GOP senator dares foes to 'Suggest your own plans'

[Judi Lynn]

GOP senator dares foes to 'Suggest your own plans'

April 27, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Republican head of the Senate Finance Committee lambasted critics of Social Security overhaul Tuesday, accusing them of offering no ideas of their own on how to keep the system from crashing.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said that doing nothing will trigger at least a 28 percent cut in benefits by 2041, showing why the current Congress should work on changes to achieve ''sustainable solvency.''

''Those of you that are bad-mouthing every other suggestion out there, suggest your own plans,'' the 71-year-old part-time farmer exhorted, his voice rising.

Grassley's comments and nationwide rallies by Democrats underscored the hardening of partisan differences in the three months since Bush called on Congress to enact Social Security solvency legislation.
(snip/...)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-sweetside27.html



Which one is Grassley?

[rfranklin]

1. MY PLAN: Bush pays back the "IOU's"

Now, isn't that simple?

[liberal N proud]

4. My plan as well,

Why is they rob the system blind and then the only way they can think of to fix it is to rob the people blind again!
:mad:

[magellan]

5. I second that. Pay back the IOUs, with interest

And here's another novel idea: Keep your filthy paws out of the public Trust Fund, you bastards!!

[LynneSin]

20. what rfranklin said

nuff said!

[AnnitaR]

2. I suggest the GOP keep their fucking hands off SS!

That sounds like a fine fucking plan to me!

Gee, Pubs are sounding a little hysterical lately. Guess they just got too used to having their way. LOL!

[radfringe]

6. here's a modest proposal

current polls show public approval of congress hovering around 37.8%
( http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls.html )

it's pretty obvious to most of us that the majority of Congress are nothing more than rubber stamps.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

My proposal: get rid of Congress and replace them all with rubber stamps. Think of the money that would be saved. You don't have to pay rubber stamps, nor do you have to provide health care or retirement benefits or office staff (one person can easily operate a rubber stamp or we can even outsource it to china).

The money that would be saved could be funneled into Social Security.

meanwhile - the now un-employed members of Congress can be put to work spewing their hot-air into holding tanks to be used as a heat source for cold winter days - or for blowing up balloons at walmart

[rooboy]

3. Here's a few...

1. Repeal the tax cuts for the wealthy.
2. Raise the ceiling on the payroll tax.
3. Raise the minimum wage.
4. Halve the Pentagon budget.

[xchrom]

7. dems need to call grassely out.

and don't be nice about it.

he's viper with a ''nice duy demeanor''.

paying back the iou's, reinstating certain taxes on the wealthiest americans, collecting the taxes owed by corporations, etc -- call the bastard out! he simply repeats the lies told by the gop sice reagan re: taxes, social security, etc.

[Daphne08]

13. Don't forget this one...

they didn't call it the Grassley Bankruptcy Bill for nothing. He worked on that thing for almost ten years!

[dbt]

8. Three words, Senator: RAISE THE CAP. n/t

[AzDar]

33. May I echo that? RAISE THE CAP!!! Sounds good, no?

n/t

[KittyWampus]

36. How About "Remove The Cap". Either Rolls Off The Tounge

and are easily understood by the general public.

[AzDar]

40. Yep. Works nicely too!!! n/t

[Sentath]

44. Pop The Cap!

shall be my modest contribution.

[Norquist Nemesis]

50. Yes! KILL THE CAP AND CUT THE CRAP!!!

How's that? :evilgrin:

I agree that the cap should be completely removed, not just raised. Hell! I'd even consider lowering their tax rate and having a two tax tier system on the top...as long as they are taxed on every penny of their income just like the average working joe and jane are.

[Hand]

49. Five more words...

"...and cancel the tax cuts." Voila. Problem goes away, effectively forever. Dude--it ain't rocket science. :dunce:

[JHB]

9. LALALALA-We cant hear you Dems-LALALALA-You should speak up-LALALALA

:rant:
This is yet another Republican talking point that they're trying to get people to believe by just repeating it enough.

There are plenty of alternatives out there (why looky! here's one: http://www.brookings.org/comm/policybriefs/pb126.htm )

The only way they have a shot at passing Bush's agenda (I won't dignify it with the term "plan") is by painting "at least we're doing something about it" white hats on themselves and painting "whining and complaining do-nothing" black hats on the Democrats.

Of course, they can only get away with this if the "liberal media" fails to point out the obvious (but if they do, of course, it displays their "bias").

In short, it's all GOP SOB SOP.

[amber dog democrat]

10. Nope, sorry . Not playing.

If you think addressing Social Security is so important, take the privitazed accounts off the table first. Otherwise I second the other suggestions that IOUs be repaid,
and the next surplus be left alone. I can wait until 2041 just fine, thank you.

