The Plot to Kill Social Security

[DJ13]

February 24, 2010


In Washington each new day brings a fresh call to “reform entitlement programs” — Social Security, Medicare, etc., (in Congress, the word “reform” now means to eliminate, or drastically reduce). Tackling Social Security has been on the to-do list of the corporate elite for years, and they’re not waiting any longer. After years of promoting this cause, conservative think tanks have now garnered solid support from the political establishment as a whole, which includes the Republican and Democratic parties.

The newest liberal recruit to the destruction of Social Security is Thomas Friedman, the influential columnist for The New York Times, who wrote recently:

“The president needs to persuade the country to invest in the future and pay for the past... We have to pay for more new schools and infrastructure than ever, while accepting more entitlement cuts than ever when public trust in government is lower than ever.” (February 20, 2010).

The nonchalance which Friedman calls for cutting Social Security is indicative of the climate in Washington, where the last remnants of liberalism have been suffocated under the heavy demands of profit-hungry corporations, especially financial institutions and big banks. For political hacks like Friedman — and there are thousands of them — the ONLY solution to curing the U.S. deficit is cutting social services in general, while specifically targeting Social Security and Medicare.........

http://www.counterpunch.org/cooke02242010.html

[leftstreet]

1. Deregulate, Privatize, cut Social Services - Party like it's 1929!

...if you're rich

[Hannah Bell]

2. Friedman = bloated, no-talent scum-sucker. He calls American workers "locusts".

he's a useless parasite, a toady of wealth.

[patrice]

3. "newest liberal recruit" = Thomas Friedman??? I don't know whether to laugh or puke! nt

[flyarm]

4. S.S. is not a damn entitlement..we paid for it..out of our paychecks..anyone calling it entitlement

can kiss my A$$!

I didn't have a choice to not pay it..it got deducted ..no matter wtf I wanted..it was a forced savings for my future.. is what i have always been told ..since i was 14 years old and I got my first paycheck that it was deducted from!

I am 58 and i have paid for this fucker since i was 14 years old..entitlement my a$$!

[Bitwit1234]

5. And if Reagan, the saint, hadn't stolen from SS to balance

is budget when he cut all those rich folks taxes, he wouldn't have started a trend that all republican presidents haven't followed suit. If SS was repaid all the trillions of IOU's from "borrowing" there wouldn't be any money for anything else. That's what is causing those republicans to get their gonads up, they want that money for wall street.

[flyarm]

10. then what is Obama's excuse for now setting up a commission of sorts to look into cutting

"entitlements"?????

Bush tried it and we the people shut his a$$ down..so why is Obama doing it now?

SS has no problems..Medicaide does..so why is Obama looking into doing something with SS..I paid for it damn it..it is my money ..it is not an entitlement..it has used my money, it has drawn interest on my money ..it has funded other things with my money..for over 4 decades!

It is my money!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Ever wonder what your SS would be worth if it were invested

safely, if there is such a thing.

[Lyric]

9. Entitlement doesn't mean what you think it means.

Republicans use the word pejoratively, as an insult, but "entitlement" simply means that the government MUST pay for those programs because the citizens are entitled to that money.

For example, welfare is NOT an entitlement program, because the government is no longer required to give it to anyone. Social Security IS an entitlement program, because the government is legally bound to pay it out.

Make sense?

[elehhhhna]

12. letss reframe it as a non-negotiable covenant and they can eff themselves.

[Lasher]

6. If there is anything at all that is off the table for a Democratic president,

it should be Social Security and Medicare cuts.

[cutlassmama]

8. It damn well better be.

[Lasher]

11. It's already come to that.

Obama said during the campaign that there shouldn't be a Social Security commission. But he tried to help some members of Congress get one fast tracked. When that failed he appointed one by executive order. He said everything, and that includes more Social Security cuts, is on the table. That means more Social Security cuts.

It should never have gotten to this point but it has.