Weekend Economists Discover the Blue Men January 18-21, 2013

[Demeter]

5. How Extreme is the Business Roundtable? Check Out its Attack on the Elderly. By Richard (RJ) Eskow

http://www.nationofchange.org/how-extreme-business-roundtable-check-out-its-attack-elderly-1358433148

Here’s a thought experiment: What if a group of Social Security and Medicare recipients wanted to increase their benefits by, say, 1,000 percent, and proposed seizing rich people’s assets – houses, cars, boats, whatever – to pay for it? And whenever anybody suggested that was extreme, they rolled their eyes and said,

“We’re pragmatists.”

But isn’t it unfair to to just take other people’s stuff?

“Ideologues like you are the reason Washington lacks the political will to adopt our practical solutions.”

Now imagine the reverse: Rich CEOs have used every tax loophole in the book to add to their own wealth, have been bailed out directly or indirectly by the American taxpayer, and have rigged corporate governance so that they make far more than they’re worth. Now, to make sure the milk and honey keeps flowing their way, they want to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits for the beleaguered American majority. Sounds crazy, right?

Meet the CEOs of the Business Roundtable.

They hate our freedoms benefits. Matt Yglesias is right: There’s a special hatred for Social Security out there – and for Medicare, too. They’re hated because, as Yglesias says, some people don’t consider them “economically valuable.” That’s an extremist right-wing point of view by any objective measure. It’s also well outside the mainstream of public opinion for Americans of all political leanings, including Tea Party members, according to polling. When it’s espoused by rich corporate CEOs, it’s also exceptionally greedy.
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Yesterday Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment Corporation and head of the Roundtable’s “health and retirement committee,” told Politico, “Any effort to address the country’s fiscal problems has to have as a centerpiece reform of its principal entitlement programs.” Added Loveman: “None of us CEOs – very few of us – are ideologically driven. We’re pragmatists …I am encouraged by how relatively easy these remedies really are,” said Loveman. “… (and) they have a tremendously sanguine effect on the government’s fiscal health.”

That’s true. It is pretty easy. Just kick in a few rich people’s doors, seize their belongings … oh, wait. That’s the other extremist scenario. Loveman’s is the one where people who have paid for Social Security and Medicare coverage throughout their working lives must give some of their benefits up – for him and his friends. Problem identified: There are just too many old people.

Loveman repeats the often-disproven canard that these programs are fiscally unsound because they “were put in place in a very different demographic reality.” Social Security’s finances were successfully balanced in 1983, when the last Baby Boomer had already reached maturity. And longevity hasn’t changed significantly or unexpectedly for people who reach retirement age. Social Security’s in much better fiscal shape than most corporate benefit plans, and any long-term problems it may have are driven by a) greater wealth inequity than even the most conservative economists could have imagined in 1983; and b) massive unemployment brought on by Wall Street greed. As for Medicare, its cost problems are caused by for-profit health companies inflating medical costs. Think the Business Roundtable will mention that? Its members include the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Abbott Laboratories, the Tenet hospital system, Cardinal Health, ExpressScripts, CVS/Caremark and WellPoint.

Like hell it will.

Our long-term deficits are driven by America’s runaway health care costs, which in turn are driven by our profit-driven system. It’s barely an exaggeration to say that if some of these companies and their competitors didn’t exist the Federal government might not have a deficit problem at all.

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If the CEOs of the Business Roundtable are corporate America’s Stalinists, to them the elderly are kulaks, those peasants who saved enough to buy a farm – and whose existence became an ideological offense. When working Americans approach retirement age, they see them as Enemies of the People.

The CEOs of the Business Roundtable claim the government can’t afford to redeem its Medicare and Social Security pledges. The government owes more than a trillion dollars to banks and mutual funds, and much of that debt is held by people like the CEOs of the Business Roundtable.

If they don’t think the U.S. can afford to keep its commitments anymore – if they want a United States of America that welshes on its debts – that would be a good place to start. But for the wealthy, pampered, and narcissistic CEOs of the Business Roundtable, sacrifice is always for someone else. They have luxurious lives to maintain – and a revolution to lead.

AN AMAZING DIATRIBE...SO MUCH MORE AT LINK