Editorial Cartoon - Social Security Privatization (Good one)

[LiberalFighter]

[Faygo Kid]

1. Excellent. Don't think for a minute that the Bushbots have given up that goal.

Destroying the social safety net, like Social Security and Medicare, remains a primary goal of the Bush extremists. They will try to do it through defunding the programs surreptitiously, if necessary. Whatever it takes.

[sam sarrha]

2. they were praying to transfer all the SSI money to wall street before the mortgage melt down

ao it could be bundled into the bad loans.. to get rid of it

[nichomachus]

3. They're not giving up

This is just a minor glitch on the road to turning the US into a Third World country. They will not give up.

The goal -- as enunciated by Grover "Traitor" Norquist -- is to bankrupt state, local, and federal governments so they will have to do away with all social programs, all government regulation, Social Security, Medicare, welfare, and public education.

I've been watching this destruction in local news reports for several years now. Check your local papers. Almost daily, I see stories from somewhere about teachers being laid off, libraries closed, programs for the elderly unfunded. Almost all of them have the line somewhere "We had no choice." That is Norquist's goal -- and the goal of the other low-tax/no-tax traitors. They want to bankrupt the governments and leave them with "no choice," but to eat the country from the inside -- so the corporatists can get richer.

Just today this was in the Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/06/deep_cuts_loom_across_state/?page=full">Deep cuts look across state

In Canton, middle school students idle in vast study halls because electives have been pared and teachers have been laid off. In Shirley, selectmen recently removed 103 light bulbs from Town Hall and may switch off some streetlights to reduce electric bills. And in Brookline, where single-family homes regularly fetch $1 million, officials are seeking the first override in 14 years to avoid layoffs and the mothballing of a fire engine.
more stories like this

Across Massachusetts, cities and towns face the prospect of deep cuts in what appears to be the grimmest fiscal year since 2003. Local revenue and state aid can't keep up with such rapidly rising expenses as employee health insurance, heating oil, and even street paving. School costs, like special education requirements, are sapping local budgets. And now beleaguered residents are seeing home values dip even as taxes continue to rise.

Town and city officials face a difficult choice: cut staff and programs, or ask voters to override Proposition 2 1/2 and approve still higher property tax bills. In Beverly, for example, officials tried to avoid a tax hike by drafting a budget that would cut 61 full-time positions and close two elementary schools.

"It's very difficult medicine, and something we'd all rather avoid, but we're on our own," said the city's mayor, William F. Scanlon Jr., an ex officio member of the school board. "The state can't help us, and we have to find a way to live within our means."

In Canton, meanwhile, officials who saw a $3.95 million override fail narrowly last year are trying again this year, asking voters to approve a larger tax increase, about $4.5 million, even as the economy has worsened. The alternative, they worry, could cause services to erode and do long-term harm to the community.

"Things fall apart a lot faster than they're built up," said John Bonnanzio, outgoing chairman of the School Committee. The schools would receive about $3.5 million from the override, which would be spread over three years, to restore some of the past cuts and forestall new ones.

About half of the school districts in Massachusetts are planning some reductions next year, and one in four expect the most visible cuts, like teacher layoffs, program reductions, or steep fee increases, said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

The last statewide budget crisis occurred five years ago, when Mitt Romney slashed local aid to address a deficit in one of his first official acts as governor. At that point, communities had had a decade to recover from the previous recession and reap the benefits of a booming late-1990s economy. But now the communities' budgets haven't caught up to where they were before the last crisis. State aid had increased somewhat in the last few years, but the 351 cities and towns combined this year still receive $566 million less from the state than they did in fiscal 2002, adjusting for inflation, said Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

The state budget for next year is unlikely to provide enough aid to towns and cities to avoid widespread local cuts, Beckwith said. Governor Deval Patrick's casino proposal failed, knocking out a potential revenue source. However, his proposed budget includes a local aid boost for schools in the coming year.

Other longer term measures to help cities and towns financially may not be in place to help for the new budget year, which starts July 1. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, for instance, wants to help communities restrain insurance costs by buying into the plan for state employees without needing local union approval.

Proposition 2 1/2, passed by voters in 1980, puts officials in a bind by capping the increase in a community's annual tax levy at 2.5 percent, not counting taxes on construction and other new growth, though voters can override the limit. But with a looming recession, the same residents who are eschewing home repairs and car purchases may be reluctant to approve overrides.

Last year, 76 towns sought overrides to balance operating budgets, less than half of which passed. About 50 are expected this season, a sign not that fewer face budget problems but that many officials are now resigned to cut without trying overrides, to avoid the divisiveness they often cause. This year, eight communities have sought operating overrides; five have failed.

"More and more communities are going to hit the wall," said Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "It's not a pretty picture, and it's going to get worse before it gets better."

Norquist and his cronies have done more damage and have already killed more people than terrorists imagine in their wildest dreams. Our country is being destroyed in front of our faces.

Anyone who is a Republican or supports Republicans is a traitor.

One ironic note: The Michael Widmer quoted in the above article has worked for years to get the state exactly to the point where it is now. He has been the front man for starving the state, cities and towns of funds necessary to run their operations.

[alfredo]

4. You know they will use this downturn to push more corporatist

bullshit on us.

[malaise]

5. Brilliant

K & R