The other thing : Lets look at Medicare and Medicaid first.

[stlsaxman]

11. Hey Chuck- we already came up with a plan...

you might have heard of it... it's called SOCIAL SECURITY!

and we enacted the plan, to boot!

[4dsc]

15. We had a plan before AWOlbush came alone

Remember under President Clinton, we balanced the budget and was paying off the debt, thus saving SS!!!

Chuck can go fuck himself!!

[hollowdweller]

12. My Plan #1 Remove the cap on deductions #2 $1 a pack cigarette tax #3

$100 tax on purchase of any car getting less than 25 miles per gallon unless used for work. #4 Make administrative law judges that decide SS disability claims have their cases reviewed for accuracy by DQB the same quality assurance branch that reviews decisions on the lower levels. Extra $25 per worker tax on employers who do not offer a pension plan for their employees.

[northzax]

28. but we need smokers

without tobacco, people would live longer, and collect more social security...

[MontageOfFreedom]

14. Oh wow, you could start with this little item.....

Taking back all the Tax cuts which were applied to every single wealthy rich person who makes more than 100,000 a year!

Don't you think that might make sense!?!??

How about closing the corporate loopholes and free gifts that are being spent on all these GOP religious fundy farmers?

How about taking away the ridiculous outsourcing?

How about repealing half of the freak-show contest money market contests that are playing on TV all the time, which make real billionaires look stupid?

Oh if you want to get authentic, Donald Trump could teach you more in a few hours how to budget money than you could learn on your own in over 30 YEARS which will come to put it into perspective given the ticket expires in 2041. You could do better. If Kerry was running things this country would do better....

[Ganja Ninja]

16. Here's a proposal for ya.

We cease the wealth of the top 1% in America under eminent domain and put it into the Social Security Trust Fund. :evilgrin:

Seriously, why should the Democrats come up with a proposal when they're not the majority in either house and they don't control the presidency or the Supreme Court. The GOP is in power. They need to come up with their own proposal so the people can see for themselves what compassionate conservatism is all about.

[Disturbed]

17. The Rethugs have no plan other than..

making the wealthy more wealthyand stealing from everybody else. The want to Dems to propose plans so that they can be cherry picked like they did with the CIA intell to push an illegal invasion of Iraq.

Piss on these scum, and swear it's raining.

[sendero]

18. Here's a plan moron...

... operate the government with budget surpluses instead of deficits. It could not be more obvious.

I heard Mr. Grassley on the radio yesterday. This guy is a tool of the highest order. It was NPR, and as usual they let him spout his obvious nonsense without anyone to directly rebut what he said, which a 15 year old could have done.


on edit: Oh and by the way Mr. Grassley. Planning economics on a time horizon of 35 years out is ludicrous. We can't even begin to imagine what the country will look like beyond 10 years or so.

[MontageOfFreedom]

21. You had better not say that out loud.....

It wouldn't be fair if Tom DeLay was signaled out for doing so much of that, "Good behavior." which judges are apparently missing.

[maxrandb]

19. Here's My Plan in Bold

Replace the current Republican majority in the House and Senate, plus the pResident, with DEMOCRATS THAT ACTUALLY GIVE A S$%T ABOUT WORKING AMERICANS AND THE MIDDLE CLASS

There, I feel better.

I would love for one of our Dems to stand up and say

"Here's my plan: Get rid of people like you that are destroying this country and our freedoms. We will repeal the idiotic tax-cuts for the wealthiest Americans, pay back the IOU's that you've written and ignored over the last 20 years, raise the minimum wage, give middle and lower income Americans a $1200 tax-cut to use as they see fit, encourage them to invest that $1200 in a retirement account of their choosing, or spend it on new tires for the van if they want"

"Out problems could be easily solved by the elimination of about 15 Republican Senators and 75-100 Republican House Members"

[mbperrin]

22. Hmmm....he's 71, worried about 2041, 36 years from now...

Chuck, come back then, and I'll get witcha, k?

If you don't show, baby, then you really don't care!

(Yep, my plan - wait long enough for all the evil bastards to die.)

[LizW]

23. Howard Dean answered this over a month ago

He said stop asking Democrats to come up with a plan... "We have a plan...IT'S CALLED SOCIAL SECURITY!!!"

Me:
It has worked fine for a long time, and when it needed adjustment under a Democratic administration, the adjustment was made and it continued to work fine, raising the standard of living for seniors and keeping many older Americans out of poverty.

Why can't Bush make an adjustment now and save a system that is working?

Because he stole the money and handed it over to his rich friends and now he wants to destroy the whole system so he doesn't have to pay it back!

[tanyev]

24. Sounds like Chuckles is admitting they have no ideas.

They love having all the power and control, but they still need the Democrats to provide any ideas with any chance of success.

