Geithner: We're 'Deeply Serious' About Medicare, Social Security Reform
Of course, Geithner is pushing the Very Serious Idea of reforming Social Security and Medicare. Doesn't everyone?
Considering that the Greenspan commission didn't actually work - at least, not the way that Geithner says it did - it kind of leads me to wonder what he actually means.
From This Week:
TAPPER: Do you think the fact that you guys are pushing the bipartisan commission is indicative of the fact that our political system is not capable of taking on the serious challenges our nation faces?
You and I know that the money, as Willie Sutton says, said, that -- why do you rob banks? Because that's where the money is. The money is in entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, things that you do not touch in this budget.
The fact that you need a bipartisan commission to recommend cuts or tax increases, doesn't that indicate that our political system is incapable of making these tough decisions?
GEITHNER: Jake, I am very confident in our ability as a country to bring people together and make sure we are solving these challenges and these problems. We've done it in the past, it is completely within our capacity to do as a country.
But of course, it requires you bringing people together across the aisle to step back from politics, to try to bring practical solutions to things that are very important to our future as a country. And the president is committed to do that.
We're going to give the Republican Party the chance to share in the responsibility and the burden and the privilege of trying to fix the things that were broken in this country.
TAPPER: Republicans are afraid this is just a back door for tax increases. Are you willing to say that tax increases are off the table for this commission? Let's sit down and talk about the long-term structural problems with entitlement spending?
GEITHNER: The president's view, and this is a view shared by many Republicans, and it builds on what we've seen with effective commissions in the past, like the Greenspan commission that President Reagan established to help restore the financial footing of Social Security, is that for this to work, you've got to bring people together to step back from politics, day-to-day politics, and to bring fresh ideas to solve these kind of problems.
That's the only way to do it, we think. And we're committed to doing that. We've got to do it on a bipartisan basis, and we're deeply serious about doing this.
When a Neoliberal uses the word REFORM, you should be afraid.
Be very, very afraid.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
between a CORPORATIST
and a neo-liberal?
Some stuff you can't make up!
The Liberal has a mixed economy, the government provides services and regulates the economy.
The Neoliberal outsources Government services to private providers who will certainly be incorporated.
What is the difference between Neoliberal and Corporatist, probably not a lot.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
geithner is just another repub in democrat clothing
he wants our ss and medicare money wasted on wall st
and given to the banks. FUCK HIM UP THE A........
other than washington dc keeps robbing from the
ss funds, we would be fine.
if he screws this up, i hope every American that
he robs of what little security they have, are given
the chance to dry hump him......
Because for the first time in 25 years, Social Security is taking in less in taxes than it is spending on benefits.
This is why it's broke.
Forget the fact our long term obligation is unsustainable, or that Gen-X is 1/3rd smaller than the largest generation of our times baby boomers who are starting to retire now. There are no painless solutions, we're in for some tough compromises people.
BTW Thanks C&L for posting more on these issues
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
I caution against citing Jack Cafferty and the Corporate Fear Monagers at CNN as valid sources.
The second link you provide describes a difference on the in and out of the trust fund. The trust fund is meant as a buffer.
Social Security is a pay as you go system. When it is out of balance it may need recalibration, which comes through adjusting the cap or the rate.
When the Neoliberals talk about reform, they mean something entirely different.
The third link is from Calculated Risk here.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Yes pay as you go but Gen-X is 1/3 smaller than the now retiring baby boomer, the largest generation in history. There will be more people taking from the system than putting in very soon. The GOA who put out the US financial reports have warned of this for years. The problem is this downturn unemployment has seriously weakened our tax base. We're out of money now.
Even if we didn't have this economic crisis we would still soon be in serious trouble.
On page 123 of 2008's US finacial report it states"
Look at the charts on pages 123 - 125:
2008 US Financial Report - GAO
http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2008/08frusg.pdf
Our long term obligations are unsustainable. People need to understand this very soon or they will learn it the hard way.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
According to the statement you cite on page 123 the trust fund is growing and will be until 2017, when it will decline.
The trust fund is over two trillion dollars, it makes up the difference between inflow and outflow, which according to the first statement does not occur until 2017.
