Social Security reform is the answer to Obama's problems - and the nation's (WP)

[somone]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/27/AR2010122702890.html

Social Security reform is the answer to Obama's problems - and the nation's
By Michael Gerson

...Only two proposals under discussion would reshape the American economic debate as well as the president's public image: reform of the tax code or reform of entitlements. Both are necessary, difficult and politically deceptive... Entitlement reform, seems more politically dangerous. It is actually more promising. Medicare is the main policy challenge here, because rising health costs are the primary cause of unsustainable entitlement commitments. But Medicare reform - the topic of intense, ideological debate - is a political nonstarter. While Social Security is a relatively small contributor to future deficits, reforming it would be a large symbol and a logical place to begin.

A member of the House Republican leadership recently told me that bipartisan Social Security reform could be written "on the back of a napkin" - which is essentially what Obama's debt commission did. It set out a plan that would cut benefits for high-income earners, make the payroll tax more progressive and gradually raise the retirement age (with a hardship exception for those engaged in manual labor).

Obama's liberal base contends that the Social Security trust fund is not in immediate trouble. But this argument depends on an elaborate accounting trick. The trust fund is not filled with assets - gold bullion and Apple stock. It is filled with debt issued by the government to itself. The surpluses of the trust fund are in fact liabilities for the government as a whole. And these illusory surpluses are regularly used to subsidize the rest of the budget. The scheme begins to collapse in 2037, when promised benefits for Social Security recipients will suddenly drop by about 25 percent - unless the system is reformed. Liberals have threatened a serious political revolt if Obama pursues Social Security reform, and that's a genuine risk. But Obama's urgent political need is to polish his image among independents on spending and debt. And this won't happen by being risk averse.

Social Security restructuring is not the obvious choice for Obama, but it is the smart one. It is achievable. It would invest Republican leaders in a constructive national enterprise. It would reassure global credit markets that America remains capable of governing itself. It would result in a more progressive, sustainable system. And it would make a dramatic, timely political statement: that the president is capable not only of expanding government but of reforming it.

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The drumbeats have begun for Obama's war on the New Deal.

[Skittles]

1. why isn't reforming senseless WARS the answer?

WHY?

[villager]

13. It's not an "entitlement" if you're a defense contractor. Or a spy.

n/t

[Skink]

2. I'd say he should stop the wars first.

then concentrate on housing/ jobs etc. Restarting the economy. Why step on the third rail?

[msongs]

3. shh Obama loves his war nt

[neverforget]

4. The drumbeat for war continues. This time on Social Security.

Correction: the war on the middle class continues.

[pa28]

5. The "very serious people" continue to shape a limited set of options around a single agenda.

In this case it is George W. Bush's former speechwriter.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Gerson...

"served as President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006, and was a member of the White House Iraq Group."

( From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gerson )

[BlueCheese]

7. Oh, FFS. (directed at the WP author)

The idea that the Social Security trust fund isn't real is the biggest load of bullcrap in politics today. No, the trust fund doesn't contain Apple stock. It contains something better--Treasury bonds, the world's safest investment, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The idea that the bonds held by the trust fund are not as real as those held by the Chinese is a lie that Republicans are trying to turn into conventional wisdom.

This is an utterly non-negotiable position. Those Treasuries represent a sacred trust between the American worker and the federal government. They are the payroll taxes that were collected in the name of Social Security. To default on those is to say that for the last several decades, the payroll tax has been nothing but a big lie--a regressive tax sold on false premises.

Any Democrat in any office who supports this lie must be removed from the party. Period.

[pacalo]

8. This article has "Republican spin" written all over it.

Social Security must be an "easy target" because the government seems to choose that account whenever it needs to borrow money. That's OUR money paid with OUR FICA deductions! "It's achieveable" because no one is able to stop them from taking it.

STOP THE WARS TO PAY DOWN THE DEFICIT, DAMMIT!

STOP TARGETING THE VULNERABLE!

[PSPS]

9. The WP is laying the groundwork for Obama's destruction of Social Security

All the RW talking points are there:

Referring to Social Security as an "entitlement."
False. It's an insurance policy people pay into in exchange for future benefits. The use of the word "entitlement" is a RW frame.

