(Sharp) Dip in Confidence Linked to Social Security

[nodictators]

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - Consumers' confidence has fallen dramatically over the past month, reaching a 16-month low, and economists say the political debate over revamping Social Security probably is a major factor in the decline.

The AP-Ipsos consumer confidence index sank to 79.1 in February, down sharply from 92.5 in January. February's showing was the worst since October 2003.

---snip---

"The level of rhetoric has been raised a couple of notches. It's been in our face every day that there is a problem with the Social Security system that requires some kind of major fix," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

"That's raising questions in peoples' minds about their future. It's raising questions about what people are going to get when they retire," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ap_consumer_confidence_2

[CountAllVotes]

1. I know of many that are receiving social security & Medicare and

they are scared to death and they aren't spending a dime!

[Why Syzygy]

2. Email I've sent to friends/family from both sides of the aisle

Paul Krugman joined The New York Times in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page and continues as professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Mr. Krugman received his B.A. from Yale University in 1974 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1977. He has taught at Yale, MIT and Stanford. At MIT he became the Ford International Professor of Economics. (...)

Columns:

It may sound shrill to describe President Bush as someone who takes food from the mouths of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends. Yet his latest budget proposal is top-down class warfare in action. (...)

First, the facts: the budget proposal really does take food from the mouths of babes. One of the proposed spending cuts would make it harder for working families with children to receive food stamps, terminating aid for about 300,000 people. Another would deny child care assistance to about 300,000 children, again in low-income working families.

And the budget really does shower largesse on millionaires even as it punishes the needy. (...)

More than half of the benefits from this backdoor tax cut would go to people with incomes of more than a million dollars; 97 percent would go to people with incomes exceeding $200,000.

It so happens that the number of taxpayers with more than $1 million in annual income is about the same as the number of people who would have their food stamps cut off under the Bush proposal. But it costs a lot more to give a millionaire a break than to put food on a low-income family's table: eliminating limits on deductions and exemptions would give taxpayers with incomes over $1 million an average tax cut of more than $19,000. (...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/opinion/11krugman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fPaul%20Krugman



President Bush isn't trying to reform Social Security. He isn't even trying to "partially privatize" it. His plan is, in essence, to dismantle the program, replacing it with a system that may be social but doesn't provide security. And the goal, as with his tax cuts, is to undermine the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt. (...)

Jason Furman of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the guaranteed benefits left to an average worker born in 1990, after the clawback and the additional cuts, would be only 8 percent of that worker's prior earnings, compared with 35 percent today. This means that under Mr. Bush's plan, workers with private accounts that fared poorly would find themselves destitute.

Why expose workers to that much risk? Ideology. "Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state," declares Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth and the Cato Institute. "If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state." (...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/opinion/08krugman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fPaul%20Krugman


This is great news. It's about damn time at least 20% of the American population saw through this phony thief.
No, I won't shut up.

[Massachusetts]

3. "No, I won't shut up".

DON'T SHUT UP!

Krugman is always on the mark.

I just wish there were more Americans who read and understood what he is saying.

[Patchuli]

6. The Neo-Cons

need a "jab of our spear through their soft underbelly" and soon. What will it take to awaken the sheeple?!!

Don't shut up about this ever! These freaks of nature need their 'ideology' stuck where the sun don't shine!

[grilled onions]

4. will yell it from the rafters

As part of the production of 1950 I stand to lose half of my future existence with a huge question about my existing now since I am on disability,another favorite of their chopping block. There always seems to be a huge mention for those in the twenty range but I have not heard the fears and anger from those "right on the line" who stand to lose much what they paid for. Where are the 1950'ers????

[Patchuli]

8. Right here beside you

I'm '55 vintage. My spouse is '51, one year under the "safe" range.

p)Resident Liar says if you are 55 or older, you're safe. Why, pray tell should those of us who are 50 suffer? I've paid in for 30 plus years and I want my money, as is, without counting on the slot machine known as Wall Street laying mitts on it. I think the (p)Resident has bitten off even more than he can chew and it may choke him.

[Why Syzygy]

11. Wait a minute

You're saying that those of us who are 50 are in jeopardy?

I thought this was all about the young-uns.. . those who think that mien kemp gwb is just the grooviest.

I'm behind in my reading. I don't have the energy for it anymore. The past four years have totally exhausted me.

This was an astonishing thing I learned today ( a friend told me) .. in Texas, the Austin American Statesmen newspaper will not allow ads with the word "female" or "woman" or any other "discriminating" wordage. He wants to rent rooms to women. Nothing sinister there, just a preference. YET! It's against the AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMEN POLICY to have that verbage....

