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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsExciting! Thursday GOP hearing on Obama's Chained-CPI Request
I'm looking forward to it. How about you?
Republicans embrace Obama's offer to trim Social Security benefits
I'm on the edge of my seat, eager to see if Republicans will finally realize that this President is a partner who can be trusted.
Of course, the Moonbat Left always needs to throw a turd in America's punch bowl. From the same article linked to above:
“She’s not making decisions about whether to buy steak or chicken. I testified about a woman — she can’t afford meat. She buys discount cheese and slices it very thin,” said the center’s Joan Entmacher. “I don’t know where you go from there in making substitutions.”
Ms. Entmacher should be ashamed of her Obama-bashing glass-half-empty mentality. Instead of zeroing in on the unpleasantness of what happens to the little people, why can't she focus on hedge-fund managers buying yachts for their cats with the money they'll save on reduced taxes, thanks to starving old women?
I like cats.
Let's think nice thoughts and hope that Republicans will finally feel safe with us after all the years we've been mean to them. Grand things are coming our way, I just know it. As long as that difficult senator from Massachusetts can keep her yap shut.
Regards,
Third-Way Manny
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vi5
(13,305 posts)I really hope all the emo progs don't get in the way of the grandest of grand bargains. I mean this will finally get our centrist president what he has always wanted which is the undying love and affection of David Brooks and David Gregory and Joe Scarborough and folks like that. If the leftist utopian pony wishers do anything to stop our dearest President's dream date, I will never forgive them.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)If important men like Brooks, Gregory, and Scarborough were on *our* team?
We could make America great again. We could make it economical to have cotton plantations again! Imagine that!
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)It sure feels like it is.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Minimum wage, no child labor, 13th Amendment... a massa can't make a living these days.
Damned moonbat Liberals.
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)I'm beginning to suspect that you're one of those rooseveltians I've heard about.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)by Joan McCarter
Republicans are proceeding exactly as could be expected on President Obama's proposed Social Security cuts. First, they condemn him for "trying to balance this budget on the backs of seniors," and then taking up the cuts and pushing for much more.
This week, two House subcommittees plan to hold hearings on “reforms to protect and preserve” programs for retirees, starting with Obama’s proposal to apply a less generous measure of inflation to annual increases in Social Security benefits.
Also on the table are higher Medicare premiums and reduced benefits for better-off seniors, and a higher Medicare eligibility age.
Both means testing for Medicare and the eligibility age have been on offer in previous negotiations, so Republicans will happily go there now. Boehner has already dismissed the Social Security cuts as "modest." Obama's offer of Social Security cuts is just the starting point for negotiations as far as they're concerned. As usual. That's how it's worked every time Obama has begun the negotiations on Republican grounds.
But the White House and Democrats shouldn't be comforted by the fact that Republicans have embraced the cuts, because that's not going to prevent Republicans from running against Democrats on "trying to balance this budget on the backs of seniors." We've seen this game before with the "$700 billion in Medicare cuts" that Republicans hammered Democrats with while voting for those same cuts in the Ryan budget. That's what they do.
Democrats have one real choice, both on policy and political grounds. Reject the cuts.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/16/1202213/-Republicans-dual-strategy-on-Social-Security-embrace-the-cuts-they-ll-blame-on-nbsp-Obama
Go for it Republicans!
neverforget
(9,436 posts)Or will they embrace it?
My guess is embrace it as this a way to start cutting SS because Republicans have wanted to do that since its inception.
We'll see.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Cheer up!
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)
Bobbie Jo
(14,341 posts)
Autumn
(44,984 posts)And will Granny find delicious recipes for cat? That processed cat food can't be good for her. And will Granny be smart enough to learn how to tan the skin for a nice warm coat? And can the Democrats use the slogan "A cat in every pot"?
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Substitute old people instead of cats, and your post will be much more acceptable.
Autumn
(44,984 posts)But hell, money gets tight, cats are free. 
Just saying ,a chicken in every pot worked for Hoover.
I think?
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)But no more about cruelty to cats. That's just sick.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)starzdust22
(11 posts)disabled retirees just recently qualified for Medicare (after working for 40 years). You chuckle about my plight now, but just you wait until one of you guys become disabled and/or need Medicare.
BTW, I regret for voting for Obama twice, especially in light of this chained-CPI crap. Like what I say but screw you the elderly.
StarzDust
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Efforts by Obama and company to deny benefits -which are already too low - are sick. Just sick.
Skittles
(153,113 posts)stick with us
Autumn
(44,984 posts)Welcome to DU. Hang in there and we get through it together.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Autumn
(44,984 posts)start collecting recipes now.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)it was (and still is) a proposal. That proposal included chained CPI (as the GOP had requested) - with two poison-pill conditions that the Republicans had already made clear they wouldn't accept.
The 'proposal' was DOA - as everyone knew it would be.
Since then, that DOA proposal has been described here on DU as Obama's PLAN to implement CCPI, Obama's DESIRE to implement CCPI, and now Obama's CHAINED-CPI REQUEST.
Putting CCPI in a proposal, especially when it is attached to conditions that the other side had already made clear were unacceptable, does not make it Obama's PLAN, DESIRE, or REQUEST.
The way things get twisted around here these days, it's like listening to FAUX News.
And the question remains: If Obama actually wanted CPPI, why didn't he offer it in a proposal with NO STRINGS ATTACHED?
I've posed that question several times now on this board, and have yet to hear an answer.
bahrbearian
(13,466 posts)Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)Obama's veto of the repeal of DADT was "next"!
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Congress can pass the bill it wants. Obama has signaled that he is prepared to betray seniors and trade chained CPI for higher tax rates for the top tax brackets.
Obama would not have made that proposal if he was not inclined to accept the trade. The faith in Obama at this point is unwarranted. Obama wants chained CPI.
He already tried to weaken Social Security by giving working people a lower payroll or Social Security tax rate. The hope with that was that when the full tax was reinstated the outcry would be so great that Obama would "just have to" propose maintaining the lower payroll tax rate.
Obama doesn't like Social Security. That's the truth in this matter. He is a buddy of Pete Peterson as are members of both parties including Erskine Bowles to name a prominent Democrat.
We will, I suspect, see cuts to Social Security starting with, but not ending with the chained CPI.
This breaks my heart. And that Obama, who pretends to be a Democrat, proposed this is just disgusting.
It will happen. If not this year, before long.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)any significant tax increase, even.
It's his idea of negotiation.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)
CrispyQ
(36,424 posts)This country has such fucked up values.
Mammon is our God.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)Hope like hell I'm wrong.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)We know they're considering it - they asked for it last year. Not exactly late-breaking news.
I'm enjoying the many posts on DU these days inferring that the GOP would never have even thought about CCPI, were it not for Obama bringing up the subject. Like they haven't thought about it every day for decades.
Again, if Obama 'wants' CCPI, why offer it with strings attached that he knew they wouldn't accept?
You still haven't answered the question - and I think you know it.
"He already tried to weaken Social Security by giving working people a lower payroll or Social Security tax rate." You KNOW why the rate was temporarily lowered. You don't do 'feigning ignorance' well.
"The hope with that was that when the full tax was reinstated ..."
"The hope was"? Based on what, besides your own mind meanderings? That's right up there with "someone people are saying".
"Obama doesn't like Social Security."
Manny has been promoting that BS for as long as I've been here. And he never offers anything to support that assertion other than his own opinion, mixed with a hodge-podge of paranoia and conspiracy theories.
The fact that the thread title included "Obama's Chained CPI request" - in an attempt to twist a proposal that included CPPI (a proposal which Obama knew would never be accepted) into a "request for CCPI" is demonstrative of some people's need to mislead, a need to create a FOX News headline in order to skew the facts to fit their own tiresomely repetitive narrative, and inevitably to advance a personal agenda.
That may dazzle some here in the sticks - but in the real world, such ramblings are the stuff that 3:00 a.m. call-in shows are made of.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Not, the GOP won't go there and that is the essential part of Pres O's proposal.
Seniors eat human foods that they can buy at the grocery store, just effing stop this bullshit.
zeemike
(18,998 posts)this is how I think it will go down.
Obama offers them CCPI...they reject it and then look of other ways to "save" Social Security because Obama told us it needed to be saved...
And that is what this committee will do...make it official that SS needs to be "saved" and offer something like raising the age to 70 or how about a individual retirement account so young ones can opt out and put their money in the stock market?...undermining is the most common practice with the GOP.
All Obama did was make it official...SS is in trouble...just like the GOP said it was.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)"And Colonel Mustard offered to smite the CCPI in the Library with a Candlestick."
And here's how it will go down ...
zeemike
(18,998 posts)You can use it to dismiss just about anything...even a prediction based on previous experiences...
What power to control the cpmversation it gives you.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Another question: Why don't you care about the poor elderly?
General question to all: Why is it better to worship Obama than to care about the poor elderly?
Mystery question of the ages: Why is the military defending the poor elderly? Oh yea ...they aren't ...wait ...uhm ...are they? hmmm
Frivolous question to all: Are there any core FDR Dem principles anymore? If not then I don't know why I am a registered Dem.
You are not alone, my friend. As long as two or more are gathered in his name, FDR lives!
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Just ask our President, he'll tell you.
Now Hoover... That was a great presidency!
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)very sickening.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)It reminds me of those who opposed the Iraq war being asked "Why do you hate America?"
"General question to all: Why is it better to worship Obama than to care about the poor elderly?"