"Social Security ... would be a large symbol and a logical place to begin."
False. Social Security contributes nothing to the deficit.

"Republican leadership recently told me that bipartisan Social Security reform could be written 'on the back of a napkin' - which is essentially what Obama's debt commission did."
Of course it could. How much space does it take to write, "destroy social security"?

"cut benefits for high-income earners"
Bad idea. That turns Social Security into a welfare program.

"make the payroll tax more progressive"
Just raise the cap.

"gradually raise the retirement age"
No need to do that at all. The retirement age should be lowered.

"Obama's liberal base"
Canard. Obama has no base left in the liberal community.

"(saying) Social Security trust fund is not in immediate trouble ...depends on an elaborate accounting trick"
False. It's the claim that it's in immediate trouble that depends on "an elaborate accounting trick."

"Liberals have threatened a serious political revolt if Obama pursues Social Security reform"
Again, the liberal community has already left Obama. Obama sees no more of a downside to his dismantling of Social Security than he did with his plethora of other GOP-directed actions he's taken during his term.

It goes on, but you get the point. Everything is coming together to give the GOP what it has been salivating to get ever since FDR -- the destruction of Social Security. And, to top it off, it will be given to them by a "democratic" president.

[Hannah Bell]

10. fuck all the lying traitors

[sabrina 1]

11. More rightwing propaganda!

SS does NOT need 'restructuring'. The Federal Government's budget needs restructuring. Such as:

Cutting Military Spending, these wars are bankrupting the country.

Ending the Bush Tax Cuts;

Creating jobs and ending outsourcing and/or taxing Corporations when they send jobs overseas.

Legalize undocumented workers and let them pay into the system. They are here, they are not going anywhere, so let them contribute. There doesn't seem to be any other solution.

Lift the cap on SS taxes.

Just doing these things would solve the Government's problems and make it possible for them to pay off some of their debts.

SS IS NOT THE PROBLEM. The Economic Collapse, the corruption that caused it, the two wars wasting trillions of dollars, these are the problem.

Leave SS alone. It has nothing to do with the deficit and it is not part of the Federal Budget. It is a fund that belongs to the American people who paid into it. It is not welfare, it is not an 'entitlement' program. It is a savings account and it is illegal for the Federal Govt. to steal from it.

[MrModerate]

12. First off, Gerson is a dick, Not of the first rank, but a dick nonetheless.

And there are multiple missatements even in the portion posted here: Entitlement reform is a concern, but compared to military waste is a hundred times harder to justify. Military waste needs to be looked at much more sharply and much sooner than entitlements (as least people derive benefits from entitlements, where military expenditure is a lot like buying thousands of expensive cars and driving them off a cliff).

Medicare could be fixed with a stroke of the pen by adopting a single-payer system. Politically tough, but easier than making medical care even more unavailable to the regular guy, which is what they mean when they talk about Medicare "reform."

And: Sure the 'Lican leadership thinks Social Security "reform" would be easy -- they've been opposed to it for 80 years, and for some reason think they can kill it now. Americans with an ounce of humanity think otherwise. And think that wrecking it is not exactly the "symbol" they're looking for.

And: "But Obama's urgent political need is to polish his image among independents on spending and debt." Utter.fucking.claptrap. 2010 was an electoral disaster because Obama's electorate of 2008 didn't show up, because they were disaffected by his slewing to the right. What Obama needs is to embrace the Democratic wing of the party, not the spineless goniffs in the faux middle (which is in fact the right wing).

And: ". . . it would invest Republican leaders in a constructive national enterprise." If we've learned anything over the last two years, I'd hope we'd learned that the Republicans aren't interested in being constructive. They're interested in cutting Obama's balls off. Pretending otherwise only gets things like the extension of the Bush tax cuts.

What's scary about all this is that the bubble of unreality that encloses Washington seems to distort the thinking of everyone inside it. Gerson's bullshit won't play half a meter outside the Beltway, but seems to be gospel on the inside. Until someone pops that bubble, we're on a trajectory for disaster.

[Divine Discontent]

14. ending the wars & closing some bases, while raising taxes on wall st profits & corporations would

do much greater things for the citizens of this country... or, maybe I don't understand who they mean when they say the "nation's" problems.