However the downturn has changed the calculation. The trust fund is nowhere near out of money, and will not be for some years.
When it is out of money, which in the same report is projected as occurring in 2041, or thereabouts, then the rates need to be addressed.
The common scare tactic is to call Social Security an unfunded mandate.
Nothing is further from the truth, it is not a savings account, it is pay as you go.
We have a severe employment downturn, that affects the numbers but there is a buffer.
Medicare, along with all health care costs, on the other hand is exploding.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
The trust fund has been replaced with IOU's, they keep these programs as off budget items so they don't have to state such evilness in the US financial reports however, they refer you to carefully legal worded documentation to obfuscate the truth in GAO 2001 document called
Look at the chart on page 33 titled "Figure 4.2: Effect of Trust Fund Surpluses/Deficits on Unified Budget Totals Over Time" You can see federal funds are gone and they have been dipping into our trust fund. The line called unified results is the budget which is deep into trust fund territory at the time the document was written in 2001!
Like the 2008 financial report it too refers you to another document written in 1999 (the government loves to reference documents) put out by David Walker the former head comptroller for the GAO who has been sounding the alarm for years.
Federal Debt : Answers to Frequently Asked Questions—An Update
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/cg99027.pdf
In the preface he states:
That is from 1999, it's a lot higher now.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Bullshit! SS has been taking in much more money than it paid out for years! So we should let the same assholes who f'ed up this scenario off the hook by letting them cut or steal it all through privatization?
And I am sick of hearing how broke we are. TAX THE SHIT OUT OF THE TOP 2%, and we can easily get back trillions. Of course those greedy bastards may have to get by on $25,000,000 a year instead of $2,000,000,000 well boo...frwaking whooooo; fuck em' I say, I ain't feeling sorry for them!
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Even more than the depth of the curves, what concerns me is the lengthening tails in that second chart. Of particular note, look how long Bush policies stretched the tail of the 2001 recession. It took over 50% longer to pull employment out of the ditch in that one than even in daddies' recession. Clinton dropped us in to a light recession after 11 years, then Bush II stretched out the unemployment to the longest period in US history.
And look at the 3 longest tails. All under presidents who bought in to Reagan economic theory. I'm sure there are other factors that come in to play, but seriously, from that graph alone, one should be able to deduce the utter folly that is conservative economic policy.
to roast in. The grand experiment turned out to be nothing more lethal bungee jump. Greenspan tied a non-elastic rope around the moon and then our necks with a huge amount of slack, he then climbed to the top of Everest and jumped.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Clinton left social security fine , but along came Bush/Cheney... The social security fund in put in the kitty to use as they see fix.. Bush used it for his illegal war ,, gave tax cuts to the the top 5 % of Americans and outsourced over 8 million jobs.
What type of shape do you believe social security would be in with the government using it as they please and outsourcing all of American jobs so there is a lot no longer going into the kitty..
Why doesn't Obama omit that he can not create jobs which have been outsourced and Obama can not try to create or bring those jobs back without the republicans permission..
This is just BS for the last 9 plus years while the government transfer our jobs overseas and our wealth and power to these Global Empire monopolies.
None
Exactly.
And Obama is one of THEM! He will continue to screw us, knowing damn well that the banksters can bankroll his next election if he stays loyal to the "family."
My grandma always said "you can tell the character of somebody by the company they keep." Anybody who would hire Rahm, Timmy and Larry, is a freaking asshole!
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
The stupid American people understand when the terms "deficit reduction" and "fiscal responsibility" are tossed around that this is code for "eliminating entitlement programs".
in any budget; reduce spending or increase the income circle. In the case of the US there is a third more sinister option.
What they are doing now, debase the currency by printing more out of thin air and force other countries to carry the load. If that fails then loan it to yourself which they are doing now also. We're in big ef'n trouble.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Anything when American jobs have been outsourced to India , China and other countries around the world...
Sure all the other countries do not want to change the free trade bill, we have sent them our manufacturing plants , jobs and economy...
