Comments for Washington Post Uses Headline to Cover Up Republican Efforts to Cut Social Security and Medicare at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.cepr.net Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:56:53 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-uses-headline-to-cover-up-republican-efforts-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare#comment-20569 Democrats should support a cap on SS benefits. The current top monthly benefit is $2,346/month. It should be capped there, CPI increases to the cap. Then as time goes on inflation will push more people to the $2,346/month cap. Also the FICA should be rolled into the income tax, or better yet a very progressive consumption tax. - Floccina Fri, 07 Dec 2012 08:44:58 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-uses-headline-to-cover-up-republican-efforts-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare#comment-20567 what's going on here is that "the right" is desperately afraid that Social Security is going to cost them a huge amount of money in taxes. they have been misled by the Big Liars who simply want to kill SS for their own, mostly psychotic, reasons. they are opposed by "the left" who desperately want to save "the poor" from a tax increase of eighty cents per week per year. they are being led by those whose deep sense of injustice requires that "the rich pay", and apparently none of them have any sense of just what "eighty cents per week" amounts to. {essentially nothing, even for the poorest.] meanwhile "the workers" don't understand any of this, but if you ask them, of course they would rather "the rich pay." it would apparently take a leader of the quality and wisdom of Roosevelt to get them to see, or think they see, the importance of keeping SS "worker pays". especially at the trivial cost it would take. we have no leaders within a thousand years of Roosevelt. so the left and the right will fight like scorpions in a bottle over "who pays." the rich will win. - coberly Fri, 07 Dec 2012 06:46:34 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-uses-headline-to-cover-up-republican-efforts-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare#comment-20566 well, here's the problem. the WaPo is a propaganda organ for those trying to kill Social Security. And as long as "progressives" have only a weak, defensive, impractical counteroffer that would kill SS by changing it's very foundation (worker pays) to turn it into Universal Welfare for All.. they are not even in the argument. workers are at a point where they can see "20% cut in 20 years" as a big deal that will affect them. they don't understand that the R proposals will be worse. they can't understand that. they don't know enough. and clever little arguments about this or that detail will not persuade them. in fact it will just reinforce the idea that SS is in Big Trouble... and the left has nothing realistic to say about it. The "left" could say, "Let us, the workers, raise our own tax one tenth of one percent per year for Social Security... thus truly "saving" Social Security as the worker paid insurance and savings program that it is. And then let those who have incomes over the cap, pay a "patriotic deficit emergency surtax" on their income tax sufficient to resolve the "deficit crisis" without destroying the country by not paying what it takes to keep it strong. - coberly Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:50:49 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-uses-headline-to-cover-up-republican-efforts-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare#comment-20565 re: Susan Jeffries I agree that the proposed Chained CPI & the current CPI-W are inadequate to even cover the Medicare premium increases, & the situation was made worse by the recent 3 year COLA freeze because each annual CPI increase was less than 1%. However, the CPI-E standard fully monitors more of the items that elderly/disabled buy would be a better COLA standard. It would have prevented the recent freeze & would be more accurate, if not perfect for beneficiaries. - Brett Greisen Fri, 07 Dec 2012 05:41:08 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-uses-headline-to-cover-up-republican-efforts-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare#comment-20562 The only "reform" to Medicare the president should put on the negotiating table would be a repeal of the provision in the Medicare Part D bill that prohibits the program from using bulk purchasing power to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma. And Social Security should not be on the table at all, certainly not changing the basis used to calculate COLA's. Already Medicare premiums rise each year regardless of whether a COLA for the year was granted, and most COLAs under the present calculation are eaten up by the Medicare premium increase anyway. This entire "fiscal cliff" fiasco is so stupid. It was just dreamed up as a distraction from the real problem, i.e., congress can't figure out how to create living wage jobs for the unemployed and under employed. - Susan Jeffries Fri, 07 Dec 2012 04:38:45 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-uses-headline-to-cover-up-republican-efforts-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare#comment-20561 If the progressives, ( I won't use Democrats because not all Democrats are progressives ) want to frame the "entitlement reform" debate, they should take a page from the Republicans and their use of "death tax" for estate taxes. In the case of entitlement reform, Democrats should talk about the present value of the Social Security annuity and the present value of the Medicare program for lower and middle class people. As the net worth of many American households is low, with 110K for White households, 69K for Asian, 7.4K for Hispanic and 5K for black, (see money.cnn.com/2012/06/21/news/economy/wealth-gap-race/index.htm) the net present value of Social Security is significant for most households, and probably for Hispanic/Black households the majority of their wealth. I saw an estimate of the NPV of around 250K for Social Security for a couple that paid the maximum throughout their lives. If the progressives highlighted the financial hit of "entitlement reform" to the ONLY net worth of many American households, it might be easy for people to see that very wealthy people, and media people in their employ, are the prime advocates of "reform". Maybe refer to reform as a "elderly life tax". And as far as reform to avoid the creation of a debt for grandchildren, it is a better plan for the elderly to follow the "bird in hand is worth two in the bush" proverb and receive higher social security payments now and gift the excess to the grandkids. - John Wright Fri, 07 Dec 2012 03:36:11 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-uses-headline-to-cover-up-republican-efforts-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare#comment-20560 What the Republicans need is a Democratic president who will declare that a "compromise" ends Social Security as we know it. - Ron Alley Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:13:50 +0100