Labor to Dems: We'll End Your Career If You Cut Social Security

[LongTomH]

AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka is ready to take names and kick ass if Democrats join the rush to cut Social Security as part of a "Grand Bargain." From the Huffington Post: AFL-CIO To Democrats: We'll Work To End Your Career, If You Cut Social Security or Medicare:

"No politician … I don’t care the political party … will get away with cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits. Don’t try it," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, according to prepared remarks for a speech in Las Vegas, Nev.

...............//snip

"This warning goes double for Democrats," he said. "We will never forget. We will never forgive. And we will never stop working to end your career."

The AFL-CIO has long opposed any cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, and the labor federation has suggested in the past that it would consider pulling support from Democrats who help make those cuts happen. But Trumka's remarks on the issue Monday amounted to a far more aggressive threat: That the AFL-CIO would actively use its war chest to unseat Democrats on the other side of the issue.

An AFL-CIO spokesperson clarified for HuffPost that the federation still considers so-called "chained CPI" to be part of the off-limits cuts to which Trumka was referring. A chained CPI inflation index would alter the way cost-of-living adjustments are made for Social Security recipients, slowing increases and reducing the benefits for seniors and the disabled. Many Democrats have shown an openness toward chained CPI, and the measure was included in President Barack Obama's 2014 budget, where it was paired with extra money for the elderly and poor.

The rest of us also need to let our congresscritters know we won't stand for any, repeat any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I stand with Labor on this.

NO true Democrat would ever work to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

EVER

[awoke_in_2003]

12. me too. k&r. nt

[leveymg]

2. There's no reason to cut SS/Med except to cut it. That's the point. Any Dem who agrees to cuts

is doing so only to avoid taking the necessary step of raising the caps on SS and taxing the rich.

It's really an Us or Them issue, and there is no Grand Deal to be made that this might be part of.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

26. + about a million!

[dchill]

3. K & R.

[Southside]

4. Unlike the Tea Party, Political leaders do listen to Labor

Go Labor, with you all the way!

Thank you for the post. I appreciate the diversity on DU so much. The whole spectrum on the left is represented.

[dchill]

5. CPI...

Cruel Punishment Indeed. "Don't try it!"

[tridim]

6. Chained CPI FUD post #5684.

Democrats have not and will not cut SS.

[Dragonfli]

7. Still calling Democrats that propose such cuts liars? Still claiming whitehouse.gov was hacked?

Tell, me, who hacked Obama's budget and put the proposed cuts in it for all to see posted? Why also has the whitehouse then not removed the material put there by your fictitious hackers?

One thing that really bothers me, why do you delight in calling Obama a liar every time his entitlement reform suggestions come up in conversation? Calling the president a liar is a Teabagger thing you know, not a loyalist thing.

[IrishAyes]

21. Why do they delight in such behavior? I could say something about changelings and plants

but I'm afraid the reference might fly over a TP's head, and when somebody explains it, they'd turn and gore me. So I won't. Doc's still searching for fragments of the last horn I took to the belly.

That said, it's not unknown for master strategists to dangle red meat before an opponent just to lure them into a well-laid trap. I'm sure Trumpka knows this. President Obama certainly does. We might conceivably be watching another well coordinated game of broken wings. I applaud Trumka's statement which some Dems do indeed need to hear, not to mention the entire GOP. At this point I maintain every confidence in President Obama as well, and right here and now I'll bet your house that he will deliver as always.

I hope the GOPers squalling that President Obama is out to destroy their party are right for once, because I'd love to see it pounded down to an oil spot on the highway of ancient history. But what if their older mainliners mean it when they say now that there'll be no more government shutdowns? If so, it will only be due to their missing toes and fingers. IF they're not suicidal enough to eat rat poison twice, what's left for bait? Chained CPI, maybe?

[doc03]

8. So we primary a Democrat and get a Teabagger n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

9. I think it's wrong to assume that people aren't ready for some real Democrats in Congress.

“Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time”
-Harry S. Truman

[jtuck004]

13. Freedom requires that one turns their back on the comforts of the plantation.

“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

Harriet Tubman (American escaped slave, Civil War Soldier and Abolitionist, 1820-1913)

[cui bono]

24. "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[jtuck004]

25. Been going on a long, long time. Thank you for that. n/t

[last1standing]

10. Cutting SS and/or Medicare would be cruel to seniors and the US economy.

Cutting these programs obviously is not in the interest of our senior citizens who spent their working lives paying into the programs, but also to the economy and the people at large. It will take money out of the economy where it is desperately needed while pushing even more responsibility onto younger families already burdened with the rising cost of raising children, college, healthcare, etc...

There is not one single rational excuse for cutting either of these programs and any so-called Democrat who proposes doing so should be primaried.

I stand, in solidarity, with labor.

[emsimon33]

19. Not just primaried but defeated by feet on the street

[Enthusiast]

11. Kicked and recommended.

The government wastes billions on a bloated military but wants to cut "entitlements". It is bullshit.

There are too many better answers than cuts to people that are just scraping by.

[jtuck004]

14. K&R n/t

[Old Codger]

15. Yes

What he said in spades........

[Swede Atlanta]

16. Agreed!!!!

We should be enhancing and increasing both SS and Medicare and not cutting those programs.

Corporations that are making billions in profits (e.g. Exxon, etc.) and billionaires (e.g. Koch, etc.) can afford to pay more in taxes to ensure that all of us have a meaningful and secure retirement. They have benefitted from our market economy, all of the perks they consume for which they pay less than their share (e.g. roads, bridges, education), etc.

It is time for them to pay the piper, so to speak.

[emsimon33]

17. Gotta love unions!

Warner and Kaine will sell us down the river on Social Security as they are really Republicans at heart and in the pockets of corporations. Our only hope is pressure on these guys and Bernie Sanders. There are better ways to address any issues in the future regarding SS and Medicare than throwing older Americans under the bus. Increase employment--good, middle class jobs--and eliminate the cap. Once the cap is eliminated, do a means testing.

[Euphoria]

18. k & r

[Rebellious Republican]

20. K&R Proud Union Member Here!

[RainDog]

22. you know, the War on Drugs spends a lot of money on no-bid contracts

for defense contractors.

Why is it that programs that benefit the most vulnerable in our society are the targets? Oh yeah, it's easy to pick on them.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/10/senate-report-war-on-drugs-failed/

A U.S. Senate subcommittee report this week called into question efforts to curb drug exports from Latin America, suggesting that billions in tax dollars had been wasted in no-bid contracts with no oversight on how the money was being spent or whether efforts were succeeding.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that our efforts to rein in the narcotics trade in Latin America, especially as it relates to the government's use of contractors, have largely failed," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, said in a media advisory. "Without adequate oversight and management we are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we're getting in return."

The McCaskill report indicates that U.S. taxpayers have shelled out over $3 billion for work and equipment related to the drug war in Latin America from 2005-2009, and most of that money went to private contractors.

McCaskill launched the inquiry after looking into counternarcotics efforts underway in Afghanistan. However, neither the Department of Defense nor the State Dept. were able to provide adequate documentation on their contracts and in many cases could not even identify firms that were given millions in tax dollars.

Five major defense contractors received the bulk of drug war contract spending: Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, DynCorp, ARINC and ITT. Out of all the firms, DynCorp benefitted most, winning $1.1 billion.

A billion here and a billion there, and the next thing you know...

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

27. Disgusting. Yet we don't hear of the Teabaggers waving confederate flags outside of defense

contractor's homes or businesses, do we?

[tavalon]

23. You won in Washington State and you'll win this one too

And I and every other union member will stand in solidarity. No messing with the safety net!!!!!

[bananas]

28. k&r nt