The last 8 years policies were to destroy the unions and transfer the wealth and power to these Global Monopolies so the American citizens would have nothing to help them stand up and fight with..
Now the courts controlled by these corporate republicans are creating legislation to give these world monopolies every complete and total control over what we hear , see and tells us what to think...
None
This is what passes for our "left" party in this country. Increase war spending, cut the few basic social programs we have.
“...this is code for "eliminating entitlement programs"”
Too bad it's not code for eliminating being the "World's policeman".
because of $12 trillion and growing national debt and the overwhelming interest we are paying on that debt now. It doesn't matter what any of us believe, the laws of physics will force capitulation.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Susie, please show me where Geitner said "Reform" in the text as far as SS and medicare are in the saame text. Again, are you taking the interview out of context?
About keeping his job, staying out of jail and still working for the profit of his true constituents: The Wall Street millionaires. I have no use for him. Krugman would be so much better in that job but Wall Street hates him so he'll never even be offered a policy position.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Wall Street Billionaires.
The millionaires are their foot soldiers.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I hear a lot of talk about "bipartisanship" and "reform", which means Obama's next move is to alienate more liberals and progressives by privatising Social Security.
Man, what a moron.
going to happen.
I don't see them privatizing it. I see them reducing it. The former Comptroller, David Walker has been warning about it for years.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/60m...
“ "The fact is, is that we don't face an immediate crisis. And, so people say, 'What's the problem?' The answer is, we suffer from a fiscal cancer. It is growing within us. And if we do not treat it, it could have catastrophic consequences for our country," Walker replies.
The cancer, Walker says, are massive entitlement programs we can no longer afford, exacerbated by a demographic glitch that began more than 60 years ago, a dramatic spike in the fertility rate called the "baby boom." ”
Meanwhile, I hear that Moody's is warning about the credit rating of the debt of the U.S. So, fasten your seat belts, as it could be a bumpy ride.
http://www.gata.org/node/5919
"NEW YORK -- The United States is at risk of losing its top-notch triple-A credit rating within a decade unless it takes radical action to curb soaring healthcare and Social Security spending, Moody's, the credit rating agency, said on Thursday. ...
In its annual report on the US, Moody's signalled increased concern that rapid rises in Medicare and Medicaid -- the government-funded health care programmes for the old and the poor -- would "cause major fiscal pressures" in years to come.
Unlike Moody's previous assessment of US government debt in 2005, Thursday's report specifically links rises in health care and Social Security spending to the credit rating. "
I've known about that actually.
Ironically privatizing it may work better than leaving it where it is and waiting for it to crash before hard political decisions are made. I'm resigned that it will be reduced now (now matter what or which party). Before you all throw things! The rational behind this is that it is in trouble either way, and privatized entity may be able to make better calls than the current utterly ineffective Congress (I'm independent - this isn't partisan - been blaming both for decades now). Of course, just when I think it can't get worse .. it does. =P
We can have our wars and defense budget, or our modest (compared to other western nations) social programs, not both. Congress did not start a new tax for the two recent wars. They dug us into this hole. Raising taxes, theoretically should help get us out, but not in a recession which is looking to be W shaped to me. We can't really raise taxes significantly without threatening the recovery and further depressing the tax base.
The only thing we could do is try to limit spending on any program that doesn't help the recovery. SS/Medicare & Medicaid do help it. Any cuts will come out of the pockets of people that have to take care of those cut. Or put it this way, I don't know anyone on social security that hoards most of their check each month and doesn't spend it. So cutting those, now, also will make the second dip in the recession worse.
FDR did have to change bank rules (back then it was holding cash vs paying dividends) to force banks to spend and play. Now it is banks credit default swapping to each other with none of the proceeds eve exiting the sector, and they can profit even if the "credit" defaults .. that's sort of the point of swapping them. Yet we aren't even trying ...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/180340-after-...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/180505-after-...
Restoring sane tax policy--or something more sane--is not a problem, recession or no. How does eliminating Bush tax cuts the to uber wealthy threaten recovery? Raising or eliminating the cap would be all that social security needs.