[gulliver]

25. Suggesting falsely that Bush has publicized any plans...

The GOP won't put their cards on the table, because they know they will lose. Acting like the GOP has put out a "plan" in the first place is just more GOP crooked play.

[MGKrebs]

52. That's right.

They just have an idea. They are baiting us.

[Charon]

26. Plan for SS

In my opinion, he does have a point. Exactly what is the Democratic Party's plan to Save/improve/protect SS. What will the Democratic Senators and Representatives propose as a counter to the Republican effort. There are some good ideas on this thread to do that. Are they crafted into a legislative package to counter the Republican proposals. I personally have not seen a comprehesive proposal by the Democratic legislaters. Does anyone have a link to their proposals?

[Mithras61]

32. When the 'pukes put their plan on the table...

if they even have a plan (which they deny having, by the way), then maybe we'll feel a need to put our plan on the table. U

ntil we have a real proposal from the majority (not just some smoke & mirrors B.S. game they play with "here's a plan that's not really a plan"), I don't think we really need to offer more than a "your so-called plan is garbage" comment periodically. After all, Shrub has denied that they have a plan, and has admitted that the so-called personnal accounts "solution" wouldn't fix the problem, so why are we even having this discussion unless they simply are looking for a way to get their theiving little paws on our retirement funds?

[MGKrebs]

53. 'Pubs don't have a plan. Ask them for theirs.

[w4rma]

27. Gore & Kerry ran on how to save SS: Lockbox, removing payroll tax cap (nt)

[confludemocrat]

29. Schoolyard petulance

This is the agonized cry of a morally-bankrupt, radical party that has gotten in too deep for their intelligence.

[jeffgad]

30. I'm so sick of these smoke-screen "issues."

Who gives a rat's ass about what social security's long term problems are? We've got a bloody occupation in Iraq, a desperate environmental crisis, and the last time I checked, the jerk-off in the White House hadn't caught any of the bad guys that killed 3000 citizens. First things first.

[Strawman]

31. We did. 70 years ago. And it's still working perfectly.

So go get fucked Chuck!

[nolabels]

42. "DON'T FIX IT IF ISN'T BROKEN" any good mechanic will tell you

There are a lot of things that broken in government but Social Security isn't one of them.

The Republicans just can't stand the idea of something in government working would be my guess :shrug:

[underpants]

47. THAT is the correct answer to this

at least the first part :bounce:

[JerseygirlCT]

34. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Chuckie?

Nope. We're playing rope a dope with them on this one. We don't need to give them a target now. SS is NOT an immediate crisis -- unlike our health system.

We need to play to OUR game, on OUR terms. Put OUR legislation out there when we think it appropriate.

We can't let these guys off the hook. He's just screaming for a way out of the mess Bush has made on this issue. They know they're dead on this one, and need a way to save face.

I surely hope we don't provide it just now.

[gratuitous]

35. Waaaahhhh! You guys won't shoot yourselves in the foot! Waaaahhh!

Chuck you, Grassley. Let's see your plan first.

[moondust]

37. ...he cried from the poop deck of the Titanic.

"I'm up to my eyeballs in poop! We're going down!"

[bemildred]

38. I guess being a Senator is "Hard Work" eh? nt

[JNelson6563]

39. We have a plan

It's called "Social Security". SS can be easily fixed by removing the cap and perhaps even implementing some means testing.

Idiots. They just don't want to call their plan what it really is which is a fleecing of the people.

Julie

[bunkerbuster1]

41. My plan entails a fire extinguisher and your ass.

You figure out the rest, Grassley.

[Arkansas Granny]

43. I would like to see the solvency issue addressed first.

This, to me, is the most important issue as far as Social Security is concerend. If private accounts are a good deal, let's talk about them after we have solved the initial problem (which is not a crisis).

The only thing that * wants to push is his private accounts. Any idea that * has to "improve" our lives is mainly to reward the organizations that contribute heavily to the Republican party and make it sound like a good deal to the average American.

[underpants]

48. NPR this morning-SS actuaries "SS solvent until 2041"

and then it will still be able to pay 75% of benefits.

Welcome to DU Arkansas Granny :du:

[Rainscents]

45. I heard yesterday, GOP senator was challenging one of the Dem about

SS... He said, where is your (Dems) SS plans and you don't have one, and Kerry jump in and said... Where is George Bush's Plan??? Boy, this shut the GOP right up!!!

[Norquist Nemesis]

46. As if the GOP would LISTEN to any plan

They poo-poo any suggestions with comments of: devastating to the economy, harmful to business, and anti-family/faith/values/etc. That is, unless they see something they can latch onto, recoin with some Orwellian mantra and offer it up as "The GOP Plan for the People". :puke:

[woosh]

51. you first.