What I'd like to ask dem politicians who parrot the line "we all have to sacrifice"

[cali]

I'd like to ask them what a senior citizen who is barely scraping by should sacrifice. What should a mother trying to feed and clothe her children sacrifice? What should a disabled person sacrifice? what should the person working two jobs to keep a roof over his head sacrifice? What should the college student loaded with college loans sacrifice?

I'd really like to know.

Oh, and of course, I'd never bother to even ask a republican politician.

[leftstreet]

1. They'd like it if we'd all start dying faster

DURec

[cali]

2. I don't think that's true of many dem politicians who

talk about the shared sacrifice bullshit, but I'd like to know exactly what they think should be sacrificed .

[JaneyVee]

3. Yeah it's all bullshit. A 4% tax hike isn't a sacrifice. It's your patriotic duty.

A 4% tax hike won't cause them to go bankrupt over medical bills like cutting someone's Medicare may. A 4% tax hike won't cause them to choose between eating a meal or skipping one like cutting Social Security may.

[Honeycombe8]

4. Who said that? nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

5. Maybe this guy:

[Honeycombe8]

8. I meant a RECENT quote. You got one that's been made in the last couple of years,

or better yet, since the election?

We did all have to make sacrifices, years ago. And it turned out that only some of us did, since the poorer get hit harder in a recession (this is always true).

Most recently, Dems are saying that they will not ask the older and poorer and middle class Americans to continue sacrificing to pay our way out of problems they didn't even cause, esp when the wealthiest aren't sacrificing. It's a matter of fairness. (By Sharpton, November 25, 2012, on Meet the Press)

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. You mean like this one, from democrats.org?

President Obama Calls for Shared Sacrifice and a Balanced Approach to Reducing America’s Debt
http://www.democrats.org/news/blog/president_obama_calls_for_shared_sacrifice_and_a_balanced_approach_to_reduc

His call for a "shared sacrifice" was made in his 3rd press conference in 2011.

Of course, if he held more press conferences, we might be able to hear him say "shared sacrifice" more often.

If you are sincere about wanting to know when he most recently referred to "shared sacrifice," you can, of course, use Google. There is nothing to indicate that he has departed from that concept.

[former-republican]

21. I'm wondering about this statement a little

Mr. Obama also signaled that a deal would include changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324439804578108971200674876.html

[CTyankee]

26. We already made a sacrifice. My husband was laid off from his city job in 2009, directly

as a result of the recession. He was forced to retire even tho he felt he was still contributing to society. Isn't that enough for one household to make?

[limpyhobbler]

27. links

Leaked deal memo from grand bargain talks show threat to Social Security, Medicare, safety net

Bob Woodward got his hands on the deal memo that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner struck in 2011 in their effort to secure a budget deal that would appease the Republicans who took the national economy hostage. Via Americablog, he described it on Meet the Press and it's bad. Really bad.

"This is a confidential document, last offer the president—the White House made last year to Speaker Boehner to try to reach this $4 trillion grand bargain. And it's long and it's tedious and it's got budget jargon in it. But what it shows is a willingness to cut all kinds of things, like TRICARE, which is the sacred health insurance program for the military, for military retirees; to cut Social Security; to cut Medicare. And there are some lines in there about, "We want to get tax rates down, not only for individuals but for businesses." So Obama and the White House were willing to go quite far."

That was 2011. The question now is how much of that is still on Obama's table. He's still proposing deficit reduction of $4 trillion over 10 years, with a 3-to-1 mix of spending cuts and revenue increases. As Ryan Grim details at Huffington Post, there just isn't a lot of fat to cut out of the budget to get at that kind of reduction without starting in on benefits and services provided by the government. Cuts to oil and gas and agricultural subsidies will only get you so far, and negotiators were only able to find about $40 billion in waste and fraud that they could agree to cut.

That leaves food stamps, (already slashed by $4 billion over the next year by the Senate, with the House still not taking action), billions in federal and military pensions, another several billion from home health care programs, raising the Medicare eligibility age, cutting Social Security benefits by recalibrating the Consumer Price Index, and of course the military and veterans health care programs. All of this was included in the negotiations between Obama and Boehner, and the parallel talks between Biden and Cantor. All of these ideas have been floated, with at least some support from the White House.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/12/1160891/-Leaked-deal-memo-from-grand-bargain-talks-show-threat-to-Social-Security-Medicare-safety-net


Obama Offered To Raise Medicare Eligibility Age As Part Of Grand Debt Deal
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/obama-medicare-eligibility-age_n_894833.html

[former-republican]

29. That's so bad if he does this .

[JDPriestly]

30. We could see a lot more movement toward third parties.

If we spent less on the military and changed our trade policy, it might really be better for middle class Americans.