Question: If you have a valid point to make, why is it framed as a choice between Answer A ("Do you care about the poor elderly?" and Answer B ("Why do you worship Obama?"
And BTW, when DID you stop beating your wife?
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)BTW when DID you stop being a decent human being?
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)YOU insult Obama supporters by implying they 'worship' him as opposed to supporting him politically.
YOU insult those same supporters by implying that if they DO support Obama, they don't care about the poor elderly.
YOU then insult them further by saying that the president they support is "offering to screw the elderly".
And then, when called out on YOUR OWN INSULTS, you insist that people are insulting YOU.
Like I said, a LOT of this BS going around here of late ...
Now run along to that mythical place where being an Obama supporter means one doesn't care about the poor elderly. You won't have any trouble finding it - it's right there in your own head, just where you conjured it up in the first place.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)When people support a POTUS when he proposes something bad for seniors and goes against core Dem principles then he and his worshippers deserve to be called out on it. Obviously you don't care if his proposals would hurt the elderly. I'll mark you for that and not waste anymore of my time responding to you. You are welcome to your la la land where Obama is cool to torture people and kill people and hurt old people so he can keep his generals, republicans and you happy.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)to insult Obama supporters by referring to them as "worshippers" - after bitching about people insulting YOU.
"Obviously you don't care if his proposals would hurt the elderly. I'll mark you for that."
You can "mark me" for whatever the hell you please. You can make any assumptions you please. You can take your junior high attitude and put it wherever you please.
BTW, my 'chance of serving on a jury' is not only irrelevant to the discussion - it's rather amusing given that my profile also states: "Willing to serve on a DU Jury: No."
Marr
(20,317 posts)You don't just toss something like this out at 8 o'clock, Day One.
To advance an unpopular policy, you have to maneuver it just so. Set up committees like the so-called "Cat Food Commission" (and staff it so you know it's going to give you the answer you want). You walk it through lots of negotiations; frame it as a "compromise", etc. No matter how much they'd like to vote for it, no politician is going to vote "aye" if it's going to cost him the next election. Frankly, I think the timing of this thing has been planned for well over a year now-- Obama is taking most of the political heat because the one guy who doesn't have to run for reelection.
The political establishment is good at putting everyone in a position from which they can claim to have had "no choice". And that's what we're looking at right now on this issue. They still may not manage to wrangle up the support they need-- but that's certainly what's being attempted.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)I'm IN!!!
Do you think we can get Tom Cruise for the lead? How about Sigourney Weaver in a 'cameo' role as - wait for it! - Lt. Ripley?!?!
Working title: "The Pokeman Directive"
Just an immediate reaction here, but I think the whole opening narrative, i.e.
"To advance an unpopular policy, you have to maneuver it just so. Set up committees like the so-called "Cat Food Commission" (and staff it so you know it's going to give you the answer you want). You walk it through lots of negotiations; frame it as a "compromise", etc. No matter how much they'd like to vote for it, no politician is going to vote "aye" if it's going to cost him the next election. Frankly, I think the timing of this thing has been planned for well over a year now-- Obama is taking most of the political heat because the one guy who doesn't have to run for reelection.
The political establishment is good at putting everyone in a position from which they can claim to have had "no choice". And that's what we're looking at right now on this issue. They still may not manage to wrangle up the support they need-- but that's certainly what's being attempted."
is brilliant!!! If we can get Morgan Freeman to do the voice-over - well, I think I hear Oscar knocking at the door!
Have your girl call my girl in the morning.
Bobbie Jo
(14,341 posts)
Marr
(20,317 posts)I've got to tell you, for someone who likes to lecture people on how 'politics works', you seem awfully naive.
Bobbie Jo
(14,341 posts)hardly qualifies as an "answer," and does nothing more than feed your hungry confirmation bias.
You see, there's a reason CT'ers are "laughed off."
Marr
(20,317 posts)Building political cover for unpopular policies is a very normal political tactic.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/287213-portman-obama-needs-to-give-dems-political-cover-for-entitlement-reform-
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)that the people who talk about Obama playing twelve-dimensional chess are the same people who use twenty-five-dimensional chess in order to 'prove' their conspiracy theories?
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)The people who defend Obama's proposal for the chained CPI and cuts to Social Security are fooling themselves. They just can't bear to face the truth.
I'm sorry for their pain, but lying to yourself doesn't make lies true.
Obama proposed to cut Social Security because that is what he wants to do. It is one of his goals. He has been working for it almost since he was elected. He has certainly been working to harm Social Security in recent years. It is shameful, but that is the truth. It's just hard for people to believe it.
Marr
(20,317 posts)And the writing of the people offering those excuses has picked up this quality of anxious dismissal. They don't really engage anymore; they just toss out an insult or a laughing emoticon and move on. It's like they know they have nothing sensible to offer, but they refuse to back down from their silly position.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)it is also bullshit to pretend obama didn't want something he proposed, and it's bullshit to believe he only proposed it because the GOP wanted it.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)don't post 'answers' that are so totally laughable.
