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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:undisclosed-recipients:">undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, July 03, 2010 3:42 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Cut Social Security to Fund the War?</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial color=black size=2>
<DIV class=style25 align=right><FONT color=#990000 size=-1>Weekend
Edition<BR>July 2 -5, 2010</FONT></DIV>
<H1 class=style27 align=left><EM><FONT size=+1>Boehner Puts Democrats on the
Spot </FONT></EM></H1>
<H1 class=style27><FONT color=#990000 size=+2>Cut Social Security to Fund the
War? </FONT></H1>
<DIV class=style27><FONT size=+1>By DEAN BAKER </FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=style23><SPAN class=style34><FONT color=#990000
size=5>I</FONT></SPAN>n a remarkable interview with the <EM>Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review,</EM> House Republican Leader John Boehner explicitly called for
cutting Social Security in order to pay for the war in Afghanistan. The article
reports:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=style23>"Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will
require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd
favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have
at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the
consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those
who need them."</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=style23>In principle Boehner gave the Democrats as much ammunition as
a serious political party could want. After all raising the retirement age and
cutting Social Security benefits to pay for the war in Afghanistan is an idea
that consistently polls in the high single decimals. We should expect every
Democratic politician in the country to be jumping up and down demanding to know
whether the Republican leader speaks for all Republicans.</DIV>
<DIV class=style23>That would be the case, unless of course the Democrats
actually hold similar views. After all, several prominent Democrats have been
saying in public recently that we will have to cut Social Security benefits
(benefits workers have already paid for). These prominent Democrats also support
the war in Afghanistan. </DIV>
<DIV class=style23>So, they may not use the same words as Mr. Boehner, but it
seems that many Democrats may effectively agree that we have to cut Social
Security to pay for the war in Afghanistan. It would be nice if they would
insist that this is not true.</DIV><FONT
face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1><STRONG>Dean Baker</STRONG>
is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is
the author of <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0981576990/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank>Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy
</A></FONT><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=-1>and <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0982417128/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank>False Profits: Recoverying From the Bubble Economy.
</A></FONT><BR><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><EM><FONT
size=-1>This column was originally published by <A href="http://www.wapost.com/"
target=_blank>TPM Cafe.</A></FONT></EM></FONT><BR>
<DIV class=style23> </DIV>
<DIV class=style23><BR><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=-1> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=style33></DIV>
<DIV class=style2 align=center><A href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/"
target=_blank>WORDS THAT STICK<BR></A><BR><A
href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" target=_blank>?<IMG height=120
src="http://counterpunch.com/CleanCoal.jpg"
width=500></A><BR></DIV> <BR><BR>
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