Super Committee is getting bipartisan support for reducing SS and other benefits

[MadHound]

"Just as 55 million Social Security recipients are about to get their first benefit increase in three years, Congress is looking at reducing future raises by adopting a new measure of inflation that also would increase taxes for most families — the biggest impact falling on those with low incomes.

If adopted across the government, the inflation measure would have widespread ramifications. Future increases in veterans' benefits and pensions for federal workers and military personnel would be smaller. And over time, fewer people would qualify for Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, school lunch programs and home heating assistance than under the current measure."
<http://news.yahoo.com/formula-reduce-social-security-increases-201418202.html>

The chained CPI, another Obama idea that is going to screw us even more.

[yodermon]

1. if obama vetoes this SHIT he will begin to gain the respect of the OWS crowd.

IMHO.
Imagine what OWS will look like around election time, mr president.

[woo me with science]

7. Unlikely, since he is the one who proposed the cuts.

Wouldn't that be a pip, though.

:puke:

[Laluchacontinua]

10. Can you link me to something discussing his proposal?

[woo me with science]

11. Links herein:

From Obama's press conference to the American people, 7/22/2011
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/22/remarks-president:

"Essentially what we had offered Speaker Boehner was over a trillion dollars in cuts to discretionary spending, both domestic and defense. We then offered an additional $650 billion in cuts to entitlement programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security."

Details of the proposal as reported in July 2011:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/23/what-obama-was-willing-to-give-away/?utm_source=Blog&utm_medium=twitter
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/92539/obama-boehner-debt-ceiling-press-conference-concessions-revenue

"Medicare: Raising the eligibility age, imposing higher premiums for upper income beneficiaries, changing the cost-sharing structure, and shifting Medigap insurance in ways that would likely reduce first-dollar coverage. This was to generate about $250 billion in ten-year savings. This was virtually identical to what Boehner offered.

Medicaid: Significant reductions in the federal contribution along with changes in taxes on providers, resulting in lower spending that would likely curb eligibility or benefits. This was to yield about $110 billion in savings. Boehner had sought more: About $140 billion. But that’s the kind of gap ongoing negotiation could close.

Social Security: Changing the formula for calculating cost-of-living increases in order to reduce future payouts. The idea was to close the long-term solvency gap by one-third, although it likely would have taken more than just this one reform to produce enough savings for that.

Discretionary spending: A cut in discretionary spending equal to $1.2 trillion over ten years, some of them coming in fiscal year 2012. The remaining differences here, over the timing of such cuts, were tiny."

Go here (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1660734&mesg_id=1661130) for a more detailed history of Obama's advocacy of cuts to the social safety net during the debt ceiling crisis and before.


More recent reports coming out of the Super Committee have suggested that Dems now want to "go big," with over 3 TRILLION in total cuts, much more than the 1.2 trillion mandated by the Super Theft Committee. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/26/us-usa-debt-supercommittee-idUSN1E79P17S20111026). The Reuters article also suggests that they may now be talking about 400 billion in cuts to Medicare, and that the percentage of those cuts that would hit beneficiaries directly, rather than providers, has been increased from 10 to 50 percent. A report from The Atlantic also recently indicated that chained CPI remains on the table, for up to 200 billion in "savings." http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/10/pentagon-looking-safe-super-committees-cuts/43974


Overall, things are looking very ugly for Americans, but much better for the military industrial complex.

[Raksha]

15. I've known this was coming for a long time--I guess everyone did.

And some self-declared "progressives" give me hell for not thinking Obama deserves another four years. He doesn't even rise to the level of proverbial "the lesser of two evils."

[woo me with science]

16. Evil is evil.

I could not agree with you more.

When you have reached the point of STEALING from the subsistence checks of millions of Americans who are already struggling to survive, it is no longer useful to spend time determining whether this pile of steaming shit tastes slightly less grainy than that steaming pile of shit.

Any politician, Republican or Democrat, who supports these cuts needs to go. Period.

We will have theft for exactly as long as we continue to vote for thieves.

[Laluchacontinua]

18. Thank you.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mmonk]

3. Well the Kochs and others must maintain their tax cuts.

They are god....er....I mean the job creators.

[KamaAina]

4. So apparently the repukes only want to raise taxes on us

kind of like getting blood from a turnip. :eyes:

[lib2DaBone]

5. Why do we support Obama.. when all he has done is screw us?

Patriot Act, Medical MJ, Tax Cuts for the Wealthy, Oil Drilling in the Gulf, Gutting the FOI Act, putting SS and Medicare on the Chopping Block, Surging the war....

We DONT NEED OBAMA! But where is the Primary Challenge? It is too late.

[woo me with science]

9. We desperately need a primary. The country cannot endure four more years of this.

Unfortunately, it looks at this point like OWS and the anger of the people will be our only hope. Today a mass of senior citizens came out to protest and blocked traffic. Good for them, but SHAME on Obama and every backer of these cuts for putting our elderly in this position.

People are growing very angry and, more importantly, AWARE. At a critical point, the American people will realize en masse that these oligarchs have only the power we give to them...and we can take it back.

[woo me with science]

6. And while he awaits the Super Theft Committee's approval of his cuts in Social Security,

Medicare, and Medicaid...

...the Obama administration is busily finalizing a settlement - an unconscionable settlement - that will let the criminal banks that crashed this economy and left millions in poverty off the hook for an outrageous, insulting 25 billion dollars.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5050521

Our government is bought and paid for. Support OWS.

[woo me with science]

8. Well, of course they are.

Did everybody wake up yet?

K&R Support OWS.

[neverforget]

12. Cuts get bipartisan support while tax increases on the parasite class,

aka the wealthy Koch brothers, gets filibustered by their hosts. A symbiotic relationship...

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Gasoline meet fire.

[OhioChick]

14. If both parties support this and it's implemented, I think we'll see rebellion in both parties

With more people taking to the streets.

[woo me with science]

17. +100000 nt

[Scuba]

19. You mean from the Republicans and the Republicans dressed like Democrats?

[woo me with science]

20. Kick. nt