Social Security and Medicare are essential to keeping middle class America going right now. Young people would have a really tough time if they had to educate their children and pay their mother's rent and healthcare bills at the same time.

Without Social Security and Medicare, a lot of families just would not make it.

[limpyhobbler]

35. Just allowing a 3rd party on the debate stage could have made a huge difference.

She could have asked the question: Do you promise to veto cuts to Social Security, Medicare, etc.

To pin the candidates down and force them to commit to protecting these programs.

Not even saying to vote for them, but just allowing the issue into the debate would have been good.

[Fumesucker]

6. Not everyone hates peas

Although I did watch a little girl at Thanksgiving hold some peas in her mouth for about forty five minutes without managing to swallow them. Mom was not amused at all.

[madinmaryland]

7. Cali: Would not a Democratic politician who parrots that line, be referring to the

1% who have not been asked to sacrifice for two wars, two massive tax cuts, etc?

If they are a Democratic politician they would not be asking the most vulnerable to sacrifice to fix the screw ups of the 1%.

[cali]

31. no. see Dick Durbin.

I've seen it plenty over the past couple of years and it's contextually clear that it wasn't all about the 1%

[libdem4life]

9. When any politician starts putting "we" and "sacrifice", in the same sentence,

seems it usually refers directly to his/her political currency.

[Sadiedog]

11. Yes, and then I would ask them what they personally are going to sacrifice! nt

[DearHeart]

20. Exactly my question!

And really, haven't the elderly, the poor, and the middle class suffered and sacrificed long enough??? They'd be happy, I think, if half of the population would just die or disappear! Or float off into space on the 21st of December!!!

[Angry Dragon]

12. I always ask them what they are going to sacrafice ........

pension, wages, health care, are they going to actually work all year??

[DonCoquixote]

13. The bloody fact is

the 99% have been sacrificing for 30 odd years, with a small bit of relief during Clinton and Obama. Note I said relief, not a cure.

[ananda]

14. Ask them: Are you willing to sacrifice and live on the level of the least?

..

[BlueMan Votes]

15. we've been sacrificing at the altar of raygunomics for some 30 years...

it's time for the people at the top to take their turn at it.
for once.

[HiPointDem]

16. household income is down 8% since 2000, unemployment is 8%. Lots of people

lost their shirts & homes in the mortgage bubble and market crash; lots of people are losing pensions, etc.

meanwhile, income & wealth at the top is up.

we've already done our sacrificing; some people haven't.

[Le Taz Hot]

17. My response to them:

"You first." Most of these assbites are multi-millionaries who could easily donate their salary to MANY needy families, as well as their FREE health care.

[RepublicansRZombies]

18. and since they won't we should demand a wealth tax

on all their assets or they can leave the country.

I am sick of these hypocritical heartless assholes.

[Initech]

19. I think it's time we make the rich start sacrificing.

We're suffering so they can have a seventeenth house, a private jet, and more cars than anyone will own in a lifetime. Who needs all that shit? These assholes just accumulate, and make the rest of us miserable. It's sick and I think it's way past time we break this cycle.

[former-republican]

22. That won't help anything

This isn't about the rich paying more in taxes.

It's about wages and jobs....

nothing else

Everything being said is a smoke screen.

[Sirveri]

32. When the rich pay more in taxes we all have more jobs and better wages.

If you push the taxes high enough then they are dis-incentivized from extracting wealth from their companies, and if they do it can be redistributed back to the people. If the wealth remains in the company they'll spend it on better wages or on facility upgrades (more jobs for other people).

It's not a hard concept and makes way more sense than voodoo economics of the Reagan era.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. What I'd like to tell every politician who says that is "You're Fired".

[JI7]

25. isn't that pointed towards the wealthy with assumption being those people

you mention are already sacraficing. the others should also.

[TexasBushwhacker]

28. When they say each of us owes $50K of the national debt I want to scream

When the top 10% own 80% of the financial assets in this country and they have seen their incomes go up in the last 10 years while the middle class have seen theirs go down, I say the top 10% own 80% of that $16 Trillion National Debt too. I'll start paying my part after they pay theirs.

[onethatcares]

33. ask them if they are willing

to put their salaries and benefits on the chopping block in these times of shared sacrifice.

I'm still waiting for Bill Nelson and Kathy Castor to reply to that one. What do you think the odds

are?

[hobbit709]

34. My response is "You first"

Cut your salary and benefits to my level and then you can talk to me about"sacrifice"