There are now multiple press reports that President Obama will agree to a fiscal deal that enacts a so-called “Chained CPI” to calculate Social Security and veterans’ benefits. Under this plan, “a person age 75 in the future will get a yearly benefit thatai??i??s $653 lower after ten years of chained CPI than that person would get under the current formula. An 85-year-old will have $1,139 less to live on.” This represents a huge cut to benefits.
But during the presidential campaign, the Obama team swore up and down that it would not agree to slashing Social Security benefits. Here’s an October 6th statement:
President Obama will under no circumstances agree to put your retirement at risk by privatizing Social Security,Ai??and he will reject any plan that slashes Social Security benefits.
And his campaign web site said “no current beneficiaries should see their benefits reduced” and that the “administration will not accept an approach that slashes benefits for future generations”:
President Obama should keep his promise to the 61 million Americans who voted for him and back off of his proposal to cut Social Security benefits.
We set up an ActBlue page to highlight and reward bold progressive members of Congress who are speaking out publicly today.Ai??Check them out and donate $3 to them here.
Stop being a bitch to the GOP potus! Keep the promise we re-elected you for
You were elected on a plan to keep social security benefits unharmed and raise the tax on those making 250 grand and above. You don’t have to negotiate with these obstructionist morons. You have the upper hand. GO OVER THE CLIFF!!! GIVE THEM NOTHING!
Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. It is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of SS, that money would not go into the general fund to reduce the deficit, it would go into the SS Trust Fund which the political idiots on Capitol Hill have already dipped their grimy little hands into. So SS has nothing to do with balancing the budget or reducing the deficit. This is just a Republican threat to protect millionaires.
I strongly supported your re-election; at the moment you are no better than Romney…too late, you’re in office, embarrassing to say the least. Many depend on that SS check, I WORKED FOR IT and others did as well.
There should be not one thing that has to do with reducving anyones benefit. It should be done just like businesses do on the books and with the way it is figured. How about putting people back to work and that would be a huge fix to the currenty problems. We need more people paying in. GET IT WASHINGTON?????
Umm, guys, what I don’t hear you saying is exactly what would you recommend cutting? We all know some belt tightening is necessary. Furthermore, we have to make concessions to move forward. An imperfect deal is better than no deal at all. We have to remember this. We all have to compromise. That’s how we move forward and keep the best interests of the entire UNITED States of America foremost. Let’s hear you offer better alternatives before you criticize the work President Obama is doing.
Agree. Let’s cut the F-35 fighter plane. It doesn’t work anyway.
Eliminate the cap on Soc Sec earnings; this would eliminate the future problems with Soc Sec anyway.
Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. You could cut:
– Oil Subsidies
– The Bloated Pentagon Budget
– Subsidies To Private Insurance Companies
– Farm Subsidies
And many other things and actually reduce the deficit.
Politicians at there best, take from the poor give more to the rich. Reduce SS because they take from it. Lets rebuild other countries and forget about our own people. Let the rich by our campaign so we can please them to there gready ways. Lets change gun laws after our children get massacured and use it in our next campagne. Our great nation is going to hell in a hand basket because our Federal Govern. leaders are all to gready. Example, why is every politition a millionare, take from the poor and give to the rich. What a sorry ass nation that our political misfits have created at the exspence of the American people and our Veterans who volunterily die for this ungreatful presedent and congress alike. If the shoe fits, wear it.
If they insist on cutting S.S. cut off the millionaire and billionaires! They don’t need it! If in the future they do, let them apply. Stop paying the idiots on the hill to act like toddlers! They should be paid what our soldiers are paid, and they should have to use the VA if they want public medical care. They would find out how hard it is to find doctors who will even take medicare or medicaid. The rich can afford private insurance. If they want to be public servants, pay them like public servants, not like members of the Royal Family. If they want to serve this country, and are rich, let them donate their time to this nation and her citizens. We would get a whole new caliber of people, people who truly care about us, and our future. They should still be elected, debate, and share their ideas-hooked up to a polygraph machine. They could take the military pay, or forgo it and volunteer. We have to shake off these greedy, lying moles who tunnel into office. We should be able to fire them like any other job. What other job hires you with a 4 year to life contract, and pay them no matter how bad they are. We could also save money by stopping wasting money on the “War on Drugs”. It has created gangs, and put drugs into the hands of our kids by using them to sell drugs, knowing they will get off at 18 even if they are caught. Never mind it will ruin their lives. If people are stupid enough to want to get addicted to drugs, they will no matter what. We might as well put it in the hands of adults and tax it. Do you even have an idea how much money is going untaxed by having drugs underground? The American Medical Society wants marijuana rescheduled to class 2 so they can research the medicinal benefits that are showing up, including curing many cancers. The people fighting it are the ones making money by keeping people sick (pharmaceutical companies) while they sell untested products in our bodies with NO warranty! We have more people in prison than China, and only half the population, yet we scold THEM about human rights. Alcohol is deadly, and we know it, but it is legal. Prohibition created the Mafia. Drug prohibition causes gangs. The Government ignores this because they like the toys they get, helicopters, big privatized prisons that cost a fortune to operate. We could save BILLIONS by just stopping the arrests of people who did no harm to anyone but themselves. Build treatment centers instead. Countries that legalized drugs found drug use went DOWN! There are many places we could save money, and lives. If we took the money paid by businesses, employee premiums and co-pays and deductibles, then pooled all that money we could be making money, not insurance companies. THEY are the death panels. Dr.s favor a one-payer system. They could do their job, not worry about which procedures each insurance company will pay, and get paid promptly without all the paperwork involved in thousands of different companies. All these things would save more money than cutting Social Security and Medicare. Basically everyone would have medicare, and cutting out all the middle men could go towards paying the Dr. better. The DEA, Insurance Companies, and Government are all greedy liars, lining their pockets with the suffering and death of our people. I just have a BSE and half of my Masters, but I can figure these ways to save money in minutes. One last thing, with computers everywhere, we, the people could vote on everything ourselves. Give us a week to do some research and we can vote for ourselves. Cut out the middlemen in the Government, and it would cut out the lobbyists. They can’t buy us all out. Common sense could go a long way, but for some reason it is in short supply in DC. What cracks me up is despite the war on drugs, DC has legal medical marijuana, but won’t let the nation’s sick and dying have it. I wonder what would happen if we drug tested all the lot tomorrow?!? I’ll bet we all know.
Jill Stein was right
President Obama,
You let us down for the WI Recall….now are you planning to do the same with cuts to SS, Medicare, and Medicaid? Some legacy you’re leaving … turning your back on the middle class and the poor.
Maybe I should have voted for R&R afterall.
Myrna