Has Obama created a Social Security 'death panel'?

[IndianaGreen]

Has Obama created a Social Security 'death panel'?

ASK THIS | May 21, 2010

If the press doesn't ask tough questions and stand up for the little guy, the powerful interests stacking President Obama’s deficit commission will use it to cut the social programs that most help the middle class and the vulnerable.

By Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson

President Obama and the leadership in Congress have delegated enormous, unaccountable authority to 18 unrepresentative, inordinately wealthy individuals. The 18 individuals are meeting regularly, in secret, behind closed doors, until safely beyond this year’s mid-term election. If they reach agreement, their proposal will be voted on in December by a lame duck Congress, without the benefit of open hearings and deliberations in the pertinent committees and without the opportunity for open debate and amendment on the floors of the House and Senate. Despite the speed and lack of accountability, the legislation will affect, in substantial ways, every man, woman, and child in this nation.

Who are these powerful people and what are their views?

They are the members of President Obama’s newly-formed National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. They lack racial and gender diversity, and more importantly, they lack diversity of opinion. Their mantra is that “everything is on the table,” but their one member who has any expertise with respect to defense spending, for instance, is the CEO of a major defense contractor that devotes millions of dollars each year to lobby Congress for more defense spending.

“Everything is on the table,” they say, but the members appointed by the minority leaders in the House and Senate have made clear that they do not believe that the problems in this country stem from under-taxing, rather from overspending. The one area that they seem to be in agreement on -- and which they are in fact, focusing on like a laser -- involves programs that help the middle class and those Americans who are the most vulnerable. Even liberal Senator Richard Durbin has stated, “the bleeding-heart liberals… have to…make real sacrifices to strengthen our nation.”

The co-chairs, in particular, seem to have a clear agenda. Even before the commission held its first meeting, Erskine Bowles went on record before the North Carolina Bankers' Association saying that if the Commission doesn't "mess with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security ... America is going to be a second-rate power" in his lifetime. (And he is already 64!) Alan Simpson, known for giving ugly voice to harsh, ageist stereotypes, described the future of the fiscal commission: "It'll be a bloodbath. Let me tell you, everything that Bush and Clinton or Obama have suggested with regard to Social Security doesn't affect anyone over 60, and who are the people howling and bitching the most? The people over 60. This makes no sense. You've got to scrub out the equation the AARP, the Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare, the Gray Panthers, the Pink Panther, the whatever. Those people are lying... don't care a whit about their grandchildren...not a whit." (For more about Alan Simpson, see Trudy Lieberman in CRJ: More Words of Wisdom from Alan Simpson.)

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00456

[whathehell]

1. Oh. My. God.....I can hardly believe Dick Durbin said that...He's my senator

"The bleeding heart liberals have to sacrifice.." My ASS!...We already HAVE sacrificed!

As for "no one over 60"..Well, hell, how 'bout those who ARE sixty now, or just a couple years shy of it?...I might add that a number of those folks are Vietnam Vets.

This is an attack on the Baby Boomers, of whom I am one....There is no way in HELL that I'm giving up what I earned!

[ShortnFiery]

2. The Late George Carlin predicted that the government was going to come after

our Social Security. Dammit George, I didn't believe you when you said it. Carlin is rolling over in his grave. :wow: :scared:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI

[dmr]

3. It galls me that they all refuse to look at the out of control defense spending

No wait, the only time I hear about excessive defense spending is when it thinks it spends too much money on the troops.

But when they talk about the budget, they blast the entitlements that help regular-everyday Americans.

I remember when they talked about this panel during the Bush* years. As far as I'm concerned, this panel is not so much to reign in entitlement costs, the panel is to protect the Congress - perpetually campaigning law makers who don't dare touch SS or Medicare for fear of their constituents. But if there's a panel that makes the decisions for them, all Congress has to do is claim innocence and point the accusatory finger to the panel of back-room, non-elected individuals.
:grr: