Does Obama want to push granny off a cliff?

[OhioChick]

April 9, 2013, 8:10 a.m. EDT

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) — Along with the Republicans and the Federal Reserve, you may be able to add President Obama to the list of those who don’t give a hoot about seniors.

In his new budget, the president appears to be heading in the same direction. He wants to reduce Social Security benefits at a time when, if anything, seniors need an increase.

His idea of cutting these benefits is a sop to the Republicans. The chief executive evidently hopes that they will accept another round of tax increases in order to lower Washington’s budget deficit going forward.

This gambit is misguided, unfair and may also be illegal. It makes it seem that the president either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about the needs of our senior citizens.

These people who think Social Security is fair game overlook the following:

(1) Social Security is self-funded;

(2) It is currently running a surplus;

(3) It not contributing one red cent to the government’s budget deficit;

(4) Thus it does not need to be “reformed;”

(5) Most important, recipients are entitled by law to receive these benefits.

More: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/does-obama-want-to-push-granny-off-a-cliff-2013-04-09?siteid=yhoof2

[JoePhilly]

1. I thought that's what he designed the death panels to do?

[Katashi_itto]

4. Doesnt need fictional death panels when he can just starve people to death.

I am very disilluisoned in the president.

Actually, with CPI, I just have finally, wholly thrown in the towel.

I am just working on getting out of the country. Nothing will get fixed here.

[woo me with science]

8. Yeah, affording food, shelter, and basic medical care...

that's a real yuk-fest.

If people didn't understand the moral implications of ceding our party to the Third Way before....if they didn't grasp the depth of the lack of compassion of corporatism as a political guiding force....they sure got a faceful of it this week.

Talk about ugly.

[woo me with science]

2. K&R. It's still indefensible.

This is the economy in which we are being lectured that SS needs to be cut:

...Obama explicitly campaigned on opposing Social Security cuts -- and he just endorsed them (AGAIN)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022019860

Obama's Promises on Social Security: His OWN WORDS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022031544

Why is Social Security Under Attack from Obama, when it ADDS NOTHING to the deficit???
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022065493

*************************************************

Bernie Sanders: Chained CPI: An Economic and Moral Disaster
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022381690

Guess what? Chained CPI is the bright idea of Third Way, the (Corporate) Dem "policy shop."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022021626

wall street pulls the strings: social security under attack in february
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022155427

Two-thirds of Americans are against touching Social Security
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022050249

Robert Reich "we should be cutting military spending & Corporate welfare"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022045904

***************************************************

Top 1% get 121% of income gains since 2009 (100% of new income + 21% from your old income)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022384139

The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022246632

Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under ‘Anti-Business’ Obama
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014372334

Obama Orders Pay Raise For Congress
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022095402

"Struggling to make ends meet" on $174K a year?? Really Nancy???
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022392954

Incomes Flat in Recovery, but Not for the 1%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014400736

U.S. corporate profits stronger than ever, workers' wages fallen to lowest-ever share of GDP (CNN)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021922334

Obama to use pension funds of ordinary Americans to pay for bank mortgage settlements
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002205218

Wall Street Soars with Wealth as Wages Stagnate, Jobs Remain in a Slump
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12526154

"Recovery" in US is lifting corporate profits, but not adding jobs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014414149

U.S. Income Inequality Now Worse Than Many Latin American Countries
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022268073

****************************************************

Ranks of working poor increasing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022200197

Inequality Rages as Dwindling Wages Lock Millions in Poverty
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022198286

The Middle Class In America Is Being Wiped Out – Here Are 60 Facts That Prove It
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022144851

Child poverty rates increase unabated
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022268450

40 Percent of Americans Now Make Less than 1968 Minimum Wage
http://www.democraticunderground.com/111631016

US poverty on track to reach 46-year high; suburbs, underemployed workers, children hit hard
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002998131

The Economy is "Recovering" By Creating More Low-Wage Jobs... Increasingly Filled By Graduates
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022602162

What Recovery? Across America, People in Distressed Cities and Small Towns Face Economic Catastrophe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022545596

Real wages decline; literally no one notices
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11172387

Wages for bottom 90% declined 1.2% during 2009-2011 recovery, top 1% income grew 8.2%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022271466

Three Minimum Wage Jobs Needed To Afford Two-Bedroom Apartment
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022578738

Wages have fallen to a record low as a share of America’s gross domestic product.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022183930

Inequality Rages as Dwindling Wages Lock Millions in Poverty
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022198286

Poverty, hunger among retirees increasing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002748342

[sarcasmo]

3. Moving more to the center, UGH!

[woo me with science]

5. Nothing centrist about it.

The people in this country are strongly against cutting SS benefits, even across party lines.

This is an extreme corporatist position, like most of his administration's positions.

*This* is the economy in which we are being lectured by corporatists that already meager Social Security benefits need to be attacked...even though Social Security adds not one red cent to the deficit: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022640683#post2

We have seen unprecedented viciousness and ugliness on DU over the past week as the reliable corporate mouthpieces desperately try to shift the conversation to anything else - racism, guns, "hissy fits,"...anything - to divert from this outrageous, indefensible assault on Americans...Americans who have already been looted through legislation into impoverishment while the fat bankers and CEO's are rolling in record profits.

If anyone doubted the level of compassion of the Third Way before, we saw it this week when the mask came off and they ceased even to pretend. America is taking note: *This* is what happens to the heart and soul and compassion of our country when the corporatists get their way: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022632517

[forestpath]

6. No. He wants to KICK her off the cliff.

[woo me with science]

7. It's is cruelty. It is ugly as hell.

Pretending that this is a "balanced" approach is about the most Orwellian bullshit we have heard yet from corporate politicians.