social security

Honeywell CEO David Cote (Photo credit: Flickr user Policy Network)

News just broke that the “Campaign to Fix the Debt” — a group started by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson to push their deficit reduction plan that includes major cuts to Social Security — has raised $25 million for a media campaign. That’s a lot of dough, and because the group doesn’t disclose its donors, we have no idea where it’s coming from.

One thing we do know about the group is the people who are advising and advocating for it. One of these men is Honeywell CEO Dave Cote, who is a steering committee member for the organization. He has a statement up on the organization’s website about the need to address the “debt problem” in the United States.

But the shocking thing about Cote is that while he’s backing an organization based around promoting a plan to cut Social Security — which has virtually nothing to do with U.S. debt — he also wants corporations to pay even less in taxes.

Earlier this year, Cote told a CNBC host that he wants to see a corporate tax rate of “zero,” but that from a “fairness perspective, nobody would be able to stand it.” Watch the clip:

Here’s the wildest part. Cote’s corporation — Honeywell International — hasAi??actually already succeeded in paying less than zero percent in taxes. According to a report from the U.S. Public Interest Group, Honeywell paid an effective tax rate of negative 0.7 percent between 2008 and 2010.

When asked about paying so little in taxes that they were actually getting money back from the government, a Honeywell spokesman said, “Honeywell adheres to the tax laws of all jurisdictions in which it operates, is subject to …

(Photo credit: Flickr user Philip Taylor PT)

Right-wing politicians and their appeasers have a new cause: raising the Social Security retirement age, which would amount to a huge cut to the system. They claim that this is necessary to shore up the future solvency of the system, but the truth is that simply raising the payroll tax cap — so that the rich would have to pay a little bit more — would secure the system for theAi??foreseeableAi??future. And gains in life expectancy have mostly been concentratedAi??among white collar workers — blue collar workers are mostly not living much longer. By asking working Americans to work longer so that the rich don’t have to pay a little bit more, these politicians are essentially demanding a lot of pain to avoid a little inconvenience. And there’s one underlying truth about the retirement age that these politicians are not acknowledging. Social Security is actually not providing enough social support for those in their old age. This USA Today article from last near notes that nearly a fifth of Americans 65 and older are still workingand have failed to retire, a number that had increased as the economy and inequality worsened:

The percentage of people who work and people who want to work has increased markedly in both the 65-and-older and 75-and-older groups, says Sara Rix, senior adviser for the AARP Public Policy Institute. For 2011, the participation rate for 65 and older was 17.9% compared with 10.8% in 1985. For 75 and older, the rate jumped from 4.3% in 1990 to 7.5% in 2011.Ai??“Those are whopping increases,” Rix says. “I see these rates continuing to increase as we move into the future.”

These numbers point to a stark fact: …

Progressive groups are speaking out against the debt ceiling deal currently being hashed out in Washington. The response from two of the nation’s largest organizations goes essentially like this: Really?!?

The liberal advocacy group Progressive Change Campaign Committee delivered 200,000 pledges to President Obama’s campaign headquarters Friday, demanding he hold their line in debt ceiling negotiations or lose their support.

About a dozen people representing the Progressive Change Campaign Committee delivered what they said were 200,000 pledges from people who will refuse to donate or volunteer for Obama’s re-election campaign if he cuts the entitlement programs.

“It’s not a question of who they’re going to support for president, they’re going to vote for Barack Obama. It’s a question of where their time and money is going to go,” spokesman T. Neil Sroka said.

With entitlement programs potentially on the chopping block during the current debt ceiling negotiations, a prominent liberal group is threatening to pull its support for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign if Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security benefits are cut.

In Chicago, members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee delivered 200,000 petitions to Obama’s Prudential Building headquarters, threatening to cut off donations and volunteer hours if Obama puts Medicare and Social Security on the table. Ann Marie Habershaw, the COO of the Obama Campaign, met the small group in the Prudential Building lobby to receive the petitions.

A group of liberal Democrats who fundraised and volunteered for Barack Obama in 2008 plans to protest Friday outside his reelection campaign headquarters in Chicago. Organizers with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal PAC, say they will attempt to deliver 200,000 signatures on a pledge to withhold support from the president if he consents to cuts to federal entitlement programs.

Voters last week sent Washington a strong message about fixing the federal budget, according to exclusive numbers from a new poll obtained by TPM: Raise taxes on the wealthy and cut the military budget before you touch the nation’s largest entitlement program, Social Security.