SS is not going away

[CTLawGuy]

no matter what Alan Simpson or the deficit commission says.

Nothing can happen to SS without congressional action, and I highly doubt that Congress would risk their necks messing with SS. Not even the Republicans openly discuss getting rid of SS (they call it "privatization" instead).

Congress can always tell the deficit commission to go fuck themselves. It is an advisory board only which has not only Alan Simpson but also Andy Stern, former president of SEIU, Dick Durbin and Jan Schakowsky, progressive members of Congress.

[n2doc]

1. They already have this angle figured out

They have a MANDATED vote, after the Nov. election, in what is called the "lame duck" session, where several (possibly many) of the legislators are only there for a few more months, having been defeated or otherwise retired. Obama agreed to this

And, they won't take it all away, of course. A "sensible" set of reductions will be agreed to, putting the cuts on a future, less likely to vote, generation. So Grandma won't likely see much, but her kids will and her Grandchildren will be truly screwed. Meantime the SS taxes will be redirected into wars and bailouts, even more.


Read up on it, it isn't hard to figure out.

[customerserviceguy]

2. Agreed

Retired or losing Democratic congresscritters will simply enact something that will keep the system going until they get back in again. The incoming Repukes would see the folly of rearranging something that the Democratic Party has already taken the blame for.

[fasttense]

3. There is no provision in law for Congress to have to accept the Cat Food Commission's

recommendations. They don't even have to vote on it.

But, the commission will forward its report to Congress after the election, so a lame duck Congress will be receiving it. I've heard that Nancy Pelosi was going to give it an up or down vote in the House. That was before Simpson made that sexist remark to a group of older women.

[vi5]

4. So what you're saying is......

...in order for this to not happen (SS going away or being reduced drastically) we have to rely on and take faith in the fortitude and strength of the Democrats in congress to do what is right rather than what they get bullied into doing by republicans and the right wing media?

There doesn't exist an eye rolling emoticon big enough to place right here after that.

[baldguy]

5. SS is not going away - the GOP is just trying to gift it all to the top 1%

Just like everything else.

[xchrom]

6. It's the Lame Duck session where the rubber might hit the road.

IF congress fiddles a little bit with cuts and payouts --
It makes it easier to do again in the future.

Even raising the retirement age opens
The door.

And that's the problem.

[greymattermom]

7. giveaway to the rich

would be to stop taxing social security

[w4rma]

8. This disband the commission, because it's obvious that it was created to gut Social Security.

If it wasn't, then Rahmobama would have picked different committee members.

[mopinko]

9. jan and dick are there to keep these clowns honest.

ss is jan's #1 issue, and has been for years. she is my rep. i trust her. and lame duck session or no, she is not going to lose, and she knows her district will not forget.

for people who remember the seniors swamping dan rostenkosky's car, jan organized that protest. not only does she still think it is the third rail, she helped make it the third rail. and she and her hubby were big movers in the backlash that met junior's attempts to privatize it.
she and obama are close, he put her on there for a reason.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Jan is the only one I trust implicitly on the whole trainwreck.

But a clear eyed appraisal of the make up of this group will tell you that the numbers are not on our side.

Durbin won't vote for batshit crazy, Stern can be a little more flexible than I'd prefer but like Durbin, nothing too crazy, Becarra isn't a bad sort but he'll deal well beyond tolerance and after that it is fucking dice city, at best.

The only thing there is a lock in our favor for, is against full privatization. This game for the opposition is not getting too greedy.

I love Jan but she's in somewhat of an Alamo scenario and is pretty much a token that unfortunately is limited in bullhorn factor.

They will do literally what they feel they can do and still paint opposition as reactionary to make going to the well easier in the future.

You got some greedy bastards on that commission though, despite the obviousness of how to proceed they have a significant chance of not getting the right balance and catching heat.

I don't play their game at all though myself, you got to play short and long against them and what the fuckers need at this time is to be busted in the mouth every time they show their face.
They are too deep in to be given rope, they should be in the wilderness for decades and our stupid, complicit assholes pulled them out of the grave and legitimized their failed ideology instead of making it a mockery and an object of contempt.

[ellenfl]

10. they'll never get 60 votes in the senate. eom

[WI_DEM]

11. Despite all the gossip on DU--the commission is just that a commission and it may

make recommendations but they aren't necessarily going to be accepted. Obama has said some tweaking may need to be done but no major overhauls and he's a smart enough politician to know that you can't cut social security benefits and raise the retirment age and then go and run for re-election.

[denimgirly]

12. They can always try raising the Age so as to avoid getting hit with trying to kill it

THey wont come out and say they want to kill it...that is impossible...they will be mroe subtle by saying they want to increase the age requirement. which is like killing it.

[denimgirly]

13. Democrats have no backbone...they cave to any pressure.

Although SS is a tough nut to crack for the right the one thing they dont hav eto worry about is the left. We've seen this before. The left always, ALWAYS buckles when say boo to anything. I am amazed Civil Rights and Woman Rights are not overturned right now.

[Pirate Smile]

14. I don't get the hysteria but that's nothing new.

[Beetwasher]

15. First They Have To Get All 14 Members To Agree On The Recommendations

Before it even gets to Congress. That'll never happen if any cuts are part of the recommendations.

I'm really not concerned about this at all.

[bornskeptic]

16. Besides which the Democrats will never agree unless substantial income tax increases are included,

which means that the Republicans in the Senate will fight against the report to the death, and if it does include cuts to Social Security, there will be plenty of Democrats to back them up. In other words, there is zero chance that whatever they come up with will pass the Senate, and even if it did, there is no way it would get past the House.

[Pirate Smile]

17. Me either. It seems like another manufactured outrage stoked by people who always want to get

Dems pissed at the President.

[jeanpalmer]

19. They've already accomplished a lot

They have people accepting the notion that SS has a funding problem. "We have to do something to save the system." They've also gotten people to accept a reduction in benefits ("It's only a tweaking"). And Obama has established the strawman the Dems will use as an excuse ("I saved it from privatization"). All that's left now is for the commission to agree to raise taxes and reduce benefits.

"Are Republicans willing to sign onto a tax increase, and are Democrats ready to sign onto a benefit cut? I think the answer is probably yes in both cases if the other is willing to do it," said Alice Rivlin, a Democrat and former White House budget director.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439792287255372.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

The benefit reduction, like the health care mandates, will be put off til 2014 after Obama has been re-elected.

[impik]

20. It's not going away, nothing is going happen, people lost their collective mind

[cornermouse]

21. IF you can live long enough to collect it, that is.

Fact is, my dad would not have lived long enough to collect social security under current rules. As it was, he was lucky to get the one year that he got, I guess. He worked physical labor most of his life instead of sitting in an office all day. He didn't worry about gym memberships, etc. He never made that much money and would have been too tired after a day's work to go to the gym or out jogging.

What they are carefully avoiding saying is that they're going to make social security unreachable for an additional unknown percentage (to us) of the population that will die before reaching retirement age. Sorry, but that's fact.