Breaking: Obama Cuts Deal Reducing Social Security, Medicare and all Entitlments

[MIPS]

Do you think we need to do away with SS all together?

Personally I think it should have never been implemented in the first place, however we are stuck with it now as I do not see any real possibility (in my lifetime) of eliminating it other than by some catastrophic circumstance. So to answer your question, yes I would prefer to see it eliminated but I'm a realist.

That being said, I found the contents of the Kerry-Danforth Commission findings as to how we can make SS sustainable over the long term very interesting and logical (to me anyways), if you're interested in the subject Mr. Peterson wrote an excellent book on the subject (as well as many other related topics).....

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Running-Empty-Democratic-Republican-Bankrupting/dp/0312424620/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264092138&sr=1-1"]Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It[/ame] - By Peter G. Peterson

If we did do away with SS hypothetically I wonder what seniors would do? What could be a alternative for seniors to survive on I wonder?

One would think that any such "plan" to do away with SS would involve some sort of an "opt" out provision for workers below a certain age and bridge to continue coverage for workers over a certain age, thus eliminating it gradually. Of course there's no way in hell we could afford such a thing in our current financial condition.

 

[jillian]

Why does anyone think this "opinion piece" is anywhere near accurate?

Interesting though that the righties are suddenly pro SSI. Aren't you the ones who wanted it privatized?

 

[PatekPhilippe]

If we did do away with SS hypothetically I wonder what seniors would do? What could be a alternative for seniors to survive on I wonder?

What alternative do they have now? SS is bankrupt! All their SS that they paid in is

G O N E

I am talking about people like grandma's and grandpa's out there right now that depend on it.

Singapore has a law that literally makes it illegal to NOT save for your own retirement. Perhaps we need a law like that.

 

[obama2ndterm]

All the whining and crying, there isnt a penny of benefits cut not single penny so stop Lying!

 

[MIPS]

What alternative do they have now? SS is bankrupt! All their SS that they paid in is

G O N E

I am talking about people like grandma's and grandpa's out there right now that depend on it.

Singapore has a law that literally makes it illegal to NOT save for your own retirement. Perhaps we need a law like that.

Yeah just what we need in this country, more blatant authoritarianism pursuant to protecting people from themselves. How about we just start following the creed that you are entitled to live the consequences of your own decisions and leave it at that?

 

[AllieBaba]

Well that explains the forced furlough, hiring freezes, salary freezes, and reduction in coverage we're experiencing in Oregon. No cuts!

 

[obama2ndterm]

Blatant copyright/fair use violating post removed.

~Dude

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Blatant copyright/fair use violating post removed.

~Dude

That's an opinion piece..it's all bullshit!!!!

 

[manu1959]

Every time something good happens like in the election of Scott Brown, Obama goes behind closed doors during the euphoria of it all and plots. Read this.

Obama Cuts Deal that Will Reduce Social Security, Medicare and all Entitlements

washingtonpost.com

The Obama administration literally collapsed yesterday. Any pretense of liberal change was washed away in a closed door deal to cut entitlements. While the Massachusetts voters were casting their ballots to install the upstart Republican Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, President Obama was hammering out an agreement with Democratic leaders to support a plan to issue an executive order to cut entitlements, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

As the Washington Post explains this morning:
Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel that would be granted broad authority to propose changes in the tax code and in the massive federal entitlement programs — including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that threaten to drive the nation’s debt to levels not seen since World War II.

There's nothing wrong with this and it's actually something that is needed, Clinton did the same thing with the Kerry-Danforth Commission and the commissions findings were quite solid (too bad special interests killed any chance of any of them being turned into policy).

We need to do something about the skyrocketing costs of entitlements because they will, in the not too distant future, completely bankrupt this country. I just hope that President Obama can convince people like Peter J. Peterson to participate on this commission like Mr. Peterson did on the Kerry-Danforth commission, along with at least some other rational non-Keynesian worshiping economists, perhaps something quite useful will come out of it.

Do you think we need to do away with SS all together?

if you had given all the money you gave to the government for your ss retierment plan and put it in an ira or 401k or simply bought gold.....would you have more or less money at your disposal......

 

[PatekPhilippe]

I am talking about people like grandma's and grandpa's out there right now that depend on it.

Singapore has a law that literally makes it illegal to NOT save for your own retirement. Perhaps we need a law like that.

Yeah just what we need in this country, more blatant authoritarianism pursuant to protecting people from themselves. How about we just start following the creed that you are entitled to live the consequences of your own decisions and leave it at that?

Hey...you'll get no argument from me on that point. But you always have stupid fucks who refuse to save a penny and when it comes time for retirement they whine and complain for a government handout. That is the essence of FDR's creation of the SS system.

 

[txlonghorn]

What alternative do they have now? SS is bankrupt! All their SS that they paid in is

G O N E

I am talking about people like grandma's and grandpa's out there right now that depend on it.

Singapore has a law that literally makes it illegal to NOT save for your own retirement. Perhaps we need a law like that.

I wonder how much jail time they get if they don't have a job...hmmmm

 

[txlonghorn]

Blatant copyright/fair use violating post removed.

~Dude

My kid could write an article about the tooth fairy being real because she found a dollar under her pillow the morning after she lost her tooth...would you believe that too?

 

[txlonghorn]

Singapore has a law that literally makes it illegal to NOT save for your own retirement. Perhaps we need a law like that.

Yeah just what we need in this country, more blatant authoritarianism pursuant to protecting people from themselves. How about we just start following the creed that you are entitled to live the consequences of your own decisions and leave it at that?

