National debt 'is like a cancer,' governors told - So cut SS & Medicaid/Medicare!

[1776Forever]

It is true - they are coming after the safety nets of those that are the "least of these"! Some don't need their benefits but for the majority that do it is words for action! When we can give Blackwater/Xe, DynCorp, KBR, et al billions and we cannot take care of our sick and elderly it is time to start to tell our "leaders" it is us or them at the voting booths and we can write in someone if we have too!

...................

National debt 'is like a cancer,' governors told
From news services | Posted: Monday, July 12, 2010 12:00 am

http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_f5d9dce8-3f02-5224-bf56-fa9dbce980d7.html

BOSTON • The heads of President Barack Obama's national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to get its spending under control.

States can't count on the federal government for more budget bailouts, Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association.

States that are expecting Congress to authorize more bailout money are "going to be left with a very large hole to fill," Bowles said. "I don't think we can count on the federal government again. They just do not have the financial resources."

Simpson and Bowles said that every form of budget cutting needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage.

The nation's total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident.

"This debt is like a cancer," Bowles said in a sober presentation nonetheless lightened by humorous asides between him and Simpson. "It is truly going to destroy the country from within."

Simpson said the entirety of the nation's current discretionary spending is consumed by the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs.

"The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans, the whole rest of the discretionary budget, is being financed by China and other countries," Simpson said. China alone holds $920 billion in U.S. IOUs.

Bowles said if the U.S. makes no changes, it will be spending $2 trillion by 2020 just for interest on the national debt.

"Just think about that: All that money, going somewhere else, to create jobs and opportunity somewhere else," he said.

Simpson, the former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Bowles, the White House chief of staff under Democratic President Bill Clinton, head an 18-member commission. It's charged with coming up with a plan by Dec. 1 to reduce the government's annual deficits to 3 percent of the national economy by 2015.

"What we do is not so hard to figure out; it's the political consequences of doing it that makes it really tough," Bowles said.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, was one of those leaders who sat in rapt attention during the presentation, one of the first in public by the commission leaders. "I don't know that I ever heard a gloomier picture painted that created more hope for me," Beebe said, commending its frankness.

(more at link)
..............................

Can this be any clearer? It is getting to the point where there seems to be no end in sight and we are finally seeing that Peter Peterson is going to get his dream of cutting SS through!

Peter Peterson Wants to Cut Social Security
Tuesday, 11 May 2010

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/peter-peterson-wants-to-cut-social-security/

That could have been the title of this CNNMoney.com piece that touted the idea of "fixing" Social Security. The peice begins by quoting Robert Bixby, the director of the Concord Coalition, an organization that was founded by Peter Peterson and is still partially funded by him. Mr. Bixby described fixing Social Security as "low-hanging fruit" when it comes to deficit reduction.

The piece then went on to Mr. Peterson himself:

"While a Social Security fix would cure only a small part of the country's long-term fiscal shortfall, it could pay big dividends in terms of the U.S. standing internationally, deficit hawks say. 'It would be a confidence builder with our foreign lenders,' said Pete Peterson at a recent fiscal summit organized by his foundation, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

That could lessen the risk of a big rise in interest rates and buy the country more time to handle other debt-related issues, such as tax and budget reform and further changes in Medicare."

(more at link)

[county worker]

1. Stop the fucking wars, raise the tax on the wealthy!

[dkf]

4. Aren't the wars off balance sheet anyway?

That won't do much to fix the structural deficit.

[county worker]

13. The deficit is not the reason this is happening.

This is part of the war against the middle class. The defense budget is over half of our spending. The things they propose to do is to but the burden of the debt on those who did not benefit from the spending and continue to move wealth into fewer and fewer hands at the top.

The war spending goes to wealthy in this country and in the countries were we fight.

The way to bring down the deficit and regrow the economy is to put money in the hands of the middle class by creating jobs, making housing affordable and cut the cost of medical care and education.

The deficit is a short term problem but the fixes they propose are long term changes to the way our society has lived. Basically they will make serfs out of all of us.

[Paper Roses]

10. One sentence says it all. n/t

[doc03]

2. Something has to be done but they never look at the obvious

the f----g military spending we spend more on the military than every other country in the world combined. But they look at SS and Medicare. If a Democratic Administration cuts SS and Medicare you won't see another Democratic Administration for decades.

[EFerrari]

7. Chalmers Johnson says we can have our democracy or our empire

but not both. The quality of life here tanking by nearly every measure and still the empire staggers on.

[Bitwit1234]

11. And Obama won't win in 2012

I think he will fade into the background, aS WILL THE BLUE DOGS AND ALL THE DEMOCRATS who vote for this travesty. It started when they were requested to give seniors $250 dollars to make up for the money they wouldn't get in a raise this year. Then all the money was handed out to wall street and big banks. Then they upped the ante on the defense spending. We can see whose priorities congress was playing to. They knew they had to protect the banks and wall street and the defense companies. Because that's where they get all their re-election money. And they don't get much from seniors, correct.

I think the white house should be bombarded with letters, NOT EMAILS, which are put in the save file and no body reads them. But if they get bombarded with letters it will be public knowledge that people are upset about this, especially if they write on the out side don't cut social security. I'm going to once a month and maybe once a week.

[dkf]

3. We've been overspending for years using our retirement dollars to fill the gap.

In the end there won't be enough to pay all the retirement obligations and regular expenses. That is just reality. And income once left untaxed is unreachable. The smart money is going to move to munis and then they really won't pay taxes ever.

[spanone]

5. cut military spending...N O W

[RKP5637]

6. Each day this becomes a more difficult place to live. There are

so many problems, but IMO the gov. (ALL parties, fed, state, local) is often so ignorant in how they go about fixing things. Basically we prop up the existing failing systems, give hoards of money to wall street, banks, whatever, engage in endless wars, spread American Imperialism, the list goes on and on. Innovation and creativity in problem solving have left our consciousness. And generally the majority of the citizens come last. We need to start fixing things here at home, and we need innovative programs/spending to do this, not more of the same.

[YOY]

8. They're not ignorant they're owned.

n.t.

[RKP5637]

9. Yep, that is absolutely the real baseline cause. n/t

[SoCalDem]

12. Not quite.. republicans ARE the cancer we have been fighting for most of the last 30 years

we have had "surgery" a few times, but now it's threatening a recurrence.. can we afford that again?