Madison a Foretaste of Things to Come: The Next Big Occupation Could be Boomers Taking Over the Capi

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-lindorff/34737/madison-a-foretaste-of-things-to-come-the-next-big-occupation-could-be-boomers-taking-over-the-capito


The dramatic occupation of the Wisconsin State House in Madison by angry public workers and their supporters over the past few weeks is an exciting preview of what we can expect to see in the halls of Congress before long, as right-wing forces, funded by corporate lobbies and corporate-funded think-tanks push hard for cutbacks in Social Security and Medicare.

The drive to undermine these two critically important social programs is moving into high gear as the 79-million Baby Boomers this year start to reach eligibility, even as their other assets--their homes and their investment portfolios--are still shriveled by the Wall Street heist known as the "fiscal crisis" and Great Recession.

For years, the right has been gravely warning of the supposedly looming "bankruptcy" of Social Security and the even more imminent "bankruptcy" of Medicare, as though these twin disasters for the elderly were an actuarial imperative. In fact, both programs are political creations, whose problems have political causes and political solutions.

Social Security is starting to draw down the huge reserves it had built up, because the share of national income that is subject to the tax has fallen, from 90% back in the 1980s, to just 84% now as the wealthy have taken an increasingly large share of the total national income. If more of the income of the rich were slapped with the FICA tax, to bring the total share of income taxed back to 90%, there would be plenty of money to pay promised benefits into the foreseeable future. The same can be said of Medicare. More taxes on the rich would ensure the funding of that program too.

More at the link --

[truedelphi]

1. The supposed Soc. Security crisis involves looking at the

Program in the year 2037.

With it being true that the vast epidemic of brain tumors and brain cancers from cell phones is indeed upon us, if it is also true, as we are warned every other year, that a huge pandemic is just beyond the time line, event horizon and it too could deplete our numbers by ten percent, then there is no crisis.

I'm in my late fifties, and I have already lost my two dearest friends already to cancer. Neither made it to age sixty. Countless other acquaintances. Neither my friend P nor T ever did anything but put money into the system.

My mom died in December at age of ninety. Attending her funeral was her best friend, aged 88.

We Boomers are now the "Cancer Generation."

And the dirty little secret is that there is more than enough money going in, and a 2.1 trillion dollar surplus.

Meanwhile the government knows full well that cell phones are dangerous, and that the Monsanto GM crops, including ubiquitously toxic wheat and rice, are so mold contaminated that they too will have a hand at decimating the the human race.