Robert Reich: Selling the Store: Why Dems Shouldn’t Put Social Security and Medicare on the Table

[marmar]

Selling the Store: Why Democrats Shouldn’t Put Social Security and Medicare on the Table
Thursday, March 21, 2013


Prominent Democrats — including the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — are openly suggesting that Medicare be means-tested and Social Security payments be reduced by applying a lower adjustment for inflation.

This is even before they’ve started budget negotiations with Republicans — who still refuse to raise taxes on the rich, close tax loopholes the rich depend on (such as hedge-fund and private-equity managers’ “carried interest”), increase capital gains taxes on the wealthy, cap their tax deductions, or tax financial transactions.

It’s not the first time Democrats have led with a compromise, but these particular pre-concessions are especially unwise.

For over thirty years Republicans have pitted the middle class against the poor, preying on the frustrations and racial biases of average working people who can’t get ahead no matter how hard they try. In the Republican narrative, government takes from the hard-working middle and gives to the undeserving and dependent needy. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://robertreich.org/post/45896187525

[99Forever]

1. He is absolutely correct.

Not that it will make a bit of difference. We will be sold out, on the cheap.

[840high]

11. I'm afraid you're right.

[djean111]

2. I have come to realise that it is not "Democrats" putting the safety net on the table

so as to start unraveling it. Evidently the Democratic party has shifted, and either I am no longer a Democrat, or they are no longer Democrats.
And no, I will not just go along with the "new Democrats", not a party I can identify with.

[Jakes Progress]

3. The tea party stole the republican party.

The reagan democrats stole the Democratic party.

Too many rich and selfish people. And that's in "our" party. The other side is just evil. Ours is complicit, unconcerned, and inept.

[marmar]

4. As Bill Maher says, 'Democrats moved to the right, and Republicans moved into the asylum.'

[Jakes Progress]

5. The question has become

whether our leadership is on the wrong side or just can't figure out how it works. How many times will Obama do the same thing, expecting there to be a different outcome?

[truth2power]

25. The answer is NOT

that he (or they) can't figure out how it works.

No one can reasonably say that Pres. Obama is not intelligent. He knows exactly how it works. Therefore, he can't be really be expecting a different outcome.

We're being screwed. On purpose.

[bvar22]

6. The very fact that SS/Medicare HAS been "Put-On-the-Table" has forever damaged it.

Not so long ago, Social Security was the inviolate 3RD Rail.
(Touch it and You DIE!)

It has NOW been diminished to a political Bargaining Chip
that WILL be On-the-Table in every future Budget negotiation Until It Is GONE.

THAT is what happens when Daddy gambles with the Rent Money.
He may WIN tonight, but sooner or later, the family winds up on the street...always.
Even Bobby Fischer LOST at Chess occasionally.

It took a Nixon to Go to China.

[closeupready]

7. Eventually though, the powers that be do go a bridge too far,

and if you study history, you see example after example of societies where peons pushed back. We may be getting to that point, where OWS was the beginning rumblings of large-scale social change back towards the strong tradition of liberalism in the US.

[winter is coming]

8. Which is why it's been stomped on so savagely.

And futilely. The pendulum's going to swing; it's just a matter of how violent the upheaval will be.

[maddiemom]

21. My grandparents' generation contributed to Social Security only the last two decades of their workin

lives. My grandmother was a teacher, but still only worked a couple of years in Canada before marrying, and had no contribution. My grandfather contributed about twenty years, but had an excellent pension. No one in ever resented what he collected from SS(1955-1980). My grandmother collected his benefits for six more years. No one was complaining at the time. My Dad worked for forty years (excepting his service in WWII) and lived barely two years on a good pension. He had just began receiving SS when he passed away. My mom benefited from this, but had also been a working mom for years before it became the norm, and had paid into SS herself. No one complained. I worked for all but about ten years in my later teenage and adult life. I was married for twenty years to a man who "capped out" before the end of the year. I collect mostly from that, but have continued to work part time until just recently and may go back to part-time work because, at sixty-eight, I miss it. I am, however, A GREEDY GEEZER!

[LiberalLoner]

9. They want to cull the herd. They want most of us dead.

Either we will fight back or we will die.

[area51]

17. +1

It's the reason why health care isn't a basic human right in this country. It's a method to cull the herd.

