Gang of Six More Concerned with Social Security Cuts than Deficit Reduction

[jtown1123]

Benefits Cuts for Middle-Class America + More Tax Cuts for the Wealthy…Sound Fair and Balanced to You?
Entitled to Know Blog

You have to ask yourself…if deficit reduction really is Congress’ true goal then why in the world would lawmakers agree to throw out any future Deficit Reduction package passed by 60 votes (which would be an incredibly hard-fought piece of legislation, especially given this current climate) if a second piece of legislation mandating Social Security reforms does not also pass? In short, the Gang of Six has made cutting Social Security benefits more important than deficit reduction by legislating that any deficit bill will be held hostage for Social Security cuts. So much for the claims made in its executive summary that this proposal will:


“Reform Social Security on a separate track, isolated from deficit reduction”.

Beyond this mandatory Social Security legislation required by the Gang of Six, their plan also calls for immediate cuts in Social Security benefits by changing to a COLA formula designed to cut benefits.

“The plan also includes cuts to Social Security that would be felt in less than six months, and the proposed cuts to Social Security are cumulative. This means that after ten years, a beneficiary in her 70s will see a cut of close to 3 percent. After 20 years, the cuts for beneficiaries in their 80s will be close to 6 percent, while the reduction in annual benefits will be close to 9 percent by the time beneficiaries are in their 90s. For a beneficiary in her 90s living on a Social Security income of $15,000, this means a loss of more $1,200 a year in benefits.” Dean Baker, CEPR

The REST: http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=1845

[The Magistrate]

1. Absolutely, Ma'am

The aim of this is simple. The governing elite, whether in office or in the board-room, wants to welsh on its markers. It is getting to the point where the Treasury bonds held by the Social Security Trust Fund will need to be redeemed in cash. To do so, there will need to be either some reduction in spending on other items, or some increase in taxes. Neither politicians nor those who purchase politicians in wholesale lots want to do either thing. What they do want to do is continue to use the regressive pay-roll tax as a principal source of general revenue, as they have in effect been doing with the amounts collected by this levy in excess of immediate pay-outs for many decades. The F.I.C.A. tax already amounts to over a third of taxes collected against income by the Federal government. Keep the F.I.C.A. rates going up, as rates on income and capital gains are cut further for the wealthy, and as benefits for Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are reduced, and this proportion will only increase. The aim is to produce a Federal tax system sufficiently regressive as to shock even a medieval cleric.

Any serious plan for putting Federal spending in better balance would focus on raising taxes from the wealthy and reducing war spending. No proposal which does focus on this is a serious proposal for deficit reduction.

[jtown1123]

2. +1000

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Yup.

[humbled_opinion]

4. Its really hard to ask

A pro war President to reduce war spending......

[The Magistrate]

6. Nothing To Do With Pro-War Or Anti-War, Sir: War Is Simply a Luxury Item We Can No Longer Afford

[Forkboy]

8. Great to see haunting this joint again, my friend.

Your presence is missed and needed.

Please pass on my greetings to SWMBO. :)

[The Magistrate]

11. Thank You, Sir

Glad to see you well on the mend and active as well.

[atreides1]

5. Let's face it

Obama is going to sell us out...he got his, the rest of us don't matter!

[Lorien]

9. That seems to be his goal, yes.

If he's doing this much harm to us in his first term, imagine what he would do in a second when he has nothing to lose?? :scared:

[damntexdem]

12. But he could lose his come November 2012.

And if this passes, he deserves to.

[fascisthunter]

13. Yup... the Truth is Out... there never was a need to touch SS

just shows what frauds we having running things.

[Lorien]

7. Monstrous and inhuman

Guillotines. We need some. :grr:

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, jtown.

[Enthusiast]

14. K&R

Now all we need is more war and less health care! This is complete bullshit!