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No one should believe that the Democrat party<br>
is the party of the 99% and/or accept the notion<br>
that the Republican party is fueled by the 1% while<br>
the Dems are scraping along as the underdogs, painfully<br>
attending to the cause of little guy.<br>
<br>
Note that it was the Obama Administration that crushed<br>
Occupy!...Each party has done its own job (nay, Duty) to collectively<br>
crush the grassroots, call them astroturf, reprobates, crazies, and<br>
tea-baggers, and otherwise nullify and pervert and bring to<br>
none effect...<br>
<br>
Social Security? Good Morning Mr. Ponzi. <br>
Your mission, should you decide to accept it...<br>
<br>
We're all so very sorry, but your pension checks have<br>
been spent on defense. There's nothing left. <br>
For you.<br>
<br>
Thanks for your understanding,<br>
cooperation and submission. <br>
<br>
If you have further questions<br>
call 1-800-SoSorry or visit us online at <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.be-fruitful-and-multiply.gov">www.be-fruitful-and-multiply.gov</a><br>
<br>
Have a nice day.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/09/13 7:43, David Johnson wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:96E869D36D8E44DBA19E58E8DD82DF1A@johnson8547dac"
type="cite">
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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 moz-do-not-send="true"
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 moz-do-not-send="true"
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
moz-do-not-send="true"
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 moz-do-not-send="true"
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 moz-do-not-send="true"
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 moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html"
target="_blank">June issue of CounterPunch</a> magazine. He can be
reached at <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:fergiewhitney@msn.com">fergiewhitney@msn.com</a>.</em></div>
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