Behind Obama’s overtures to Republican right: “Bipartisan” campaign targets US working class

[Karmadillo]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/bipa-f18.shtml

Behind Obama’s overtures to Republican right
“Bipartisan” campaign targets US working class
By Patrick Martin
18 February 2010

The Obama administration is announcing Thursday a new initiative for joint action by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party against American working people, when the leaders of a new bipartisan commission to slash the federal deficit are introduced at the White House.

Obama has selected Democrat Erskine Bowles, a banker and former White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration, and Republican Alan Simpson, a retired senator from Wyoming, to head the new commission. It will have a mandate to propose major cuts in entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as regressive taxes such as a national sales tax or value-added tax, targeting working class consumers rather than the wealthy.

<edit>

Senator Simpson, 78, served three terms from 1979 to 1997, and for a time chaired the Senate subcommittee that oversees the Social Security program. He was chosen for his willingness to tackle what once was described as the “third rail” of American politics, cutting Social Security expenditures, by raising the age of eligibility for retirement and cutting benefit levels.

In an interview with the Washington Post on the eve of his appointment to co-chair the commission, Simpson virtually spat out his hatred of any government program that guarantees basic necessities. “How did we get to a point in America where you get to a certain age in life, regardless of net worth or income, and you’re ‘entitled’?” he asked. “The word itself is killing us.”

<edit>

In a telephone interview with the Times, Simpson declared, “There isn’t a single sitting member of Congress—not one—that doesn’t know exactly where we’re headed.” Both entitlement spending cuts and restructuring of the tax system were required, he said.

The Times suggested that an agreement would not be possible “unless Mr. Obama breaks his campaign promise not to raise taxes for households making less than $250,000.” In other words, the tax increases will target working people, not the multi-millionaires and billionaires whose manipulation of the financial system triggered the worldwide economic crisis.

lots more...

[msongs]

1. umm the real third rail is the out of control military welfare jobs justification program nt

[Go2Peace]

2. Yep, the elephant in the room, Military is actually being boosted. Go figure

[Better Today]

3. "The Times suggested...." Doesn't sound like Obama or

either of the two chosen have said such. I'm concerned for sure, but again the "It will have a mandate to propose major cuts in entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as regressive taxes such as a national sales tax or value-added tax, targeting working class consumers rather than the wealthy." line is suspect to me, where exactly do they have this information, vs say information that the new structure may weigh more heavily on the rich?

The entire article is suspect and conjecture from anything I see.

[Karmadillo]

4. Kick

nt

[maryf]

5. Executive order no less...

K&R, thanks for this!

[MadHound]

6. Whoops, time to throw the old and disabled under the bus

I've been confidant that I wouldn't get SS when I was old, I knew some idiot would cut it, it's simply too much money out there for the rich and greedy to pass up.

I just thought it would be a 'Pug who took it. Instead we're going to get robbed by a Democrat.

More "change" we can believe in.