I am considering the total of all our social programs, not "Social Security", I even list SS/Medicare and Medicaid but I might as well throw in Bureau of Indian Affairs, Veteran's Administration and Tricare.
Yes, Bush's tax cuts need to go. That and some tweaks to just SS might refloat .. just SS. There is no way it will make the budget solvent in the long run. As to doing it in a recovery, I've been reading more analysis of FDR. He did you know, just that - raised taxes on the rich. Keynesians (the ones that advocate stimulus packages and jobs to end recessions/ depressions) seem to feel it was a mistake. FDR, of course, didn't have the deficit handed to him that Obama has had. So the parallels aren't 100%. But waiting until we exit the second dip of the expected W may be best.
IMHO, the rich have so many ways of hiding wealth, the tax system needs a complete overhaul anyway. Wasn't it Buffett that said his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he did?
cut the military programs!
It's always the same bullshit 'social programs need to be cut'.
First of all, the funding for social security is different and separate from the regular tax base and the budget, so the moody's bullshit is just that - BULLSHIT. Including SS in the
the game they are playing should be obvious by now. all these 'experts' popping out of the woodwork to warn about 'entitlement programs and Social Security'. They are less than 20% of the bloated budget. how about ending the 100billionDollar war in Iraq. how about terminating the 700millionDollar blackwater/xe contract. how about unprivatizing the military and the state dept security.
Some stuff you can't make up!
they can keep the wars and military programs, and the social ones. It is possible.
Then taxes need to be raised. Preferably on the segment that can afford to pay them, or the economy will keep retanking. With reforms to make sure secretaries marginal rates aren't higher than their bosses.
Oh wait, they *everyone* is allergic to the T-word.
So exactly, then they must cut the social programs to pay for the wars.
The Neoliberals should die a thousand deaths before they cut Social Security.
I will be glad to lend a helping hand at the guillotine if need be.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
but Republican's have been playing starve the beast very well since Nixon. Clinton managed some budget push back at least. But, Obama has a recession and massive debt and unfunded mandates handed to him.
Corporate republican sheep...
That is the trouble now these global corporations OWN us and the persons we elect to pass legislation for the well fair and concerns of the American citizens...
Look at the health & Drug empires , the banking monopolies , the mercenary army which this government is paying 10 times the salary of our soldiers.. Halliburton which through their criminal and corruption has stolen our money by getting paid twice for the same d... job,, electrocuting our soldiers , charging too much for the supplies they give to our soldiers..
Talk about incorporating everything and this is now one of the reasons BUSH / CHENEY put Americans in this mess...
By their privatizing it cost at least 30 More to pay the ceo and corporate criminals , their lobbyist to buy the personal to pass their legislations and their bonuses...
Why is it now that most of these jobs they have privatized and sent overseas , while cutting back workers we have all type of disasters.
like now we have no jobs , no manufacturing plants , no retirement , no health insurance while we have to pay the fire personal to put out you fire , privatized the military with mercenary army / war contractors ,privatized schools , privatized prisons , private roads and other programs which used to be public...
We are being lied to given deceptive speeches while being propaganda with false information about making all public programs to private contractors is cheap..
By now you have not seen that it is more expensive and destructive to give our social programs to the global monopolies for the greed and control
None
What you can do with your Bush , Cheney , Rove , Reagan and other republican criminal don't you..
Give them to someone that practives the same criminal practices they have in the previous administration..
One thing Britain is investigating the Blair connection to Bush/ CHeney and their crimes like the plan illegal war in Iraq.
In which their friends and corporate supported companies have been paid d... Well..
None
The first thing I would need to see is some white collar crime enforcement. So long as Wall Street has a license to steal with impunity, I would be concerned that the Social Security funds would be lost in the next financial crime wave.
Was what brought our country out of a depression before. Creating public jobs for Americans where they could not be controlled by the Criminal Global Empires which take as least 30 percent and then some out of the top...
There is no oversight or regulations to oversea what they are doing and where our tax money goes..
This is why there are so many d... lobbyist paying the elected officials to pass the legislation they give them like the bailout and the health bill...
There is completely NO oversight and the elected officials are taking their word and their fudged information to get whatever in the h... they wish..