Marr
(20,317 posts)I don't particularly care, mind you-- I can't really take you seriously.
Summer Hathaway
(2,770 posts)takes the other seriously.
vi5
(13,305 posts)So clear and concise. People will just eat that wonderfully simple explanation up.
"Hmmm......Republicans are saying Obama proposed and supported cutting SS benefits.........And it was in his budget and he did propose it and support it......Oh but the poison pill! That's right......I understand that completely."
Yeah, good luck with that.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)
kentuck
(111,052 posts)Obama would walk on a car lot and see a car with $2500 on the sticker and immediately offer $2600 for the car. He was not very complimentary of his negotiating skills.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)THAT would qualify as a real bargain, on the scale of the ACA, or Obamacare.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Since This doesn't do much to solve the deficit, and we will have another significant deficit next year, we can do it all over again in 2014! and 2015! and 2016!
We will triangulate this sucker into submission,that we will! Then we can all get back to cutting taxes and generating new deficits again.
kentuck
(111,052 posts)Seriously.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)I just have different priorities!
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Thanks for playing.
jazzimov
(1,456 posts)he missed so much.
Let's face it, unless Obama wants to take on dictatorial powers like Jr he HAS to go through Congress to get anything done. Yes, he could do XO's, but those have no permanence and can easily be over-ridden by the next President, aside from Constitutional challenges.
So, our President either has to deal with the Republicans, or so discredit them that they take over the Congress.
Either way, it takes a lot more intelligence and understanding of the issues and the Congress than any I have seen expressed here.
Allow me to repeat that to let it sink in:
it takes a lot more intelligence and understanding of the issues and the Congress than any I have seen expressed here.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)
KoKo
(84,711 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)they can't pay back their student loans and aren't allowed to discharge them in bankruptcy and declare "Mission Accomplished."
Obama is a nice guy, but he hasn't really thought about the repercussions of some of his policies. He has chosen lousy advisers on economic issues.
Paul Krugman and Robert Reich are available, and they are the best of the best, but they don't control big donations.
jazzimov
(1,456 posts)It means they will have to allow Tax Increases on the wealthy, which they won't allow. The whole "entitlement spending cuts" have nothing to do with the budget, but the entire privatization of SS so that the Corporate Masters can get their hands on those SS funds in the form of investments - like Jr. pushed for.
Won't happen, Anyone with any common sense whatsoever can see that.
The Republicans have stepped into another trap. They will only lose more popularity in the polls. Which means WE have a chance to take back the House in 2014 if we GOTV. But it's an off-season election, which means we REALLY NEED to GOTV.
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Will Republicans take Obama up on his proposal or will it be the beginning of their 2014 campaigns? Inquiring minds want to know because the theatrics so far have been superb!
Phlem
(6,323 posts)
-p
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Is it the same for you? 
Thanks!
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)That was good.
rurallib
(62,387 posts)No doubt the outcome of these cuts will be roving bands of 80 + seniors bent on acquiring edible food. How are you going to stop them when they come en masse to the local Kroger's wielding their canes and walkers and defying law and order.
Make no doubt, they will need to be stopped.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Huge.
I've played that zombie game on the iPhone, so I know what it will be like. Descending, voracious hordes, no time to reload.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)That's senior discount day! I oughta know! I just qualified for it! I'll see you in the aisle of Kibbles & Bits, sonny! LOL
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Unless it's just the pharmacy....I'll have to look into that possibility. I don't kow of any grocer in the area with a senior discount. Mostly it's restaurants and the day-old bread store....
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)and just learned about it. So it may be something new. You have to be 57 to qualify and they key your Kroger card a certain way so it gives you the automatic discount when checking out. Go to their customer service counter and ask. I find it hard to believe they only offer it in certain stores.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)and I 'get' Third-Way Manny. I am, sadly in light of this piece, elated and enlightened.
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Pay no attention to the Liberal behind the curtain!
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts) MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)jsr
(7,712 posts) Skittles
(153,113 posts)GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!
sikofit3
(145 posts)Who said Obama wasn't playing Chess? He is forcing them to reveal their true colors before elections while the Dem's as someone said on here, can vote it down. He knew this would happen, at least that is what I am going with. If he didn't do this on their watch, it would continue to be a blame game on the Dem's backs. He called their bluff knowing that his Dem's would never go for it so he is actually taking a hit popularity wise in his last term. I think one day they will pick a part his strategy and I am hoping it will be that it played out like it should have. I am forever an optimist but I could be delusional.
Uncle Joe
(58,298 posts)Thanks for the thread, Manny.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022690945
Just food for thought.
Rex
(65,616 posts)I guess they gave up on their own bullshit, it was pretty weak.