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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew GOP Congress Fires Shot At Social Security On Day One
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/social-security-di-house-rules-changeWith a little-noticed proposal, Republicans took aim at Social Security on the very first day of the 114th Congress.
The incoming GOP majority approved late Tuesday a new rule that experts say could provoke an unprecedented crisis that conservatives could use as leverage in upcoming debates over entitlement reform.
The largely overlooked change puts a new restriction on the routine transfer of tax revenues between the traditional Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program. The transfers, known as reallocation, had historically been routine; the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said Tuesday that they had been made 11 times. The CBPP added that the disability insurance program "isn't broken," but the program has been strained by demographic trends that the reallocations are intended to address.
Please don't underestimate the damage they can do the next two years.
misterhighwasted
(9,148 posts)They plan to raid every social program they weren't able to raid up till now.
Weeee! what a grand ole party they are going to have in the next two years
randys1
(16,286 posts)misterhighwasted
(9,148 posts)Party like its 1929
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Not to mention the disabled. Bad idea. Have these idiots forgotten that we vote?
Moliere
(285 posts)They figure most will either forget or blame Obama and the democrats
jwirr
(39,215 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)Last edited Wed Jan 7, 2015, 12:42 AM - Edit history (1)
I really do think that they are going to overplay their hand. They've already started.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)people will get a reminder of the issue before or then.
See:
SSDI trust fund cash flow: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4a2.html
Office of the Inspector General report on the SSDI trust fund (.pdf):
http://oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/files/audit/full/pdf/A-15-15-15024.pdf
kelly1mm
(4,735 posts)excess funds from the SS retirement plan and move them to the SS disability plan. Basically what we have been doing is taking funds that should be for future retirees and instead giving them to current disabled people.
Maybe that is a good thing and maybe not.
Much easier for the R's to go after disabled rather than the larger block of retirees. The disabled have already been vilified and the R's will be sure to trop out 20 somethings with learning disabilities, substance abuse problems etc as who they are targeting. MSM will back them up.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)Huge numbers of baby boomers and veterans have acquired disabilities. Some of the younger boomers are not yet eligible for SS retirement benefits.
Those numbers will only increase as latent combat injuries surface and the largest generation in our history continues to age. Everyone who lives long enough will acquire a disability.
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Terra Alta
(5,158 posts)all of whom would be hurt if this goes through.
But, by golly those millionaires and billionaires sure are going to get their tax cuts!
sakabatou
(42,186 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)randys1
(16,286 posts)this site that says so.
It is going to be a horrible 2 years and we all know it.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)Unless the answer is "none", then these idiots just shot themselves in the foot. Since seniors vote in higher proportions than other demographics, I'm thinking that wily Obama feller must planted a bunch of undercover moles deep in the Republican congress for them to come out this stupid on day one.
Kingofalldems
(38,496 posts)'Democrat party' is responsible. And many will believe it.
vive la commune
(94 posts)They seem to be going after SSDI, the disability program, with this one. Retirement Social Security is politically harder to attack. I'm sure they are going to try to pit retirees against disabled people, and claim that a huge number of people on disability are "fakers" and thus responsible for making Social Security broke (which of course, it isn't). Just watch. They've been wanting to get at SSDI and SSI for years.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)fight back. They are forgetting that most disabled persons who love them and will fight with them to save this program.
vive la commune
(94 posts)This scares me, personally, since I'm on disability myself. I have seen a lot of ugly attitudes towards disabled people recently, so I worry. In the UK, disabled people on benefits are demonized the same way non-disabled poor are here in the US, so I wonder if it's only a matter of time before that attitude starts here, promoted by conservative think tanks and politicians.
I've seen people blame others who they think are faking or think it's too easy to get benefits (if they only knew how hard it really is!), so I can easily see the GOP doing a divide-and-conquer strategy, sacrificing people with less-understood problems like mental illness, or fibromyalgia, supposedly in favor of people who "really deserve benefits". I can see them trying to institute new rules to "crack down" on "fraud", making it even harder for people to get benefits they need. SSDI is the new food stamps. I do hope you are right and that a concerted fight is put up by disabled people, family, and advocates against this. I'm just a pessmist because I know how damned effective these scoundrels have been over the years at getting people to be against programs that are for their own benefit.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)there are good people out there that will fight with us.
I also have a brother who is mentally ill and so I understand that there is hate for the disabled out there.
I am going to contact the ARC who represents people like my daughter and I think there are groups for almost every group of disabled people who will stand up with us. I will follow their lead but I will also write to my congress people - both house and senate and to the president.
I do share the pessimistic feelings you have but I will never stop fighting for this.
Liberalynn
(7,549 posts)What's the legislative process that could undue the rule change? We can't count on the Pukes to change their minds. They don't care who they hurt.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)to write him first.
Liberalynn
(7,549 posts)I followed your example. Though since it's not a law but a House rules change.I don't think it has to be approved by him or the Senate.
I also made calls to both my Senators just in case there's something they can do like inform constitutes like Senators Brown and Warren did and I even called my Republican Congressman. Left a message on his machine with my name but not my number. Not that he'd call back any way but I'm not interested in what I am sure would be his smarmy justifications, if he shocked me. I was polite just expressed that I was disappointed, felt that while there maybe legitimate concerns regarding the fund this was wrong way to address them,and that it only serves to make those with legitimate disabilities uncertain about their future.
The only thing that may have been overly negative is that I said this action proves what the critics say about the Republican party is true: " You all only care about the rich people." Then I hung up.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)My own brother and sister are staunch Republicans, and both developed major, life threatening medical problems that arer covered through SSDI program. Rather than logically weighing their options, they regularly vote against their own best interests and go for the straight GOP ticket without even considering the positions of Dem candidates that more closely matches their needs.
They were just boasting about how the new Republican majority was now going to "save" the country, now I wonder how they will try to spin this to save face. As suggested earlier, they will always find a ready scapegoat on Fauxnews and rightwing hate radio that somehow blames Obama.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Their Republican friends want to destroy SSDI..Are they that full of hate, that they are willing to die?
Maybe so..
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Not even if they end up homeless and starving.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Thats what its all about really... Dont ya think.. Racism is driving the political wheel of this country..
procon
(15,805 posts)They feed off the craziest email conspiracy theories you can imagine and really believe that everyone from hordes of sword waving Islamofascists, the Commies, Marxists, socialists, foreigners, The Blacks, intellectuals, and of course, all us godless libruls, are out to get them personally and steal all their shiny stuff.
Understand that the brainwashing is long set and nothing short of a professional deprogramming will alter their misconceptions. No appeal to logic or reason, no bonavide facts or the gravitas of world renowned experts has any effect whatsoever. The response is always the same, they are right because Fauxnews proved it (and they're "Fair and Balanced", see?) so I'm the one who has been indoctrinated and no matter what referenced sources I point to, they are all run by fiendishly clever leftist raconteurs and therefore not to trusted.
Its heartbreaking.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)Pit a bunch of angry old people against them young people that won;t get off their lawn! Of course, the same people will complain when the GOP tries to starve them to death to finally purge out the last of the New Deal.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Transferring money from regular SS to SSDI hurts the regular SS trust fund.
So this move benefits future regular SS recipients at the cost of disabled SSDI ones.
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)I've seriously been wondering about this. In Kansas, nobody I talked to, Repub, Dem or Indy, wanted Brownback re-elected. I'm suspicious, but have no evidence.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)tell the truth. Do YOU trust them to tell the truth? I sure don't! .
madokie
(51,076 posts)here in Oklahoma about the same time that we had a large influx of people move to our state we started using electronic vote counting machines. our ballots are still paper though. Getting a recount is an act of congress though so that is pretty much out.
this was all happening in the late '70s
Every since we've totally gone to shit, congress critter wise that is
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)Don't need to be scolded, btw.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)Good question. I´m in Texas and everyone I know hated what was happening here.
Yet somehow we (not me) managed to double down on bad.
Texas is #1 in denying disability. This will become standard at the Federal level.
