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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 10:36 AM Apr 2013

How Obama is Vastly Expanding the Social Safety Net

Since late last week, we have been fed a steady diet of grandma on catfood and the eeeebil Obama that is trying to make that happen. As usual, focusing on the method of inflation adjustment (that isn't simply applicable to Social Security but all of government), our venerable Leftist talking heads are missing the forest for the trees. Well, more like they're missing the forest for the branches. While people are howling at a revised method of calculating inflation, they are completely missing broader perspective on how this president is devising a more expansive social safety net.

So let's get some perspective. This president has expanded the social safety net in more broadly than anyone since the passage of Social Security - through health care reform, through expanding children's health insurance, through student aid expansion and through Medicare reforms. Let's talk about those.

Universal pre-kindergarten

Let's start with this upcoming budget, the thing that even before its release, caused the Donate-button Leftists to have their latest hissy fit. Just what is the president proposing in the budget beyond using Chained CPI to calculate inflation across government?

-snip-

The Health Care Safety Net

-snip-

Expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program:

-snip-

Turning Medicaid into a low-income entitlement:

-snip-

Turning health insurance into a federally subsidized middle class entitlement:

-snip-

Increasing benefits under Medicare

-snip-

Full article:
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/04/how-obama-is-vastly-expanding-social.html

19 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Buzz Clik

(38,437 posts)
1. What are you -- some kind of Freeper troll?
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 10:38 AM
Apr 2013

How dare you say something positive about Obama here? Are you unaware that you are swimming upstream? Marching out of step?

 

Armstead

(47,803 posts)
14. I greatly admire President Obama -- But sometimes he fucks up big time on the big things
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 12:06 PM
Apr 2013

I often agree with him when he is in his fighting liberal populist mode. I strongly supported him in 08 and 12 elections, and oftyen expressed that here.

But too often he backslides into the same arrogant, elitist corporate mentality that has gotten us into this mess over the last 30 years.

And when he does, I'm gonna complain about it.

So where does that fall into your template of "saying something positive about Obama"?

winter is coming

(11,785 posts)
2. "Donate-button Leftists to have their latest hissy fit"
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 10:40 AM
Apr 2013

There's nothing like a little hippie-punching to convince folks you're being reasonable.

 

graham4anything

(11,464 posts)
6. President Obama personally saved me $1600 a month in health care.
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 11:01 AM
Apr 2013

Nobody else personally gave me that opportunity EVER.

20 plus years of 15% rise in premium a year

Thanks to President Obama, 57% less a month and that is only the premium.

Eventually everyone will see how great President Obama is.

The greatest populist president since LBJ.

dawg

(10,610 posts)
8. So, in other words ...
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 11:37 AM
Apr 2013

He got the ACA passed and he proposed a universal Pre-K program (which isn't going to happen).

I applaud both things. (Every other great benefit you mentioned stems from the ACA).

None of this changes the fact that the President has made a terrible, terrible mistake by proposing Chained CPI for Social Security. It is an attempt to balance the budget on the backs of seniors and future seniors, and it is morally reprehensible because it is based on an underlying lie (substitution effect).

The President has said and done many other things that are more compatible with Third Way thinking than they are with traditional liberalism. If he had been opposed by a legitimate primary challenger in 2012, I probably would not have voted for him.

You know, it could also have been said that George W. Bush greatly expanded the safety net. Medicare Part D was a really big thing at the time, and I'm glad it happened. That doesn't mean it didn't have it's problems, and it certainly didn't excuse everything else that W did.

So what is the angle of "leftists" like me who always criticize the President? I'll tell you.

1. I want to encourage Congressional Dems to reject this Third Way proposal.
2. I want to shame the President into taking it back, or at least to shame him out of proposing further "compromises"
3. I want to protect the sick, the poor, and the elderly.
4. I want to show the world that someone still stands up for what remains of the legacy of the New Deal.
5. I want to encourage the nomination of more liberal and less centrist Democrats in future primary elections.


I am tired of this sense of entitlement shown by our Democratic politicians. Just because you have a D beside your name does not mean you are deserving of my support. Even if I do support you, that doesn't mean I will remain silent when I think you are selling out our principles.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
9. The RAH RAH crowd won't like that.
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 11:44 AM
Apr 2013

They can only hippie punch since the Left handed them their asses in this debate. Now all they can do is stomp their feet and be mad like little children, because you called papa a liar!

dawg

(10,610 posts)
10. They need to grow the hell up and realize this isn't about Obama ...
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 11:52 AM
Apr 2013

it's about the future of the Democratic Party and what that party stands for.

If a significant portion of your base has gotten so pissed off that it is threatening to walk; rather than just insult them, you might want to look in the mirror and ask why.

I sincerely hope this Social Security thing blows over and does not impact 2014. I certainly won't be sitting at home. But I don't the President did the Party any favors here.

And of course, Third Way thinking is a pervasive virus in this party. It isn't just President Obama. As the Republican party gets more and more beholden to the religiously insane, rational conservatives can't stomach it anymore and need someplace to go. I'd just as soon they went somewhere else. I don't want their money or their votes if it means becoming an economically conservative party.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
11. Oh I am SO THERE WITH YOU ON THIS ONE!
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 11:55 AM
Apr 2013

Their petty selfishness has been a real eye opener for me. I had no idea we had so many children here, that I thought were adults. For them, critiquing our POTUS and hating our POTUS are one and the same...why? Cause they are that narrow-minded is my guess.

dawg

(10,610 posts)
13. I actually feel a fair degree of affection towards President Obama and his family.
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 12:04 PM
Apr 2013

In many ways, he's a very admirable man. He just has some messed up ideas about how the economy and the safety net should work. And he has a tendency to seek the approval of the Very Serious People that is almost pathological in its intensity.

Recognizing his flaws does not mean that I despise him or that I wish Romney were President.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
15. I do too, no one can argue with some of the social changes
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 12:08 PM
Apr 2013

he has brought about that we would NEVER see under a Republican administration! That cannot be emphasized enough imo. But on this ONE THING, I find fault as a lot of others do --- and then we are told WE are the enemy. AS IF the DUers making such claims are THE core of the party. That is something I know not to be true.

They are a fringe group of loyalist that feel threatened by their small numbers so resort to the only thing that they know will deflect that fact - hippie punching.

They are the Party of Sadz.

 

Armstead

(47,803 posts)
12. If so, then why did he decide to fuck it up by proposing a fundamentally bad and regressive SS idea?
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 11:59 AM
Apr 2013

Maybe if Obama was more consistent, there might not be so many "hissy fits."

Progressive dog

(6,862 posts)
16. Ok, here's this leftist's hissy fit
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 12:36 PM
Apr 2013

If being a liberal Democrat is being a leftist, I plead guilty.
If not supporting a Democratic president's cuts to SS and Medicare is being a leftist, I plead guilty.

It's unfortunate that a Democratic president no longer supports the positions that made him a Democrat.
As for the Medicaid claim, SCOTUS has left that up to the states.

Us Donate-button leftists used to be known as FDR democrats or liberals or the mainstream of the Democratic party.
There, hissy fit done for now.

Babel_17

(5,400 posts)
17. And the Chained CPI is offered up as part of that because ...? (nt)
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 05:00 PM
Apr 2013

We don't want to get caught up in the Chained CPI net.

The administration, as you note, has many great ideas. Let's see them get proposed in a budget and we'll stand by the administration as it fights for it.

Analogy: That's a tasty looking veggie burger, look at those slices of ripe tomato, garden fresh lettuce and onions, organic ketchup, and .... rancid beef.

Ditch the rancid beef and I'll take two! What, it's an attempt to gain the rancid beef lovers?

I'll pass.

 

HiPointDem

(20,729 posts)
18. ...
Sat Apr 13, 2013, 05:03 PM
Apr 2013

Universal pre-kindergarten: expanding the education deform gravy train

Expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program: expanding the privatized medical care gravy train

Turning Medicaid into a low-income entitlement: ???? Medicaid is being cut back by the states.

Turning health insurance into a federally subsidized middle class entitlement: Expanding the privatized medical care gravy train, more guaranteed $$$$ to the insurance industry

Increasing benefits under Medicare: I'll believe it when I see it; the experience at the state level has been different.

Modeling education & health care on the military contracting model is not reform.

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