We are in very deep doo doo .. and not one of us has any idea how deep it is.

[NYC]

13. I'm right below the protected limit.

Slightly below 55 is being classified along with the "young". Hardly the same. I'm 54. I have paid in for decades. I don't want to hear that I won't be receiving what others before me have received.

I must admit that even people 55 and older are at risk. A reduction for one group (the "young") will eventually allow a reduction for another group (the "safe" 55+ group).

Social security was intended to keep old people out of poverty. Bush wants old people impoverished.

[Why Syzygy]

14. that's a fucking understatement

I have not worried about this much.. given that ok. I'm a selfish older hippy person.. we had to do it.. if the pups these days want freedom, they have to take responsibility!

Who the hell do they think will secure that? gwb? hum. no think again. WE FOUGHT for it. In the streets ..

Very distressing.. as I know a lot of you guys are too .. but, really WHO / WHERE / WHEN .
is this group going to get off of their ipods and think. hmmm.. liberty.. not a bad idea ....

I'm very angry right now.

[Why Syzygy]

16. the only folks he doesn't want impoverished are his BASE .

the HAVES .. that is oh so convenient so they can pipe line money into his basket.

WHEN has this country EVER had such a pirate at the helm?

Not into history. May have happened before.. but I'm pretty sure he is the worst offense the U.S.A. has EVER experienced.

He's worse than fucking pearl harbor isn't he?
They did not come to steal our lifestyles. That was a tragic experience. This is more so. And what are Dems doing?
Sitting on rumps. oh goodie

( who is selling blood pressure medicine right now? corner on the market?.. not surprised )

[NYC]

18. In summary,

he's robbing us blind. He's robbing the entire U.S. I call it "slash & burn".

[Why Syzygy]

19. Blind would be the least of it

people.. American citizens are dying because of his non-policies.

Oh, and then there are the tens of thousands across the globe who have already paid blood money for his greed.

I'm gonna throw up now. :puke:

[ribrepin]

21. I missed the cut off by 4 months

Born April 1950. I saw some table that said that those born between 1950 to 1960 will lose only 8% of their social security. Don't know if it's true or not. Sounds like anyone born after 1960 will lose 30% to 40%.

Probably the bigger problem is what diverting all that money will do to the budget. We could go the way of communist Russia.

[Why Syzygy]

22. that will only happen after our elected Democratic

representatives roll over and pant to make it happen for chimpy.

Nothing to fear. No worries. Not unless you count insanity. When you notice the CiC with that character trait, worry is the bottom.

[Skittles]

23. take it from me, Clowns

those of us born in the 50's will get ROYALLY SCREWED by the bush SS scheme

[ozone_man]

5. Christmas credit card bills due?

That might dampen the consumer confidence number. The consumer and national debt will eventually curtail spending, sending the economy into a nose dive. We are the wily coyote who has just run past the cliff face, not yet realizing it. :)

[sarcasmo]

7. "Die before you retire" John Stewart said it best, Thanks Chimpy.

[Patchuli]

9. Chimpy first! nt

[daleo]

10. From a recent Statistics Canada paper, re: senior poverty

Relative Low Income Rates in eight Nations (Seniors):

Anglo-Saxon Countries
United States: 24.8%
United Kingdom: 24.6%
Canada: 5.2%

Continental Europe
Netherlands: 3.2%
Germany: 12.2%
Belgium: 13.1%

Nordic
Sweden: 8.2%
Finland: 10.1%

Income Inequality and Low Income in Canada: An International Perspective.

Quite an interesting paper.

Another interesting fact from the paper is that the country with highest level of lone parent households is the religious U.S., at 10.6%. The bad old irreligious Europeans average about 4 to 5%.

[98geoduck]

15. Looks like were doing a good job of bringing the UK to our standards.

[Why Syzygy]

17. okay .. so we're tops

it's about time.

why am I pulling my hair out?

can you provide a link for that info?
I am merciless when it comes to the gwb voters..
They need to KNOW what they have wrought .... explicitly and exactly ..

I am not polite or kind anymore. I am going for brutal. Takes one to fight one. No prisoners.

[despairing optimist]

12. Talk about blowback. GOP propaganda about SS could cause stocks to crash

and undercut their own argument to invest SS in the stock market. It's like the 21st-century update to the Doomsday Machine in "Dr. Strangelove."

[pdxblue]

20. There Is No Crisis--Pass It On

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.thereisnocrisis.com"><img src="" alt="Social Security" width="150" height="200" border="0" /></a></div>

[Skittles]

24. there IS a crisis

that incompetent bastard bush is trying to f*** with SS - the same guy who brought us QUAGMIRE IN IRAQ and DEFICITS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE