Social Security and Medicare.


We've written before of co-chairman, Alan Simpson's, pejoratives describing older people as "Lexus driving, Latte drinking, greedy-geezers living in gated communities".  He also was a key supporter of Bush's abortive attempts to privatize Social Security in 2005 that, if enacted, would by now have lost 20% in value.

Make no mistake and harbor no illusions, we are in a state of war to protect and preserve these essential social safety-net programs.  And as with most wars, there is more than a single front.

Former Richard Nixon crony, billionaire Peter G. Peterson, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are throwing all the forces they can muster against Social Security and Medicare.  Peterson has stretched and disjointed himself like Marvel Comic's Plastic Man in devising and conjuring schemes to take away people's Medicare and Social Security protections in the name of "fiscal responsibility".  He "bankrolled" the one-sided film "I.O.U.S.A., which depicts, a nation in the throes of a financial crises that can only be addressed through substantial cuts in so-called "entitlement" programs, including Social Security and Medicare.

So why would this billionaire and former top honcho of the now disgraced and defunct  Lehman Brothers  focus so much spleen and ill-will on Social Security?  I suspect that it because the uber-wealthy, similar to religious fundamentalist who exist in a state of unending horror that someone somewhere is enjoying life, live in continued and utter dread that working people, the elderly, the disabled, and those locked in perpetual poverty will someday, somehow catch an even break!


Next Week: We name the names and share the backgrounds, and suggest how you can fight back!

The Republican Lies About Social Security Have Started Again: The Antidote? Truth!

The Good News About Social Security --- Print It & Share It

Social Security and Medicare are two of America's greatest success stories.  Social Security has helped generation after generation of America's retire with dignity and Medicare has helped reduce senior poverty by two-thirds since it began in 1965!  

Social Security is not part of the country's debt and deficit problem, it is the most fiscally responsible federal program--self-financed through dedicated contributions.  Ninety-nine percent of contributions are paid out in benefits, with only one percent spent on administrative costs.  There are no private investment plans coming anywhere near that!

We are hearing that Medicare is in a crises and that "baby-boomers will bankrupt the system and the country".  The influx of baby-boomers into Medicare does present challenges, but the recent health care reform legislation promises to save Medicare about $475-billion over ten years and is expected to extend the program's solvency another nine years.  Health care reform will, over the same period, cut the federal deficit by $138-billion.

*All these are verifiable fact.  And there are other truths:

More than one-third of those 65 and up rely on Social Security for 90% or better of their income.  Without it, 55% of the severely disabled, 47% of elderly households would be plunged into poverty and another 1.3-million children, and 2.4-million grandparents rearing 4.5-million grandchildren would lose the single most important source of income for these grand-family households.

Not merely a "Retirement Program", Social Security, pays more benefits to children than any other federal program.  Six-and-a-half million U.S. children receive assistance from its survivor program--which protects virtually all U.S. children in the tragic event of the death of a parent.

While in the worst recession since the great depression, Social Security continues to issue benefit payments, on time, in the full amount due, and without the slightest twitch.  According to the 2009 Annual Report of its Board of Trustees, it is safe and solvent, without any change, for at least the next 30-years.

Social Security is perhaps the world's greatest poverty fighter, it certainly is America's.  Older women and people of color are the ones most likely to face poverty in their older years.  Right now, women comprise 60% of Social Security beneficiaries and depend on it more than their male counterparts.  Over 75% of Latino and nearly 80% of African Americans count on Social Security for more than half their total incomes.

Social Security benefits are protected from inflation and guaranteed for life...no Wall Street backed private investment plan can truthfully make that claim.  In fact, since the economic meltdown, $10-trillion in asset values have evaporated--check your 401K or other stock market investments if you'd like to debate that figure!

Simply put; Social Security is even more vital to old-age security and it is clearly and utterly impossible to reliably replicate those on-time, life-time, guaranteed benefits in the private market.

Anyone telling you otherwise is a liar and less trustworthy than an aluminum siding telemarketer.

And, that's a fact!

* Source: Alliance for Retired Americans

Stop Blaming Me for the Deficits: It Was Bush & His Misguided Cronies That Caused It!

Alright, at 70 I know that I can't go deep for the bomb, and will never again put one out of the park against a hanging curve ball, and yeah, I drive the speed limit and stay in the right lane regardless who it pisses off or whoever flips me the bird.  I confess to all those things.  I am 70, and acting my age.

But up until the day they take me out of this place feet first for my dirt-nap, I am going to shove back every damned time the misinformed, mal-intentioned, well-healed congressional lackeys of big oil, insurance, banking, pharmaceutical, finance and credit industries start their nattering about "entitlements" bankrupting the country.

And, I'll tell you this, at 6' 1" and 190 lbs, my shoves are pretty damned spirited, I ain't that old.  I'll admit, that for the most part, I am a surly, cranky old SOB; but that is more the result of diminished capabilities, recovery from cancer, and the god-damned arthritis in my back and knees than it is politics.  But, what really locks my jaws and jacks my jibs is being blamed for the federal deficit.

In the first place, I am not all that certain that some deficit is all that bad.  It's how you buy big ticket items in real life, such as cars, houses, appliances, and so forth.  Unless you're wealthy, you're not going to be able to acquire meaningful property without debt (deficit).  I think the same principle applies to government.

But, never mind that; what I am talking about is the tea-bagging, right-wing, whack-job, fundamentalist Republicans yammering about Social Security, Medicare and other "entitlements" causing the current deficit.  Don't listen, it is just more of their load-of-crap "message to America" being shoveled, thick and wide, in order to distract you from the real problems and real solutions.

We have a huge deficit because of that dry-drunk sociopath, George W. Bush, and his ungodly host of liars, thieves, mendicants, cut-purses, scofflaws, deep-forest hobgoblins, river trolls, dementers, death-eaters, and fen fiends, who put us into two wars on our national credit card, deregulated the robber barons and crooks of wall street causing the worst recession since the great depression, and imposing criminally insane tax policies that have increased the wealth of the very richest of Americans while destroying the middle-class and forcing working families and seniors into actual poverty or near poverty.

You think I liable the bastards?  Fine! Sue me! Truth is the perfect defense and the last thing any of those yahoos want is to be put on the witness stand under oath!

Here's what ought to be done.  (1) Raise the payroll tax on Social Security taxes for the wealthiest Americans.  (2) Freeze the estate tax at 2009 levels and apply those revenues to Social Security. (3)  Put Americans back to work in good-paying, jobs rebuilding America!

So, take a break from Oprah and Judge Judy and support legislation proposed by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) "The Wall Street Fair Play Act" (S. 2927 and representative Peter Fazio (D-OR) "Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act of 2009" (H.R. 4191).  The legislation would put a very modest tax (.025) on Wall Street financial speculations while leaving the vast majority of ordinary investors largely unaffected and generate over $75-billion a year.

Rand Paul + John Cornyn = More Republican Lunacy

Texas (R) Senator John Cornyn presents a picture perfect image for a recruiting poster targeting well-healed, well-connected,  middle-aged, white-guys born with senses of entitlement to run things and an incipient outrage that somewhere, someone less worthy than they is getting an even break in life..  You have to grant him one thing, he makes absolutely no pretense of compassion, empathy or understanding for, and of, older people, working families and anyone not belonging to an exclusive country club.  To that extent he is true to something,  Never mind that the something is the continual exploitation of "the people" at the behest of corporate boardrooms..

But, that's the thing about "Crony" Cornyn, he is what he is, utterly and apologetically.  And all that would be fine except for the fact that he eschews his obligation to look our for and protect the interests of his constituents other than cattle and ranching barons, oil company oligarchs, and the thieves and liars of the insurance, banking and finance industries.

But, truly, none of that is news.  What is news is his nakedly open ambition to exceed his minimal ability and find a spot on the national stage.  After all, he must be thinking, if Sarah Palin can do it, then any damned fool can.  Right John, you do meet that basic requirement.  We in Texas have been watching him at this endeavor for sometime now and smirkingly tell each other that "this old boy would for sure squat on his spurs" if given a chance to Go Western.

In his eagerness to grab some national media he has come to the defense of Kentucky (R/Libertarian/Tea-Bag) senatorial candidate, Rand Paul, who over the weekend opened his mouth and allowed the vanilla pudding that takes the place of his brains to spew out as he tried to dodge a question about the Civil Right Act.

Defending Paul, Cornyn said, according to Politico (5/20), "I think it was sort of a gotcha question.  If I'm walking down the street minding my own business and somebody sticks a microphone under my nose about a law that was passed 40 years ago, without more detail--I think it probably caught him by surprise."

Later, he enlarged on this foolishness with, "Rand Paul, like every new candidate, is going to get better...Candidates make mistakes and they misspeak," according to Bloomberg (5/21).

A "gotcha" question?  Errr, Senator? Isn't that the nature of the business?  And when, at anytime in the last fifty years has a senatorial candidate just walked down the street "minding their own business"?  I've known a few, and all have had handlers, schedules, appearances and so forth---and never have I seen one just walking down the street, etc, etc.

But, beyond this uber-silliness, the issue really is the cavalier and dismissive attitude of both men toward the Civil Rights Act.  It is not merely some law passed four decades ago.  It was a hard fought (people died) landmark legislation that has made America a better place.  And even if one does not agree with that, someone running for the senate ought to be able to speak with some intelligence about such a law of transcendent transformation.

Rand Paul is really the first so called "Tea Party" candidate to capture a slot on a major party ticket and as the representative of the standing 35 percent of "nutters" who support tax breaks for the wealthy, two wars fought on a credit card, and all the anti-Constitutional excesses of that dry-drunk sociopath, George W. Bush, he probably cannot be expected to have a working knowledge of much of anything.  But, that is Kentucky's problem.

Our problem in Texas is that we already have a certain gaggle of congressional representatives who look like refugees from clown alley and a senator who is the very icon of establishment anti-union, anti-working class, anti-older persons who is doing his best to find a national platform.

Personally, I think we deserve better!

Alliance for Retired Americans - Members Fight to Protect Medicare & Social Security

Congress Trying to Fix Doctors’ Medicare Reimbursements:

 
The U.S House and Senate are scheduled to vote soon on H.R. 4213 -- the American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes, and Preventing Outsourcing Act -- that extends unemployment benefits, COBRA subsidies, and enhanced Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) matching funds for states, while fixing physician payments under Medicare for 5 years. 

Failure to pass this legislation will result in doctors facing a 21% cut in their Medicare reimbursements. 

However, the doctor reimbursement fix will ensure that Medicare beneficiaries continue to have access to family physicians and specialists.  Also included in H.R. 4213 is a provision to increase funding to states to help pay for increased Medicaid reimbursements. Medicaid dollars provide assistance to low-income seniors and pay for nursing home care; failure to extend this provision will force states to close budget gaps with brutal cuts that will affect many seniors. 

Alliance for Retired American members had already sent more than 2,000 letters by last week to Congress by clicking on HERE and pushing for doctors’ reimbursements not to be cut.

Special Committee on Aging: Social Security Only Needs Modest Changes:

Social Security faces a $5.3 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years, but a new congressional report says the gap could be erased with only modest changes to payroll taxes and benefits.  Many changes wouldn't affect current recipients, according to the report by the Senate Special Committee on Aging.  Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the committee, said small “tweaks” are all that is needed to bolster Social Security's finances for future generations of retirees.  “Modest changes can be made over time that will keep the program in surplus,” Kohl told The Associated Press.

The report lays out options for fixing Social Security, but does not endorse any of them.  Kohl said lawmakers will probably combine several options to ease their impact. To view the report, go to HERE. 

The panel's analysis will be presented to President Obama's Fiscal Commission.  Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), who sits on the Commission, said recently that raising the Social Security retirement age would not have much of an impact on someone’s “lifestyle.”  “He must be referring to his own lifestyle, and not that of thousands of Granite State residents who work in physically demanding construction and service sector jobs,” said Charlie Balban, President of the New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans.