2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumU.S. is 'taking from the young,' top business lobbyist says
Source: Reuters
Andy Sullivan
Reuters
5:15 p.m. CST, January 8, 2014
WASHINGTON - The top lobbyist in Washington for American business warned in unusually stark terms on Wednesday that younger Americans will face diminished economic prospects in coming years unless the United States reins in spending on the elderly and improves its education system.
"I worry that for the first time in history, we're in a situation where America is taking from the young in order to support the old," Thomas Donohue, the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a speech that laid out the powerful business group's agenda.
Donohue's remarks reflect the bitter residue of a years-long budget battle that has largely failed to tackle the nation's long-term fiscal problems, as well as a new focus on inequality in Washington.
As in other areas, the business group is likely to clash with the Obama administration on some of its efforts to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, even as it supports other approaches. The Chamber will back the administration's push to impose common academic standards on a primary education system that is largely administered at the state and local level, Donohue said.
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Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-usa-fiscal-chamber-20140108,0,3164214.story
liberal N proud
(60,336 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)It's the 1% vs "the general welfare"
vt_native
(484 posts)We're not buying it as we all know that Social Security is completely self -funded and hasn't contributed one penny to the deficit, despite our President's efforts to weaken it with a "payroll tax holiday" and his desire for a "Grand Bargain".
Skittles
(153,169 posts)and trying to get the young to blame the old
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)The diminished future for the young stems from conservative ideology in practice.
Turbineguy
(37,345 posts)Oh, look, a flying saucer!
Wolf Frankula
(3,601 posts)He wants it all for himself.
Wolf
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)been taking from the working class. This lobbyist is just trying to divert anger away from those responsible so that the rest of us fight among ourselves.
dionysus
(26,467 posts)Arneoker
(375 posts)Since they are not likely to start out their lives on their own as millionaires, no doubt next he'll be calling for raising taxes on the rich to close long-term deficits and provide government investments in infrastructure and education my kids will need for a prosperous future.