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<DIV class=ecxsubheadlinestyle><FONT style="FONT-SIZE: 16pt" size=4>Obama's
Stealth Attack on Social Security and Medicare<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/08/the-debt-ceiling-smokescreen/"
target=_blank>http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/08/the-debt-ceiling-smokescreen/</A><BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<H1 class=ecxarticle-title>The “Debt Ceiling” Smokescreen</H1>
<DIV class=ecxmainauthorstyle>by MIKE WHITNEY</DIV>
<DIV class=ecxmain-text>The media is ratcheting up “debt ceiling” hysteria to
launch a surprise attack on Social Security and Medicare. President Obama has
already stated that he’s willing to cut so called entitlements as part of a
broader strategy for reigning in the debt. In 2011, during tense negotiations
with GOP congressional leaders Obama made it clear that he was prepared to sell
out his base by slashing vital funding to the old and infirm in order to reach a
“grand bargain” with the opposition party. Here’s what he said at the time:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>“We keep on talking about this stuff and we have these high-minded
pronouncements about how we’ve got to get control of the deficit and how we
owe it to our children and our grandchildren. Well, let’s step up. Let’s do
it. I’m prepared to do it. I’m prepared to take on significant heat from my
party to get something done. And I expect the other side should be willing to
do the same thing — if they mean what they say that this is
important.”<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>At the time, Obama appeared to be ready to raise the
eligibility age for Medicare in exchange for GOP approval of $1 trillion in
higher revenues, that is, taxes levied on the 1 percent. Obama’s cuts to
entitlements would have amounted to roughly $3 trillion, while the higher taxes
would have only netted another $1 trillion. Rather than pushing for higher taxes
on the rich, Obama chose to barter away the crumbs that are provided to the sick
and needy to induce a compromise. According to Sam Stein at Huffington Post:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>“The deal fell apart, in part, because Democrats demanded an
upfront commitment from Republicans that they would allow the Bush-era tax
cuts to be decoupled, rather than a commitment to revisit the issue at the end
of 2013.”<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>Republicans adamantly oppose tax hikes on the rich.
They don’t believe that the people who own the country (the 1 percent) should
have to pay for its maintenance and upkeep. That’s the duty of the little people
who punch clocks and sit in traffic for hours every day to scratch out a
living.<BR>On Monday, according to the New York Times, (Speaker) “John Boehner
and other Republicans expanded their demands from changes in the health care
law, which was passed in 2010, to broader budget reductions to Medicare and
Medicaid…Describing the negotiations he wanted with Mr. Obama, Mr. Boehner
seemed to shift from demands that the president agree only to defund or delay
his signature health care law — a nonnegotiable condition, as Mr. Obama sees it
— to calling once again for deficit reduction talks that would result in savings
from Medicare in particular.” (“Boehner Hews to Hard Line in Demanding
Concessions From Obama”, <A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/us/politics/obama-aide-urges-lawmakers-to-raise-debt-ceiling.html?_r=0"
target=_blank>New York Times</A>)<BR>Readers can see how the media is subtly
shifting attention away from defunding Obamacare to negotiations on Social
Security and Medicare. The two-party duopoly is using the faux “government
shutdown” crisis to set the stage for a “compromise” on slashing vital safety
net programs during upcoming debt ceiling negotiations. Obama will use GOP
“hostage taking” as the proximate cause for caving in, saying that he had to
give ground to prevent a catastrophic default that would have pushed the economy
back into recession. In an appearance on ABC’s lightweight News program “This
Week,” Boehner more-or-less admitted to what was going on behind-the-scenes
saying:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>“Let’s look at what’s driving the problem. 10,000 baby-boomers
like me retiring, every single day. 70,000 this week. 3.5 million this year.
And it’s not like there’s money in Social Security or Medicare. The
governments, over the last 30 years, have spent it all.”<BR>“We know these
programs are important to tens of millions of Americans, but if we don’t
address the underlying problems, they are not sustainable.”<BR>Patrick Martin
at the World Socialist Web Site summed up Boehner’s performance like this: “He
made it clear that, despite the right-wing populist demagogy of the Tea Party,
the real enemy of the Republicans is not Obama, but American working people as
a whole, and particularly the tens of millions of retired workers who rely on
Social Security for their income and Medicare for their health care….” (“US
budget and debt talks to focus on cutting Social Security, Medicare”, Patrick
Martin, <A href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/10/07/budg-o07.html"
target=_blank>World Socialist Web Site</A>)<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>Martin goes on to
quote Treasury Secretary Jack Lew who appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and
said, “The president remains prepared to negotiate on fiscal policy….We are
happy to negotiate on reasonable policies with entitlement reform and tax reform
that closes loopholes. That’s something that we would like to do.”
(WSWS)<BR>Obama has had his sites on Social Security and Medicare since he took
office in 2008. It’s clear now, that he plans to use the cover of the
stage-managed debt ceiling crisis to achieve his
objective.<BR><STRONG><EM><STRONG>MIKE
WHITNEY</STRONG></EM> </STRONG><EM>lives in Washington state. He is a
contributor to <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1849351104/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank>Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion</A> (AK
Press). Hopeless is also available in a <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007X497NM/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank>Kindle edition</A>. Whitney’s story on declining wages for
working class Americans appears in the <A
href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html"
target=_blank>June issue of CounterPunch</A> magazine. He can be
reached at <A
href="mailto:fergiewhitney@msn.com">fergiewhitney@msn.com</A>.</EM></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>