None
"Or put it this way, I don't know anyone on social security that hoards most of their check each month and doesn't spend it."
Sure there are. So, I expect a Republican proposal to apply needs testing in order to get Social Security. Plug that into your rate of return on a 401K. I heard this plan discussed years ago. It's a divide and conquer strategy. Divide the have and the have-nots. Then, if the haves get no benefits, they will no longer support the program, making it easier to get rid of it.
Statistically I'm not worried about them either.
The divide and conquer must be fought though. The haves do that in other ways. We are fighting something that would do the same to our schools in this county (divide them back into have and have-not schools) ... so of course the have-not schools could be underfunded eventually. Fighting it right now.
Privatizing health care and people can not afford it and when you really need it they cancel your policy..
The privatizing of our roads, now it cost billions of dollars every time you have a snow.
They are privatizing the fire departments and it cost you to call or use the fire department.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwsbNtBJsSA
Now even Cheney owns some prison institutions that have been privatizes..
The corporations pay lots of money to propaganda Americans on the government jobs should be contracted to them..
The government should control all social programs and the private contractors should only be given special contracts from the government..
The private contractors even contract jobs to other countries citizens ,, from the contracts they receive from the government.
Like Halliburton , Blackwater and others..
Contracting our social program jobs to private contractors is what is running our tax money..
None
Bullshit! How in the hell is reducing money to people who are already on the brink going to help this country? It's bullshit meant for consumption by the dim-witted!
This country would be in fantastic shape if we brought back 95% marginal rates, and confiscated all of the trillions Bush stole and gave to the top 2%! I am sick of listening to liars and morons tell us how broke we are, and that the dying american worker will have to sacrifice some more, just so the FREAKING multi-billionaires won't have their taxes raised!
So we should have no jobs, no safety nets, and no retirement even though we paid into it our entire lives? So now we can privatize it, just so the criminals who stole all of our money won't have to pay taxes on it. And the next time these theives fuck-up - which is inevitable, they can just eliminate it all together for the good of the company.
Then we can go back to the dark ages, where grandma and grandpa walked the streets, and begged the nobility for a crumb of bread. Screw you, and the Wall Street talking point horse you rode in on.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
they let the meltdown occur with no warning.
Some stuff you can't make up!
... because it was the rating agencies themselves that facilitated the meltdown by grading the mortgage backed securities as "AAA". That is what created demand for these securities, and allowed the matter to scale.
When I think about the criminal prosecutions that I think should occur, it is the rating agencies, first and foremost that I think should be prosecuted. Specifically, conspiracy to defraud the purchasers of those mortgage backed securities by assigning them a rating of "AAA" with knowledge that they were not entitled to that rating.
------
However, I do trust former Comptroller, David Walker.
all I will be able to think is:
SRS BSNS
/right, back into my internet hole
Hasn't Congress "borrowed" enormous amounts from the Social Security Trust Fund in years past?
All the way back to LBJ and Reagan.
I remember my dad (who died a few years into Reagan's presidency) saying sarcastically, "Sure, Congress will pay back all that money when it comes due" - while he pointed out that the Congresscritters promising to pay back the money in the future wouldn't be around when the money came due.
So my understanding is NOT that the current income is less than sufficient to cover the payments (though that is true) .. the real problem is that tons of money that belong to Social Security were used for other purposes by Congress years ago with a promise to return the funds when they were needed - which would be NOW or real soon ..
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
We should find a way to empty fucking washington and wallstreet!
I hate these mother fucking lying sons of bitches!
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
Obama , Emanuel and the centrists democrats have caught the same d... disease... Obama , Emanuel and the blue dogs and the centrists walk into this administration with the policies of bipartisan and have let the republicans run the show and control this administration..
Doesn't Obama and the democrats realize that Americans voted for a change of the last 8 years. Yes , I believe they do but are some much republican they do not give a d...
None
There's a lot of damage to undo, and it's probably insurmountable.
