Andrea Mitchell tries to push the Beltway fetish with our "aging population", just so working-class Americans turn out to be the folks who have to make a sacrifice when it comes to solving the deficit. We're the people who have to make the painful choices and not oh, people like Andrea Mitchell.
John Irons of the EPI sets her straight when it comes to the lie that the media are trying to spread, claiming that since Americans are living longer, the retirement age should go up, which would mean a huge cut in our Social Security benefits.
AM: What about raising the retirement age eventually to 68? What would be wrong with that actuarily, we're all living longer. Eventually something is going to have to be done?
JI: Well I think a couple of things. One, we're not all living longer. People who are wealthy, who have higher incomes, are living much longer. People who have moderate incomes, low incomes, aren't living that much longer. And I think with the retirement age, what that rally means is a cut in benefits...what this really means is an across-the-board benefit cut. if you look at all their proposals for Social Security, it means a reduction for 80% of the population.....for most people this would be a severe cut in their Social Security benefits.
Irons does a great job of repeating it over and over again because the Villagers need to hear it so it sticks in their brains.
The wealthy overlords live longer, but we , their hapless underlings, must face "austerity" while they party. The Masters of the Universe would love this. They destroy our economy and we foot the bill while they get 144 billion dollars of record bonuses and we all need to work until we're almost 70 before we can get a dime of our money.
Digby also catches an early moment during the broadcast when Mrs. Greenspan gets up in arms because Nancy Pelosi isn't falling for the Cat-Food Commission recommendations.