[4dsc]

10. This is what you get with weak democratic party leadership

and I'll beat this dead horse into the ground till I some kind of backbone coming from our leaders.

[99Forever]

12. We have a few (very few) real leaders...

... unfortunately, none of them are in any position of actual power. The collective backbone of the current Democratic Party leadership, wouldn't allow a mouse to stand.

[NorthCarolina]

18. Not weak, just complicit with GOP goals for Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Obama isn't leading with a compromise.

Unfortunately, this is apparently where he wants to end up.

[Wilms]

14. ^

[Babel_17]

15. No matter how you analyze the gamesmanship

It is our duty to raise the largest ruckus possible over this. We need to lay it out there.

We will support primary challenges over this issue, if it goes to a vote and we get sold out.

Etc.

[HiPointDem]

40. +1

[DonCoquixote]

16. Hey Hillary, want my vote in 2016?

Put this guy in Tim Geitner's seat, and promise to stay the hell out of his way!

[Skittles]

19. I am fedup with some DUers claiming it is a chess game

SS and Medicare should be OFF THE TABLE - PERIOD

[ProSense]

20. Interesting.

It was Bill Clinton, after all, who pushed for repeal of Glass-Steagall, championed the North American Free Trade Act and the World Trade Organization without adequate safeguards for American jobs, and rented out the Lincoln Bedroom to a steady stream of rich executives.

And it was Barack Obama who continued George W. Bush’s Wall Street bailout with no strings attached; pushed a watered-down “Volcker Rule” (still delayed) rather than renew Glass-Steagall; failed to prosecute a single Wall Street executive or bank because, according to his Attorney General, Wall Street is just too big to jail; and permanently enshrined the Bush tax cuts for all but the top 2 percent.

Reich resorts to the BS about bailouts, when the Wall Street reform law repealed about 45 percent of the bailout funds.

Also, how on earth does repealing Glass-Steagall (deregulation) equate with Wall Street reform (regulation), which despite Reich's characterization, is a significant law under the threat of constant repeal and watering down: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022539673

"The road to hell is paved with these bills," said Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), an advocate of financial reform...The House Agriculture Committee will mark up several derivatives bills on Wednesday despite opposition from a coalition of public interest and consumer advocacy groups known as Americans for Financial Reform. The effort to weaken regulation...comes less than three years after the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, set a host of new standards for the derivatives business, including heightened transparency and reduced taxpayer support.

...Levin expressed exasperation at the House efforts. "Last year, some members of Congress supported watering down Dodd-Frank derivative safeguards, but abandoned those efforts after the world learned that JPMorgan Chase had lost billions of dollars on derivative trades made out of its London office," Levin said. "It is incredible that less than a week after new JPMorgan Whale hearings detailed how the bank's London office piled up risk, hid losses, and dodged regulatory oversight, that some House members are again supporting the weakening of derivative safeguards."

Reich appears to be trying to lump Obama in with Clinton to excuse away his go-along with those policies at the time. There is no equating the two based on the examples he cites.

The health care law was also a big deal, expanding the safety net and addressing inequality. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022552023

[raging moderate]

22. We need to counter their propaganda more effectively.

I can't pretend to be any kind of an expert in these matters. Still, I wonder whether we can use the fact that more of us actually are middle class or lower income workers. There are things we know about budgeting, from bitter experience.

This morning, on TV, I heard a description of a new right-wing ad: A struggling mother is shown figuring out a budget for her family. She thinks of her son, who is somewhere outside. "Oh, dear, he really wants a new bicycle. But right now, with all these other we absolutely can't afford it. He will just have to wait." The idea is that people who want to keep Medicare and Social Security are just spoiled brats making unreasonable demands on their wise super-rich guardians.

My idea is to build on this ad: The struggling mother reflects on her life experience, and brightens with an idea. Her young son comes in, and she tells him, "Honey, maybe we could save up for that bicycle you want, or look for a good one at yard sales." No, says the kid, "I want a new fancy one." I could chip in some money if we switch to cheap generic food, and you could save up your lawn-mowing wages." "But I need that money to go to movies," protests the son, "and besides, you could pay for it with no trouble, if you would just stop buying all that baby food for the baby (or medicine, or whatever)." Then the mother says, "Honey, we have to make sure everybody in our family gets what they need, before we work on getting fun things we want."

Or something like that.

