Comments for The One Percent Want Your Social Security and Medicare and Steven Pearlstein Is Trying to Help at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 8 out of 8 comments http://www.cepr.net Thu, 23 May 2013 12:28:19 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17712 Curious: Is there anyone in the US who didn't know that Clinton's welfare "reform" was merely a necessary first step toward redistributing the money we've paid into Social Security as well? That's the real prize, something that the rich have wanted from the start. Will we give that away, the way we gave basic welfare aid away? Maybe. Haven't we already embraced the belief that those who are of no use to employers have no human worth? - DHFabian Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:27:53 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17692 Take a lesson out of our book here in NZ. The right wingers in this country voted in a very wealthy businessman ex Merrill Lynch Derivatives Trader and he is making a hell of a mess of our country. All they do to save money is to attack those on social security and I believe by doing that they harm the economy even more. I look at the economy as if it were a fire and it needs fuel to keep going. If you start putting less and less fuel on the fire it will die and the same will happen to the economy. I look at the people on low incomes and social security as the fuel because the more you take from them the less they have to spend, but if you take it from someone who has millions he can still spend the same amount each week. Give more to the people at the bottom they start buying things they have needed for ages and the economy starts to grow because you need to start producing more to meet the demand. Whoever invented the economics of today need to be hung because the have caused so much misery. Our Prime Minister John Key is worth over $50 million and they just had to give themselves and their rich mates tax cuts last year because they really needed it now the government doesn't collect enough taxes to cover it's costs. Good thinking John. John thought it would create jobs but it didn't. People just reduced their debt while they had the opportunity. So now to save the government money they are cutting government services and jobs so the unemployment line has increased. Just means less money going into the economy once again. This is what has happened in our counrty in the past and no doubt still happening. It says quite a bit about Rupert Murdoch. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_sociopol_opalfile.htm - Fiona Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:19:57 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17671 All that will happen is that Obama and Romney will make political hay by denouncing it, the latter for the tax increases, and the former for the SS and Medicare cuts. - bob h Tue, 24 Jul 2012 01:16:52 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17662 Yes, the fix is in, which is part of the reason I won't be voting for BHO. He already tipped his hand, first by the composition of Simpson-Bowles, and second by offering to put SSI on the table during the deficit "crisis" last summer. The difference between Romney and Obama is that Romney is a Harvard Business School graduate trained to promote the interests of the 1%. OBL is a Harvard Law School graduate trained to defend their interests. - JohnH Mon, 23 Jul 2012 05:55:44 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17639 "The plan is that we will get the rich folks' deal regardless of who wins the election." You may not like it, but both candidates have a deficit deal at the top of their agenda (not really much choice I suppose considering the sequestration and Bush tax cuts). So, cynical or not, Pearlstein has made the correct conclusion. It is just incredible to see the news and politicians pushing this nonsense. How is this any different than the downward spiral of austerity that Greece et al are currently facing? The real question is how do we raise enough public awareness of this fact to make a change in the political discourse over the coming months. There is no debt problem, there is a demand problem. - Jerry Sun, 22 Jul 2012 06:58:27 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17638 Pearlstein has become reasonably good in the past 5 years or so on a number of issues, such as decent discussions related to climate change. However, too often, his columns/his opinions read like a thoughtful version of shallow Village (un)truths and reflecting of Village buzz rather than better policy. Why not highlight how true single payer or having real negotiations re prescription pricing would drive down debt and make U.S. more competitive? Why not discuss power of financial transaction fee? Why not (going back to climate change) discuss how Energy Smart policies -- such as ending subsidies for fossil fuels, holding people to account (fiscally and otherwise) for pollution damage, etc -- could foster a stronger economic position and drive down debt? Why not look to how using 'unemployment' to put people into worksharing could strengthen social security by putting more money back into the program? And, so on ... Thank for another thoughtful "Washington Post Watch" piece. - A Siegel Sun, 22 Jul 2012 05:58:46 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17637 It's much easier and criminally rational to take small imperceptible amounts from each individual among millions in the 99%, rather than take much larger visible amounts from members of the one percent. To paraphrase Mark Twain with a qualifier, among the 99% there's no difference between those who won't read compared to those who can't read. Just get the news on YouTube, no reading required, much less critical thought. - Last Mover Sun, 22 Jul 2012 04:22:59 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-one-percent-want-your-social-security-and-medicare-and-steven-pearlstein-is-trying-to-help#comment-17636 Give Mr. Pearlstein credit for audacity and honesty. It appears the fix is in. There is one agenda of class war regardless of the nominally different parties in power. There will be Social Security and Medicare cuts regardless of who wins the presidential elections. Does anyone truly believe that President Obama will stand up and fight for the working class against cuts in Social Security and Medicare? He's the one who repeatedly put them on the table in the "Grand Bargain" talks with Speaker John Boehner. The fact is there's a electoral choice between fascistic crazies and bought and paid for capitalist shills with somewhat of a conscience. That's not nearly good enough for the working class who are going to be flogged regardless. An old rock 'n' roll band, Stiff Little Fingers, had a great song called "[url]Suspect Device[/url]." The lyrics offer an apposite description of the working class's situation: They play their games of power They try to mark the pack They deal us to the bottom But what do they put back? Don't believe them Don't believe them Don't be bitten twice You gotta sus-sus-suspect device [b]They take away our freedom In the name of liberty [/b] Why can't they all just clear off Why can't they let us be [b]They make us feel indebted For saving us from hell And then they put us through it It's time the bastards fell[/b] Don't believe them Don't believe them Don't be bitten twice You gotta sus-sus-suspect device Don't believe them Don't believe them I try to question everything you're told Just take a look around you At the bitterness and spite Why can't we take over And try to put it right Please don't believe us Don't believe us Don't be bitten twice You gotta sus-sus-suspect device We're a suspect device if we do what we are told But a suspect device can score an own goal I'm a suspect device the Army can't defuse You're a suspect device they know they can't refuse We're gonna blow up in their face - Jeffrey Stewart Sun, 22 Jul 2012 04:20:33 +0100