Democratic candidates blast Greenspan (SS) comments

[UpInArms]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/25/elec04.prez.socialsecurity/

Proposed cuts to Social Security panned

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Posted: 5:24 PM EST (2224 GMT)

<snip>

"If I'm president, we're simply not going to do it," Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, said during a campaign stop in Ohio, one of 10 states holding Democratic presidential contests next week.

Kerry's chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, called Greenspan's proposal an "outrage."

Distancing himself from Greenspan, President Bush said he did not believe current retirees' benefits should be cut, but restated his support for allowing younger workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts.

...lots more...

[denverbill]

1. Tell you what, John. If you really want to fire up your base,

why not start talking about ending the excess taxation. Social security is overfunded for current needs, and it's not being saved to pay for future benefits. It's being used to fund regular expenses, rather than pay retiree benefits. Since SS taxes disproportionately are paid by lower to middle income people, how about lets stop burdening people by overtaxing social security.

[question everything]

27. I don't know why it should be a separate fund

Don't use it as a separate tax line which, indeed, taxes more the lower income earners. This is, what, 7.5 percent, including medicare? Just add 7.5 percent to each tax rate. This makes it progressive.

Then use this for a national pension fund where it is being dispersed according to need. Does someone with net worth of, say, $5 million, need to get, what, 100K from the government?

Sure, call it distribution of wealth, or something. Society is measured by the way it takes care of the weakest ones: children, senior, and the sick.

This way no one can come and say: this is "my" money. It is not. It is tax - a progressive one - sent to the government to take care of seniors who do not have pension plans or who, yes, foolishly, did not have the brains to be rich and to develop their own portfolios.

Please note; last sentence is uttered with sarcasm..

[htuttle]

2. ABC NEWS is leading with Greenspan's comments tonight

:)

[doc03]

6. Dan Rather did too

[wryter2000]

8. Ooooh, goodie

Let's rile the people up. SS is not something to mess with in an election year.

[turnhardleft]

12. Dan Rather is on our side

I think CBS has not gone to the dark side yet.

[Skittles]

35. I'm surprised

you didn't manage to somehow mention Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings, the same tired names trotted out to prove a "liberal media".

[central scrutinizer]

3. great - let's change the subject again

this should help blow away the smokescreen created by the Marriage Amendment and get it back on the looting of the treasury by Bushco, then we can bring up AWOL, Plame, OSP, etc. again

[strategery blunder]

5. If he had brought up this proposal 4 years ago,

this would be his explanation why:

"The point is, this is a way to help inoculate me about what has come and is coming." (NY Times interview, 2 Sept 2000)

This would be an accurate explanation now, but Bush is incapable of telling the truth;-)

[Protagoras]

4. Almost wanna thank Greenspan

If he keeps talking like that we can save a lot of money on campaign ads...the Republicans will bury themselves without us having to life a finger.

We need to frame up all these recent statements...Cut SS/Teachers are Terrorist/Offshoring Jobs is Good!

Is that a Trifecta for us? :P

[Mountainman]

7. Add losing overtime and making a hamberger is a manufacturing job

[TomSeaver]

10. This why we have to

get Bush out of office. This guy is going to ruin Social Security as we know it

[pinniped]

17. "...making a hamberger is a manufacturing job"

The funniest thing I've read all day.

I heard on the radio chimpy AHOLE doesn't want cuts to affect people already receiving SS or about ready to receive SS.

What a nice guy.:eyes:

Don't fcuk with old people now fcuk with them later.

[54anickel]

9. Snarf! Welcome to DU Protagoras. That is rich! n/t

[Protagoras]

18. Thanks! Glad to be out of the DU Closet!

[Crachet2004]

37. yeah...

It's almost like some players on the other team are actually trying to help us.

Weird. You know Greenspan had to know he was handing us a new weapon against Bush. A really powerful one.

How the hell does Bush lie his way out of Greenspan saying we have to cut SS to pay for the deficit? How can he defend his tax cuts for the wealthy now? Greenspan is THE moneyman in this country. If he says something like he just did, it's hard for anyone to argue with...he has too much gravitas when it comes to finances.

And all they have on Kerry is his voting record?

I think Alan Greenspan just voted for the democratic nominee for president, in a very public way.

Much more of this, and we really WILL win in a landslide. I sure hope so!

[xchrom]

11. hey greenspan how about that pissed away surplus

and the illegal war -- how many ss checks would that have covered?
well i'm glad to have ball back in the dem court again.
got sick of those pronouncements from the chief idiot in washington.

[turnhardleft]

13. Is Greenspan really a repub?

That's how Dan Rather lead off...calling him a republican. Is it true?

[durutti]

16. He's a right-wing fanatic.

He's an admitted disciple of Ayn Rand. Seriously.

[turnhardleft]

19. Ok but is his repub status confirmed?

I heard Rather say it but would like a backup source.

[minkyboodle]

23. an inner circle devotee

I think that is more frightening than most standard repubs...
Scott

[mountainvue]

14. Hmmm.

Somehow I think Greenspan is putting in his own two cents about how this election should go.