[hay rick]

23. Where we are now.

Now five years after the worst downturn since the Great Depression and the biggest bailout in history, the stock market has recouped its losses and corporate profits constitute the largest share of the economy since 1929. Yet the real median wage continues to fall — wages now claim the lowest share of the economy on record — and inequality is still widening. All the economic gains since the trough of the recession have gone to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans; the bottom 90 percent continue to lose ground.

What looks like the start of a more buoyant recovery is a sham because the vast majority of Americans have neither the pay nor access to credit that allows them to buy enough to boost the economy. Housing prices and starts are being fueled by investors with easy money rather than would-be home buyers with mortgages. The Fed’s low interest rates have pushed other investors into stocks by default, creating an artificial bull market.

If there was ever a time for the Democratic Party to champion working Americans and reverse these troubling trends, it is now — forging an alliance between the frustrated middle and the working poor. This need not be “class warfare” because a healthy economy is in everyone’s interest. The rich would do far better with a smaller share of a rapidly-growing economy than a ballooning share of one that’s growing at a snail’s pace and a stock market that’s turning into a bubble.

But the modern Democratic Party can’t bring itself to do this. It’s too dependent on the short-term, insular demands of Wall Street, corporate executives, and the wealthy.

K&R for Robert Reich- one of the truth-tellers.

[MotherPetrie]

24. K&R

[xtraxritical]

26. I wish The Progressive Caucus would start organizing as a third party then

the current Democrats could become the new Republican party and the current Republicans could phase out.

[sabrina 1]

27. It's not a 'compromise', it is policy. Using Republicans alone to get their hands on the SS fund

to gamble with on Wall St has had only mild success, eg, not raising benefits as much as they should have been and reducing the cost of living raises by fooling with inflation. But they cannot get what they really want without Democrats on board. The 'New Democrats' who have infiltrated the party are the final tools they needed to get their hands on SS.

No Democrat would go along with the lie that SS should even be in a conversation about the Deficit, it had zero to do with the deficit. The very fact that we have not heard this President state over and over again that Republicans are lying when they try to tie SS to the Deficit and that he will never, ever allow them to deceive the American people with that lie.

Where is the outrage from Democrats over the vile comments made by Alan Simpson about seniors and veterans?

Face it, this is, they think, a clever way to allow the theft of the SS fund which has been a goal of the Right for decades.

I guess I prefer honesty.

As MLK said 'it is not the words of our enemies that harm us the most, it is the silence of our friends' or words to that effect. Where are our Democratic Friends now when they are most needed? Their silence on these latest deceptions speak volumes.

[xtraxritical]

32. Your "friends" are The Progressive Caucus.

[madrchsod]

28. by the time i`m done with all my medical problems.....

i`ll rack up well over 100,000 dollars. thanks to the democrats and republicans i have medicare that has never turned me down for any procedure.



so any democrat that wants to put medicare or social security on the table can go fuck themselves

[840high]

30. ....

[Bake]

29. Sad. The Pukes flatly refuse to put revenues on the table, in any shape form or fashion.

And yet we WILLINGLY put SS/Medicare on the table. Well, not "we," but our elected representatives and/or leaders.

That's effin' pathetic.

Bake

[xtraxritical]

33. effin'

[blkmusclmachine]

31. .

.

[ProSense]

34. It appears

that Senate Democrats aren't going there.

Senate Opposes ‘Chained CPI’ Cuts to Social Security, Veterans’ Benefits
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022558947

[kentuck]

35. I would suggest a red flag campaign in Florida...

..which would have the impact of a nationwide campaign, in which Democrats and Republican seniors are warned about the cuts to come to Social Security and Medicare. It's time for them to put Party politics aside and join in a common fight to save what has been good for both of them. The extremists in the Republican Party need to be stopped and this may be the only way to do it.

[Zax2me]

36. This man makes so much sense.

Wish he had a more active role in things.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

37. Ironically, after selling us out they will blame the left for not voting for them.

[djean111]

38. Why yes, yes they will. At great and formulaic length.

What a dream job - not really accountable to anyone, except once every few years, and then they are allowed to say anything they want, with no expectation of actually being held to it.

[HiPointDem]

41. that's what so infuriating. lies on top of lies, and everyone pretends they're gospel. on both

sides of the aisle.

it would make a funny movie if it didn't have such serious consequences.

[rks306]

39. if people would only listen

Agreed