Hey...you'll get no argument from me on that point. But you always have stupid fucks who refuse to save a penny and when it comes time for retirement they whine and complain for a government handout. That is the essence of FDR's creation of the SS system.

SS in essence assured retirement funds for those who were employed. They just deposited it in the WRONG bank...too bad...so sad...you've been had.

 

[Sinatra]

This is simply the appearance of someone making sound government spending policy without the actual policy.

The Obama White House is now in full on scramble mode to appear more populist vs progressive, while actually not doing anything substantive to show for it.

This "panel" will have about as much impact as his tort reform "panel" - which is little to none.

This president is in deep - deep trouble folks...

 

[MIPS]

Blatant copyright/fair use violating post removed.

~Dude

Where do you find such nonsense? The author of this piece must be living on Mars or something.

"This belief has come to be widely held; but it is my belief, formed after much research into the actuarial basis of Social Security, that it is a sly fiction concocted by conservative think tanks starting in the early 1980s, the purpose being to turn the public away from Social Security in order to sell privatization as a replacement."

The author is obviously an irredeemable idiot, "his belief" is contrary to what everybody else in the world that has looked at the numbers and possesses the ability to add two and two has come up with.

Do yourself a favor and read some information on the subject from people that actually know what they are talking about such as :

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation - Now headed by a former U.S. Comptroller

Or how about the Social Security Board of Trustees annual report summary

Trustees Report Summary

Pay special attention to the part where they say

"Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years with changes equivalent to an immediate 16 percent increase in the payroll tax (from a rate of 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two. Ensuring that the system remains solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the next 75 years would require larger changes because increasing longevity will result in people receiving benefits for ever longer periods of retirement."

Does anybody think such things as increasing the payroll tax and/or reducing benefits will fly with the American Public in this economy?

Or take a gander at all the actual numbers yourself

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

See that $14.1 TRILLION in SS Unfunded Liabilities there? do you suppose we have the money stashed in a bank account someplace, also take note of the fact that it is constantly going UP.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

I am talking about people like grandma's and grandpa's out there right now that depend on it.

Singapore has a law that literally makes it illegal to NOT save for your own retirement. Perhaps we need a law like that.

I wonder how much jail time they get if they don't have a job...hmmmm

Their unemployment rate is traditionally less than 4 percent even during this global meltdown....those who don't have jobs work for the government cleaning streets or are in drug rehab out in Sentosa.

 

[keee keee]

this is an Obama plan to get the seniors use to rationing and denial of medical services which they will experience under "Obama Care". I wonder if the seniors are still fans of this Hope & Change!!!

 

[Gatekeeper]

Do you think we need to do away with SS all together?

Personally I think it should have never been implemented in the first place, however we are stuck with it now as I do not see any real possibility (in my lifetime) of eliminating it other than by some catastrophic circumstance. So to answer your question, yes I would prefer to see it eliminated but I'm a realist.

That being said, I found the contents of the Kerry-Danforth Commission findings as to how we can make SS sustainable over the long term very interesting and logical (to me anyways), if you're interested in the subject Mr. Peterson wrote an excellent book on the subject (as well as many other related topics).....

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Running-Empty-Democratic-Republican-Bankrupting/dp/0312424620/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264092138&sr=1-1"]Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It[/ame] - By Peter G. Peterson

If we did do away with SS hypothetically I wonder what seniors would do? What could be a alternative for seniors to survive on I wonder?

Most that would be denied SS would most likely die of starvation,lack of medical care and needs, what the hell do those people in D.C. care, they got theirs, screw those who are, and have paid for them to live in this manner. Maybe that's how they will 'lighten the entitlement load' legalized genocide of the elderly, retired and non-productive citizens. Didn't the 3rd Reich have a similar plan using one of those plans, for the good of the motherland?

We want to make a difference, don't punish the seniors and retired by over reacting and cutting benefits like this butthead in D.C. wants to do, implement a new plan for those just starting out in the SS contributions by keeping the damn U.S. Government out of it all together. They cannot administrate a circle jerk without screwing something up.
Sound bizarre and ridiculous.....maybe.

Why not start with cutting the funds of all foreign aid and other B.S. that is stealing the money from OUR Citizens , and giving it to those who hate our collective guts?
That's my initial reaction to this thread.

 

[Darkwind]

I'm going to reserve judgment until I see what they come up with. I'm not somebody who approves of Social Security/Medicare anyway on Constitutional grounds. But in consideration of the fact that they do exist... they must be dealt with. Entitlement expenses are out of control and wrecking us.

Based on this one article, it sounds like this board can only make recommendations to the legislature, and while I have no trust left for Obama appointees, it's hard to imagine they could do much worse than Congress has done so far.

While I agree that the Constitutionality of both Medicare and Social Security has always been in question, care has to be taken here.

Promises have been made and people have planned their lives around those promises. Those promise must be honored.

 

[California Girl]

I'm going to reserve judgment until I see what they come up with. I'm not somebody who approves of Social Security/Medicare anyway on Constitutional grounds. But in consideration of the fact that they do exist... they must be dealt with. Entitlement expenses are out of control and wrecking us.

Based on this one article, it sounds like this board can only make recommendations to the legislature, and while I have no trust left for Obama appointees, it's hard to imagine they could do much worse than Congress has done so far.

While I agree that the Constitutionality of both Medicare and Social Security has always been in question, care has to be taken here.

Promises have been made and people have planned their lives around those promises. Those promise must be honored.

Yes, they should. But... long term a Constitutional solution must be found.