If Lawmakers Cut Social Security, and Nobody Is There to Hear It…Virtual secrecy

[1776Forever]

If Lawmakers Cut Social Security, and Nobody Is There to Hear It…
By: David Dayen Saturday July 10, 2010

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/07/10/if-lawmakers-cut-social-security-and-nobody-is-there-to-hear-it/

........The Cat Food Commission has operated in virtual secrecy for a couple months; no consumer of major media has been told. The co-chair of the program unleashed a string of lies and misinformation about the program; that shocking display didn’t pierce the media bubble. Now the annual report which is habitually used to determine the state of the program has just vanished, and nobody in the media cares?

To the extent that there’s any coverage at all, it starts from the perspective of Peterson and the deficit hawks, who have had their knives out for Social Security for decades. They allow lazy statements about longer lifespans (that’s not really true for people that reach the age of 65) or percentages of workers relative to the retired (the “there used to be 16 workers for every retiree” talking point is cherry-picked from the year that the program expanded in 1950 to cover more workers) to dominate the discussion. It assumes that the only avenues for long-term actuarial balance are retirement age increases or benefit cuts, when this chart from the Congressional Budget Office clearly shows that the easiest way to ensure stability for the program is to lift the payroll tax cap, which you can do and increase benefits at the low end besides (which you should do, given the lack of adequacy of program benefits and the collapse of defined-benefit pension plans).

The battle to protect and preserve America’s most successful government program is occurring in an information vacuum. Will anyone in the media actually figure out what’s happening before it’s over?

(More at link)
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Check this out - Georgie boy may get his way after all!

:wow: :spank: :wow:

[laughingliberal]

1. We really need to make noise about this & make it a campaign issue.

Every candidate should be gotten on the record on this issue.

[fascisthunter]

2. by doing so, they threaten the well being of millions of Americans

disgusting

[jtuck004]

3. There is plenty of support to fight this

This is an issue everyone can come together on

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/07/backfire-at-america-speaks-propaganda-campaign-vs-social-security-and-medicare.html