Cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare Should be Non-Negotiable. Here's Why!

[Renaissance Man]

Hello there, DU. It's good to be back posting among what I hope are still fair-minded progressives and liberals.

I took a three-year hiatus because, back in 2008, I quit my job where a mega-corporation was readying itself to cut its health benefits for its employees, and I saw absolutely no opportunities for advancement. Living in a right-to-work state with a union that was about as useful and active as aa snail in a 5K marathon, I knew I could no longer stay at the job. So, I decided to go to law school.

Still believing in the American Dream, I stepped out on what I believed were solid principles because as it would happen, something happened that I never thought I would ever see during the course of my lifetime -- Senator Barack Obama would be elected, and this nation would "welcome" its first African-American President.

At that time, I was optimistic. 2000 and 2004 were the first two times I was eligible to vote in a Presidential election (though disappointing they were), and as a dyed-in-the-wool progressive, I phone-banked, volunteered, donated money, and even made calls for Sen. Obama -- throughout the primary season and even into the general election. I even was able to convince my grandmother to vote for President Obama, even though her religion strictly forbids her from doing so, and I still have a commemorative photo of the ballot I used to cast my vote for him (though I knew it would not make a difference in the deeply red state in which I live). My grandmother decided to vote absentee and I helped her complete her ballot so that her vote could be counted because President Obama's election was very symbolic. She's an African-American woman born in the Deep South in 1933 (had to up the ante with the Great Depression), and never in her lifetime did she think she would see someone like President Obama become President of these United States or that she would see Michelle Obama or Malia and Sasha Obama occupy the White House.

... but that all changed in November 2008.

I remember walking into my law school the day after the election feeling optimistic and energized, but also knowing that bringing our country in the direction that it should be going was going to take a lot of work. I watched President Obama's inauguration with much adoration as so many of my classmates and friends flocked to Washington, D.C., to witness history.

... and then a lot of that optimism began to change.

The Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and her idiocy, all of the outrageous statements and innuendo from the right ... that was expected.

The economy spiraling out of control until the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act ... that was also expected.

The outright virulent racism and unspeakable environment that has crept back into the political discourse of the body politic ... also expected.

... but what I never expected was a Democratic President that would even think about placing Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as bargaining chips in debt ceiling discussions, especially by Republicans that willfully increased the debt ceiling 7 times during the Bush administration.

Now, here's what life is three years from 2008. I've graduated law school with pretty good grades. I'm studying for the bar exam. I have no job.

Law school was great. I was able to travel this great country and visit New York, and Boston, and DC, and Minneapolis, and Miami, and a litany of other cities. I was even able to get a few photos of President Obama when he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Review (which are still hanging up in the Harvard Law Review building).

My days are split between job searching, studying, and trying to keep up with politics. I've accepted that in this economy, I will more than likely be underemployed.

As a student of history and political science I am disappointed by this President -- so much so that I changed my party affiliation to Independent right before the 2010 mid-term elections (only because Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks more to my political leanings than does this President). I voted in the mid-terms as well.

I'm also an African-American male, the portion of President Obama's base that you would never think he could lose. Think again.

... and that grandmother that I mentioned earlier. Yeah, she lives on a fixed income and cannot afford to have her very meager benefits that she receives from social security slashed.

Think he can't lose in 2012. Think again.

[murielm99]

1. My daughter worked very hard for Obama.

She phone banked, knocked on doors, gave money. She was even one of the lucky people who got into Grant Park on his election night. She kept texting me while I was at our Democratic Party's election night here. Everyone was reading her texts and looking at pictures. She was so excited.

Then he had Rick Warren at the inauguration.

She cried. There were deep sobs and genuine grief.

I haven't said anything negative about Obama until recently. But I feel like crying, too.

[OhioBlue]

2. Grandma can't afford to have her very meager benefits

slashed... absolutely not. And I don't think any Dem has proposed doing that to your Grandma. Now the Republicans on the other hand.. are willing to shut the Government down and Grandma won't receive a check at all. That is what worries me the most.