Going back to 2000, there were surpluses, and it was projected that the deficit could be entirely wiped out. Back then, the domestic issue was to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent. But, then, Bush got in and commenced the "Starve the beast" program. Why do you think they were spending money with reckless abandon? Why was Dick Cheney running around saying "deficits don't matter"? Why did they borrow to finance tax cuts for the rich, and their wars? Because they knew that if they drove the U.S. deep into a financial hole, that there would be no choice but to curtail the social programs that they are ideologically opposed to anyhow.
Trying to get out of it by printing money, and we may wind up like post WW1 Germany. The one thing I fault the Democrats for is that military spending cuts is "off the table".
Wouldn't I like to see Geithner et al. sent to the guillotine. I doubt this expresses what Obama wants to do so much as as attempt by the Wall Street crowd to push their agenda. Not that I am naive about Obama, but this is not his agenda. I doubt we progressives can get Obama to dump the Wall Street junta, but public pressure can prevent Obama from making their policy wet dreams reality.
I am at a loss what we can do short of outright violence. But by god I don't think we should take anything off the table. This bunch deserve what ever bad can happen to them!
]republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
This moron has zero credibility. He doesn't give a hoot about social security because it has no benefits for his clients, the banks.
they want to drive the idea into the heads of younger generation. we already have one generation trained to believe it won't exist.
Some stuff you can't make up!
The plan has been all along, from the White House's think tanks in NYC, published on the net last spring in 2009, to have the Social Security Trust Fund pay for the bank bailout. There was no place else to get the money for TARP other than here. So I am glad that all those weekly deduction from my pay were spent with good purpose, not on my retirement but on bankers bonuses. What a country!?!? %$$%^&**@@@!!!!
then it shrinks. do some googling, dammit.
this alarmist tripe is to ingrain the meme into the collective memories of a generation of young people.
Some stuff you can't make up!
when Susie does this. She injects one word "Reform" into her headline and many comments are on how they are going to take away SS. If we want to listen to someone that pulls stuff out of their ass we could just listen to Rush.
the DLC / DSCC / DCCC will destroy the middle-class more quickly, if given the chance. they are indifferent where the repuglyKKKans are openly malicious.
Some stuff you can't make up!
It's obvious to anyone who's paying attention what the political establishment intends to do with Social Security. They may or may not privatize it, but they definitely want to kill it. Slowly if necessary, quickly if they can get away with it.
SS has "loaned" money to the government. I think that needs to be paid back to remain solvent. Some think it shouldn't be paid back.
--- from 2001
PAUL KRUGMAN, COMMENTARY: Last week George W. Bush's hand picked commission on the form of Social Security issued a gloomy prognosis. Social Security, it said, will be in trouble in 2016, the year when payroll tax receipts are projected to fall short of benefit payments. After all, says the commission, Social Security has no real assets. This statement is an act of grand larceny. The Social Security system has been running surpluses for many years. These surpluses helped the federal government cover its deficits in the '80s and early '90s and have since allowed the government to pay off some of its debt. In return, Social Security has accumulated a growing portfolio of government bonds. But now Mr. Bush's appointees declare that those bonds are not real assets. That's a stunning double standard. Apparently it was OK to use Social Security money to cover the deficits produced by Reagan's tax cuts, but it's not OK to repay the Social Security system for the favor. So American workers, most of whom pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes, have been paying money for nothing. Or more accurately, their money will now be expropriated to cover tax breaks for a wealthy minority. This is an outrage and the commission should be ashamed of itself. I'm Paul Krugman.
July 23, 2001
----
Medicare is busted. Why they bundle the two together is anyone's guess.
Candideinnc
if they were, we would be discussing the massive part of the budget that is neither necessary, nor beneficial for america's long term/short term security (econ/nat'l)
anyway, geithner's bosses on wall st love the meme that govt can't fund SS going into the future, no matter how true/untrue that might be. they amount of $$ at stake in this discussion makes their mouths drool (more than usual)
War Machine?
Some stuff you can't make up!
As ever, there is nothing wrong with Social Security.
As usual, it's all about wall street wanting to take America for another ride.
You never, ever hear talk of needing to scale back the insane amount of money America spends every year on the 'defense' industry.
Have no doubt.
