Here at C&L, I and a few others been bashing MSNBC and demanding that Ed Rendell be kicked off for impersonating a Democrat. He shouldn't be allowed to go on the air since he joined up with a gang of rich, arrogant scumbags, fronting for a group called Fix The Debt. They are demanding that working class Americans and seniors pay for the federal deficit that the wealthy elites on Wall Street created by having their social safety nets gutted. So when Susie says Rendell is no liberal, she's absolutely right!
Apparently, MSNBC hasn't heeded our message and put this vacuous fool back on the teevee. Listen to his moronic rant on what the President should be doing about the federal debt so conservatives can screw most of the people in America because they refuse to deal in reality.
RENDELL: And he has to also deliver a message to Democrats that we're going to have to compromise. Now give the President credit, he said he would consider chained CPI, he said back in 2011 that he would raise the age limit on Medicare with carve-outs. Those are things he's going to have to deliver if we're going to get Republicans to go along with more increased revenue and doing something finally on the debt. But only one person can take this on his shoulders and cross the finish line and that's the President of the United States. He has to lead.
Which does Rendell sound more like? A) Liberal; B) Democrat or C) Fox News Republican from the House of Representatives? C is the correct answer.
Rendell: No ifs ands or buts about it. He has to lead. And boy, I’d love the whole Congress, this new Congress and the President, they should all go see a screening of Lincoln together, because Abraham Lincoln led on the 13th Amendment when everybody on both sides told him he was crazy.
My God, he even used a slavery fight analogy from the movie Lincoln to justify his wickedness.
MSNBC's Steve Kornacki was so shocked by what he heard by this supposed lefty that he forced him to clarify his remarks.
Kornacki: Well, Governor is I heard you right there, are you saying you would be okay with raising the Medicare eligibility age?
Rendell: With proper carve-outs for people who are, you know, have health challenges, absolutely.
He mumbles this response because he knows he's shillin' for the billionaires and sounds like a Larry Kudlow wannabe to people of the left. WTF does he mean by carve-outs and health challenges? Geez, I couldn't transcribe any more from this Benedict Arnold traitor in a suit.
Wendell Potter explained why the "raise the age" solution really isn't with this great piece. Dean Baker describes the chained CPI for you as well.
Dylan Matthews writes this about the con game being played on Social Security with chained CPI.
All told, chained CPI raises average taxes by about 0.19 percent of income. So, taken all together, it’s basically a big (5 percent over 12 years; more, if you take a longer view) across-the-board cut in Social Security benefits paired with a 0.19 percent income surtax. You don’t hear a lot of politicians calling for the drastic slashing of Social Security benefits and an across-the-board tax increase that disproportionately hits low earners. But that’s what they’re sneakily doing when they talk about chained CPI.
That’s why watchdog groups like the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities argue that the only fair way to do chained CPI would be to pair it with an increase in Social Security benefits, and to exempt Supplemental Security Income, which provides support for impoverished elderly, disabled and blind people. Otherwise, it’s just a typical “raise taxes, cut benefits” plan, and an arguably regressive one at that.
Most of us fought for President Obama to get his second term, but none of us fought for cuts to the social safety net programs as part of the bargain. Ed Rendell gets paid to shill against all of us of the working class who fought for Obama to get reelected.