It's up to the people to take Social Security off the table

[DearAbby]

make it so toxic neither party will ever touch it. Get involved, stay involved. Call them and bitch holy hell for even considering it. It's time those in the DC Bubble hear from us...stop ignoring us. Maybe this was designed purposely to make any cuts to SS too toxic for the GOP to accept...they are running away from it like scalded dogs right now.

[Cleita]

1. With all those two million petitions delivered and non-stop phone calls

(I can't get through) to the White House, it's not that we aren't trying. It seems we are being ignored. They feel we will tire and go away like Occupy Wall Street has, (or so they think). I can't remember how many petitions I have signed. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but gotta look at the reality too.

[randome]

3. Why would you think you're being ignored?

Do you want a personalized receipt or something?

And if you can't get through to the WH, how is THAT ignoring you?

[Armstead]

10. You just gotta listen to the Prez and his mouthpieces

They are ignoring this. They "know better" and are "serious" and they are projecting that arrogance in their statements.

[randome]

22. It's only been, what, two days since the budget proposal?

No one in politics reacts instantaneously. Let the uproar get loud enough and perhaps we'll hear something. I think the message is getting through to them.

[octoberlib]

12. House Democrats including Pelosi and Hoyer

are opposed. The phone calls must of worked! http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022661797#post1

[Cleita]

14. That's a start. Maybe we will get through to them yet. n/t

[Life Long Dem]

27. Pelosi doesn't call it a "cut".

"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi may not be a fan of reducing future Social Security cost-of-living increases to seniors, but she said Wednesday that it doesn’t count as a benefit cut.

“No. I consider it a strengthening of Social Security,” the California Democrat told reporters."

http://tinyurl.com/bubtmlj

[marions ghost]

13. I got through today

I had to wait five minutes on the line but I was determined to say my piece (briefly).

We MUST speak out on this.

202-456-1111 White House comment line

[Cleita]

15. I'll keep trying. Thanks. n/t

[truedelphi]

17. I no longer bother.

When last year that petition on Monsanto went off to the FDA with close to one million signatures, and Obama's FDA officials got to count it as ONE SIGNATURE, that told me everything I need to know about this massively corrupt dictatorial society we now inhabit.

[Cleita]

19. You can't give up. It gives them confidence when you give up.

Instead we have to increase our numbers not decrease them. We just haven't scared them enough yet. They are noticing and watching. They are just ignoring. Once we reach a critical mass that puts fear in them, then you will see results. We will get a few bones thrown at us or in this case keep a bone they are trying to take away from us.

[marions ghost]

21. "massively corrupt dictatorial society"

......that is accurate, I'm afraid.

The Dark Reign of the Bushites demonstrated that, but the story of the Obama admin tells you how hard it will be to overcome it.

[truedelphi]

23. When HSBC can launder huge amounts of drug money from

Violent cartels, WITHOUT penalty, as the DOJ excuses them, ("They are Too Big To be Jailed" says Holder,) while people who are doing their best to provide state-approved med marijuana to patients here in California end up with ten years' jail sentences, and Obama thinks he is covering things on his end by staying "Well marijuana is a public health issue," I want to get sick and vomit.

[marions ghost]

24. Injustice

is everywhere. So many opportunists. So many exploiters.

Corruption begets corruption.

There are not enough courts to deal with it all, even if we could bring the cases.

[Skittles]

2. you act like the GOP learns lessons

maybe because the Iraq war went so badly they'll never DARE start another one!!!

[DearAbby]

4. math

GOP has math problems...who else are they going to alienate and expect to regain power? No after this no party is going to touch Social Security. We have to make it so toxic only a political party seeking their own demise would touch it.

[Skittles]

5. you're very naive

BOTH SIDES already knows what the people want so this is all BULLSHIT

[truedelphi]

6. Oh PLEASE! Stop it! We don't have the power. The power is

not in the hands of the people. Unless by "people" you mean Corporate people.

If it was - there would not be Obama's DOJ people attempting to get the records of everyone signing up for medical marijuana cards in the state of California and Oregon.

Eighty percent of what goes on in this nation has to do with Presidential appointments. Which means Monsanto can keep killing off conventional food crops, Marijuana arrests replace the good paying jobs the state of California's voter approved med marijuana initiative were bringing about, etc.

And in another twelve months, people will realize what that POS Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Liz Fowler did to any hope of having a decent health care system, as those two wrote the ACA for the benefit of their friends at Wellpoint.

If people had the power, we would have actual choices in our four year election cycles for the Presidency. Who did we have last November? A man who is a puppet to the captains of industry, and Mitt Rmoney, who was himself a captain of industry.

Some choice. So it came down to a matter of which person's "Style" was more appealing. Someone who gave lip service to the liberal causes like the environment, and who might sign off on Gay Marriage, and who listens to Springsteen, or someone who was wooden in his dealings with others, and wouldn't do the few socuial change things we we expect Obama to do.

Meanwhile the money that Obama's appointments (Geithner/Bernanke) have put into the coffers of the Big Financial Firms as loans, and some 4.7 trillions of dollars of which will never be repaid, gives the Elite the ability to say "Budget deficit. The trim to save the deficit needs to come out of the hide of the poor people."

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

7. Actually, according to trends of the past 40 years, it seems to be more up to the bankers

though folks still make a lot of noise, and even take to the streets... it may take civil disobedience, again.

[truedelphi]

8. And digby agrees with you. Informative article posted here:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/rallying-troops-wall-street-charm.html

It details the many bankers that the Pres had come on over to the White House yesterday. This CEO group was made up of the following:
Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, Michael Corbat of Citigroup, James Gorman of Morgan Stanley, John Stumpf of Wells Fargo, Bob Benmosche of AIG and several others.

This is a quite important section to read:

"I'm going to guess this is one group that will be extremely happy to sign on to the Chained-CPI. After all, the wealthy corporate and banking class are the one's behind this deficit obsession in the first place. And they are seizing their moment:

"In a candid moment, otherwise known as a “gaffe,” former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said the efforts of corporate-backed Fix the Debt and other debt scolds is to create an “artificial crisis” that would extract federal spending reductions to reduce long-term debt.

"Speaking at a gathering of students and business leaders at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Bredesen was joined by financier Tom Pagliara and Robert Bixby of the the debt-scolding Concord Coalition, a billionaire-financed mouthpiece similar to Fix the Debt. From the Tennessean:

"The Tennessee Democrat said he and other members of the national Fix the Debt effort are trying to create an “artificial crisis” that would force Congress to bring the $16 trillion federal debt under control."

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

11. thanks for the link, a good read!

I think the bankers view all our taxes as potential profits, and why they are out to vacuum up any federal income not already earmarked for them.

[truedelphi]

18. Amd welcome to DU. n/t

[Armstead]

9. It WAS toxic.....Known as the Third Rail of Politics -- Until Obama started to make it acceptable

That's one reason I am so pissed at him.

Even the GOP pretended that they weren't out to really cut benefits because they knew that was a toxic position.

It is only when Obama "put it on the table" that it startd to become acceptable to do that.

[JoePhilly]

16. Right, cause the GOP never talked about privitizing Social Security before.

Or raising the age.

Nope. Never.

[Armstead]

25. They have done before. They got bit. They retreated.

[L0oniX]

20. I'm a Dem ...I don't expect SS to ever be brought to the table by a "real" Dem.

[patrice]

28. Copping out only accomplishes defeat on your issue. EVERY person should be a LOBBYIST, or at

least learn how lobbying is done, so we can be effective against corporate lobbyists.