Obama's already set up his 'bipartisan' Debt Commission, and their findings will conveniently come in after the elections. In the meantime, they'll keep talking about DADT and other stupid, bullshit issues that don't actually matter a hell of a lot. The rubes will get excited, cheer for the team, and watch the rug get pulled out from under their feet by these thieving corporate tools later on.
Before you tell me that DADT is important-- compared to living in poverty or dying 20 years too early for lack of healthcare, it isn't. Sorry.
We need an actual populist movement in this country to roll over this fraud of a left wing party.
"That's the only way to do it, we think. And we're committed to doing that. We've got to do it on a bipartisan basis, and we're deeply serious about doing this. "
Bipartisan? Bipartisan? What the fuck is he talking about? Why? What a sickening bunch of bullshit. Obama's top financial spokesman using the lie about needing GOP support to "fix" Social Security and Medicare. Fix it how? By granting the GOP's wet dream of handing the public's retirement security to the very scumbags on Wall Street who have proven they can't be trusted with anyone's pocket change, let alone retirement money, as opposed to simply taxing our bloated millionaire class?
Fuck Geithner and fuck Obama and fuck the god damned sellout Democrats.
Look out if this piece of shit Wall Street whore is talking about "fixing"Social Security and Medicare. That says that Obama is looking to sell the public out to the GOP and Wall street, period.
It takes some work in order for the Neo-Liberals to re-validate the party of Bush and No. They've been keeping it quiet on the record number of filibusters that have been put up and the solidarity in No votes for almost everything that can make it to a vote.
I've been looking for that reference here where a staffer for a Dem Senator said that the Senator was overjoyed that Brown had won in Mass, because the stress of being in a supermajority was too much to handle. Too much was expected of them and, from my viewpoint, it was harder to boot the progressive poodle enough to maintain the status quo of their corporate funding.
Has this last year only been a game of extortion and candy to pull money from the Banking, Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries?
I'm watching the game and saw a Saint run backwards to avoid a tackle. Is the Democratic Senate running backwards to avoid loss of funding?
Paul C
If you are so damned serious about fixing Medicare and Social Security, then roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, apply that to the safety net for the elderly; end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and cut the bloated War Department budgets and apply that to health care; and make good on the contract you have with the American people to not let them fall into bankruptcy in their old age by screwing around with these vitally important programs.
Oh, and you might also introduce universal health care with single payer, which has enormous cost control potentials! What? You have suddenly lost interest in cost controls? Why am I not surprised?
Candideinnc
If George Dumbya Bush had gotten his way and privatized S.S. we would have a whole generation who would have lost most or ALL of their private S.S. accounts and these ass wipes want to push this insanity again?How fucking stupid do these cretins think the American people are anyway?
Funny how these ASSHOLES brought us to the brink of the Abyssus, are rewarding themselves with OUR money, now are AGAIN trying to dismantle the SS and Medicare.
WARNING to all Candidates and Potential Candidates The American COWARD and TRAITOZR bush couldn't do it and we will NOT let you don it.
Funny how these CLOWNS in Washington can't do a THING for AMERICA but overnight the SOCIALIST Corporation are given complete Control over us. Yup only the CORPORATE interest seem to matter.
Geithner is a SELLOUT to the SOCIALIST CORPORATIONS period and Emanuel is his Whipping Boy, Proof one year of total and complete BULLSHIT of appeal to the ANTI AMERICAN Party and again they extend their hand to the OBSTRUCTIONIST and the Party of NO.
This is not Leadership it is appeasement to the TRAITORS of AMERICA, this is to were everything down to the point of resignation this is about the DESOLVEMENT of America and Instituting SOCIALIST CORPORATE control. This is about the President being told in so many words to back off or go the way of Mr. Kennedy or Mr. Reagan (New World Order),
This is about confusion and sellout this is about and ONLY about establishing the SOCIALIST CORPORATION as the NEW GOVEZRNMENT. With total and complete COPORATE Control AMERICA will be strangled to death so ONLY the SOCIALIST CORPORATE Agenda can be advanced I give you the Presidents Sell OUT called reach across the aisle as PROOF.
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