If the US had any sense they would give Texas back to Mexico. Any thing that was every good about Texas died when the Bush clan moved in.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)Republicans can inflict in a very short period of time. Welcome to our world, America! And enjoy Senator Thom Tillis...
mmonk
(52,589 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)I expected the first thing to be a repeal of Obamacare.
madokie
(51,076 posts)kentauros
(29,414 posts)Like, say, dock their pay for the amount of time they waste attacking SS. Docked money would then go into the SS fund. That should get their attention
Brigid
(17,621 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)So either money has to be reallocated from the regular SS trust fund to the SSDI one or some
other arrangement has to be made.
SSDI trust fund: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/describedi.html
SSDI trust fund cash flow: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4a2.html
Office of the Inspector General report on the SSDI trust fund (.pdf):
http://oig.ssa.gov/sites/default/files/audit/full/pdf/A-15-15-15024.pdf
kelly1mm
(4,735 posts)2016? Coincidence? I think not.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)That would be the perfect time to remind voters that whoever the GOP puts in will WANT to breaks social security.
kelly1mm
(4,735 posts)beneficiaries (undeserving, natch).
The MSM has already bloodied the waters on the 'disability crisis'. Plays right into the R book. "See, it is us R's that want to protect you hard working folks who contribute to the system! D's want to squander your contributions and give them to the undeserving poor and (gasp!) even immigrants!"
Unfortunately, it will probably work.
NewDeal_Dem
(1,049 posts)Ramses
(721 posts)that want to hurt the most vulnerable. I hope to see Obama forcefully counter this and explain to the American people how vital these programs are
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)the damage they will do.
world wide wally
(21,757 posts)more eloquently, but all I have to say is...
Pricks
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)My cousin PJ gets crazy just as much as he can
A real party reptile for a northern man
He's dressed like a republican
He thinks conservative
But he drives faster than I ever did
He's into nuclear power and insider deals
He has a scene with baby oil and heels
He's my favorite politician
When he comes on weird
Says I'm not fit for this office let's get out of here
My, my, loves his ma and apple pie
Well, well, he's the party's favorite guy
I hope you like it
You know I'm going to take good care of you
I hope you like it
I hope next time you bring your friends with you
He's a drinkin', huntin', shootin', fishin' son of a gun
He knows a surgeon's gonna keep his wife young
Got industrial kickbacks in an offshore bank
Knows who to stand on and he knows how to thank
I hope you like it
You know I'm going to take good care of you
I hope you like it
I hope next time you bring your friends with you
My, my, loves his ma and apple pie
Well, well, he's the party's favorite guy
He likes to come take me for a night with the boys
He talks about the NRA and their toys
Got an automatic rifle in his pick up truck
He drives me home when he's in no state to walk
My, my, loves his ma and apple pie
Well, well, he's the party's favorite guy
I hope you like it
You know I'm going to take good care of you
I hope you like it
I hope next time you bring your friends with you
I hope you like it
Love it, like it
I hope you like it
Love it, like it
Read more: Big Country - Republican Party People Lyrics | MetroLyrics
http://www.metrolyrics.com/republican-party-people-lyrics-big-country.html
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)to beggar us all.
I hope all the idiot dittoheads and fox "news" fans howl when the people they elected FUCK THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF THEM!
Of course we all get screwed too.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)And isn't Social Security a kind of WELFARE when you think about it?
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,446 posts)or a rule change that Republicans can make unilaterally?
If it's a law, then PBO can/will veto it, right?
Recursion
(56,582 posts)It requires that any reallocation include either tax increases or benefit cuts.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,446 posts)I thought that executive agencies controlled agency rules (unless Congress passes new ones)?
Recursion
(56,582 posts)In structure it's similar to the "paygo" rules the House used to have that required any increases in spending or cuts in taxes to be offset somewhere else.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,446 posts)Thanks for the clarification. *ugh*
chillfactor
(7,584 posts)of the election results...what is wrong with the voters that they elect these monsters?
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,771 posts)And those are the ones who voted. And the lies the corporate media spreads has many Dems believing similarly harmful misinformation. Like, for instance, each party is just as bad as the other. Otherwise, why did so many Dems stay home.
Oh, and let's not forget Gerrymandering, which has played a huge part in many recent R electoral victories. So, the votes of those who know better than to believe the RW BS being spread count for less than those of the loyal RW voters.
Cha
(297,809 posts)our country. Make the Kochs richer and the Workers poorer.
I didn't underestimate it before the Midterm Election.