[doc03]

15. We need to run Al's comments in a campaign add!

[bvar22]

20. The Repubs have been trying to give the SS funds...

...to their RICH contributors from Wall Street for years. Looks like some Dems want to help them. Would you trust Arthur Anderson or Enron or Silverado with your retirement???

Social Security is one of the very best government programs ever devised, and belongs to the common trust, not in the pockets of deregulated, less and less accountable Investment Corporations. The government will NEVER be able to loot the Trust and run to the Caymen Islands.

The fix for SS is simple. Raise the cap to $120,000 and forbid our lawmakers to touch it.

[strategery blunder]

22. Why not remove the cap entirely?

[iamjoy]

21. Mad Enough to Spit

y'know, Greenspan may just be talking sense that we can not sustain the current level of Social Security benefits w/demographics the way they are, and people are living longer....

What infuriates me is just a few days ago Greenspan said we should make the Bush tax cuts permanent. I get it, so millionaires buy another vacation home and the lower classes can eat dog food in retirement!

These lousy politicians and bureaucrats have no idea because they get their nice little pensions. Why don't we cut those?! better yet, if some one earns more than a certain amount over his/her lifetime (the type of people earning over $200,000/yr), that person doesn't get social security when he/she retires, because they were earning enough to save money. How's a family of four on $40,000 a year supposed to save for retirement when they can barely keep the wolf from the door?

I'm just furious.

[rfkrocks]

24. Stock up on dog food

Time to stock up on kibbles and bitsits, thats the gop retirement plan. Work for walmart and no benefits until we are 90. That is after we retired from our manufacturing job at mc Donalds.-Throw out every single rotten corporate loving goper in office. Class warfare they complained. They want to take away the last vestige of the new deal. Greenspan-why did you not bring this up when the tax cuts started? Because you are an evil liar. Time to wake up and rid ourselves of the wormtounged liars.

[saigon68]

25. They are making dog food from DOWNER Cattle

Yummy. I'm going to work at Walmart in 3 years if they'll have me.

I want to be a greeter.</Sarcasm>

I will need to work to pay my medicare deductibles.

[rfkrocks]

26. Thankful

We should really be thankful to have the opportunity to be a greeter and have the discount of all the wonderful asian made products. Its my understanding those asian workers are treated just like the gop would like to treat all of our workers. what a great golden year dream. also greenspan can have us work ,of course in our old age, being test subjects for pesticide. (dripping sarcasm)

[metisnation]

28. McManufacturing

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=erp_c2.wais&directory=/disk2/wais/data/2004_erp

economic report of the president 2004

[stevebreeze]

29. lets see if I get Greenspans planing

20 years ago he told us we(regular people not the rich SS is caped) need to pay more taxes ahead of time to keep SS safe for the baby boomer's. This also masked the effects of Ronnie's big tax cuts for the rich. So we have been working harder and able to save less because taxes our taxes were raised. Now we should loose out on SS payments in order to protect Bush even greater tax cuts for the rich?

You just couldn't make this stuff up.

[Voltaire99]

30. Welcome to the end of retirement.

As Krugman, Akerlof and others have been pointing out for some time, the money isn't there. We're flirting with Argentina-scale crisis.

So, are we going to cut the benefits upon which millions depend? Or are we going to scale back our military empire and give our rich as well as our corporations a thorough old-fashioned soaking?

One constant, too seldom noted, is the increased workload of Americans relative to real income growth. Most Americans are asked to work more and more for less and less. Cutting Medicare and SS benefits will widen that disparity while sharpening its worst effects: declining health and economic security. What happens to a society when its top swells to bursting from the disease of rotten greed, while the middle shrinks and the the ranks of the bottom swells from scandalous mistreatment?

Why, nasty things, of course.

[Zhade]

31. Indeed. It's called revolution.

And believe me, it's coming.

[dusty64]

32. Scary!

I mentioned this to some of my friends who rarely get upset about anything, THIS pissed them off. Keep talking alan.

[htuttle]

33. "A hungry mob..."

"...is an angry mob."
-- Bob Marley, Them Belly Full

[dusty64]

34. So much material to work

with. I really hope to hear more about this and the insane attempt to classify McJobs as manufacturing. The extreme right just can't seem to put an idea out there that isn't certifiable. If we can't win a landslide with all this shit they've handed to us we are truly screwed.

[yellowcanine]

36. Greenspan is just the messenger. Get mad at Shrub.

Greenspan is right. We can't sustain this. Something has to give. Shrub is the one who took us from the largest surplus in history to the largest deficit. Blame him. It can be reversed. Roll back the tax cuts on the wealthy.

[twilight]

38. Dennis Kucinich demands Greenspan resign!

Kucinich Demands Greenspan Resigns
February 26, 2004

Congressman Kucinich yesterday renewed his demand for the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to resign when Greenspan testified that Social Security benefits should be cut to deal with the deficit. Kucinich believes ordinary Americans and future generations shouldn't carry the burden of tax cuts for the rich.

from: www.kucinich.us





:dem: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[doc03]

39. Greenspan on steel

The steelworkers will have to learn to live on less income, or retrain and move to a different area. He's a F ing jackass!