Can anyone give me specifics on how Obama is gonna cut Medicare or raise the age

[busterbrown]

of Social Security eligibility? I thought he was just gong to cut Medicare Spending and i have
not heard one specific thing he said regarding S.S.

Seems that a lot of people around here have such specific info.
Well then, please share it with us....

[Summer Hathaway]

1. You just don't GET it!

Specifics don't matter. Speculation - despite being disproven time and time again - IS what matters here.

Let me explain this as I've read it on DU: Obama is ready to throw SS recipients under that proverbial and ever-popular bus because he isn't facing re-election, and is only interested in 'his legacy'. And of course, that 'legacy' is going down in history as a Democratic president who wants to be remembered as having destroyed SS as we know it!

Get it NOW? The guy who was smart enough to defeat all odds by (a) displacing the odds-on favorite (Hillary) by becoming the Democratic candidate in 2008, and (b) becoming the first AA president of the United States (elected not once but TWICE) only did so in order to screw everyone.

Makes perfect sense - doesn't it?

[busterbrown]

2. So your only source is DU threads??

Thats not what I was asking. I am asking what didi the president specifically say about “ throwing S.S. under the bus?

By the way thanks for the laugh “Specifics don’t matter”. Don’t they say that in the south when discussing science?

[Summer Hathaway]

3. So sorry ...

I failed to add the thingy, as I thought the content of my post was TOO FUCKIN' OBVIOUS for it to be necessary.

Note to self: NEVER over-estimate the reading comprehension of some DUers.

[busterbrown]

4. ‘Sarcasm” that’s the ticket.

Last edited Wed Mar 13, 2013, 12:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Funny thing, I was on a gun thread today and there were a lot of people on that thread who were not joking around. They were seriously spewing NRA rhetoric...

So not every one is as perceptive as you are. Sometimes I find it hard to separate fact from fiction. I’ll be more careful the next time.....especially when there are such clever ones as you..

[Summer Hathaway]

5. Separating fact from fiction

is increasingly difficult on DU these days. Wasn't always the case.

There was a time when a post that started with "someone somewhere said" was met with derision.

Now such posts are met with; "Oh, someone somewhere said something - so it must be true!"

[busterbrown]

6. Well you sure got me.

the gun thread got me way worked up and I was looking for a fight. So I let my emotions take over rather than reading carefully what you stated.
It was actually a good lesson. Slow down Buster!! Slow down..

I’m still waiting on some replies. I read a few threads this a,m. and there was a lot of bashing going on without any facts for back up...

[Summer Hathaway]

7. That's part of the problem here

everyone is looking for a fight - and finding one where none exists.

As a good friend used to say to me when I was "in a certain mood": "You're battening down the hatches when the nearest ocean is thousands of miles away."

Don't slow down, Buster - just make sure the fight you want to engage in is THE fight, not just ANY fight.

[Sunlei]

8. Here are the specifics from the Presidents position

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infographics/medicare-fraud-0512

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/seniors-and-social-security

[Skittles]

9. Google is your friend

http://www.thenation.com/blog/173314/senate-democrats-press-obama-chained-cpi#

[JoePhilly]

10. It started almost immediatly after Obama took office.

Predictions that Obama was about to make a deal to kill / gut / slash Social Security and Medicare.

They appeared on DU about every 2-3 months. There would be a set of OPs over the course of two weeks or so in which a very upset group would lament how Obama was about to do this. The anger level so high, you'd think it actually had happened. Except nothing had happened.

This went on for all of Obama's first term. "Here it comes, any second!!!" DU bursts into flames ... then nothing.

Since Obama has been re-elected, the frequency has now increased to almost daily.

The Tea Party is convinced that Obama plans to kill granny with Death Panels, and some on DU are convinced that Obama is going to kill granny by taking away her Social Security and Medicare.

And in every administration utterance, or third hand account, this evil plan is revealed anew (particularly if you know how to read between the lines and decode the secret messages).

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

12. The other problem has been that Bernie Sanders (love him) goes on these shows and pretty much

says *with certainty* that Obama is "pursing" SS, Medicare, and Medicaid cuts. Thing is, he has no proof. It's speculation because the president has said that he wants "reform" and "changes". People automatically assume that that means cuts to benefits. They have no proof. Just firebrand from some progressive Democrats and Bernie. I am a progressive. I am liberal. But I'm giving the president the benefit of the doubt. Until he gives me reason to be anxious, I'm not falling for it.

[marlakay]

13. I wonder if Bernie does it

To get people talking about keeping it the same and force the president to see what would happen if he did such a thing.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

14. Maybe he's one of those "don't touch it" believers. I do, on the other hand, think that there's

some things we can do to make SS work better, such as increasing the salary cap; or, at least flirting with a "donut hole" approach.

And yes, Medicare could use tweaking on the administrative side. There's a lot of waste and abuse. There are things that we can do to make this program work more efficiency.

But when the president utters the words "reform" or "changes", without any evidence whatsoever, people get crazy and automatically think he means "cuts to benefits". They have no proof. Only hyperbole.

[Skittles]

16. It must be sheer bliss for you

[JoePhilly]

17. I find it more fascinating than "blissful".

As a PhD in Experimental Psychology, I tend to observe the behavior of groups.

And in this case, its interesting to watch the same basic group of people fly into an on-line outrage, over and over again.

Doesn't matter how sparse the "new information" is, its taken not only as "fact" but as proof that the evil event is literally about to happen.

Then nothing happens.

That thread dies, only be replaced by another that is almost exactly the same. Often using the same sparse original source, perhaps mentioned in a different on-line form.

And the outrage returns. And the process repeats.

[Skittles]

18. this is not SPARSE INFORMATION

when garbage like CPI is brought up by a Democratic president, it is pretty much assured that Social Security is a TARGET

http://www.thenation.com/blog/173314/senate-democrats-press-obama-chained-cpi#

When Elizabeth Warren calls it out we know it's not some vague notion. I don't understand how ANYONE who has witnessed the destruction of the middle class since Reagan can have their head in the sand thinking everything will come up roses for Social Security and Medicare. RIDICULOUS.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. They don't have anything specific. Just rumor, heresay, and innuendo. I haven't heard a plan from

the president or any Democrat.

When asked for "specifics," they just attack you. They have nothing.

[cliffordu]

15. ^^^^^^^what you said^^^^^^^