Obama is Going To Destroy SS

[BeFree]

Is that what some of you think?

That Obama's plan is to kill SS?

Sorry, I just don't see it.
What I do see is: He is working the edges so that he gets easily re-elected.
That he hears the violent right-wingers and instead of punching them in the mouth he is allowing them to get close enough he can dish out their just deserts in a gentleman's fashion.

Talked to a pubbie relative today and he said he is disgusted with his party.

Obama is leading them to their own grave. I think it is marvelous politicking.

[adhd_what_huh]

1. yup..yup...

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. Bush couldn't do it...

...with both Houses, a Democratic minority demonstrably to the right of the present one, and the unified support of the business sector, and an as-yet-unparalleled propaganda machine.

But Obama will succeed!

That's how powerful, and fiendish, he is!

[jaxx]

6. Undermining the President isn't progressive.

Why would you call him fiendish?

[Davis_X_Machina]

12. Because I read DU religiously.

I have to ignore the evidence of my own eyes, and common sense, to reach that conclusion, but after 10 1/2 years here, that's not that hard to do any more.

[Maru Kitteh]

30. lol. Just when you thought, no way I'll need the sarcasm smiley for this one.....

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Well, yes.

A certain percentage of the Dems will back him simply because he is a Dem, even if he put up the exact same proposal that Bush did in 05.

But he is not going for outright privatization like Bush did - what he's doing simply undermines it so as to make it unsustainable. He already started it with the so-called 'tax holiday', decreasing the amount going into SS, promising to make that up out of general revenues while, at the same time, calling for a 4 trillion dollar reduction in spending - how, pray, is he going to pull THAT off? But Dems CHEER him on.

Just like only Nixon could go to China, only a Democrat can kill SS.

[Doctor_J]

3. Killing the work of FDR and LBJ is "brilliant"

Someone's been spiking your Kool-Aid

[BeFree]

8. Killing?

That, my friend, is hyperbolic.

Everyone knows SS has been deeply hurt and is in need of a health care plan.
Obama is not, no matter what anyone says, setting up death panels.

But in the meantime, the pubbies are being seen for their wanting death panels.

[Enrique]

4. Obama saved the GOP

in 2008 it was abundantly clear that conservative ideas had failed. Now "both sides" are talking like supply-siders, extending tax cuts and saying they're going to create jobs, and talking about cutting trillions and saying that's going to "free the economy". The GOP has no opposition anymore.

[KeepItReal]

11. His landslide and Dem wins across the board should have ended the GOP

His clueless (being generous there) economic team and this corporate media kept propping up those losers until we got the last congressional election.

[Ship of Fools]

5. This is what I've always believed.

Always. HOWEVER ... I find myself vacillating constantly about the man -- his chess game is a dangerous one. I think he does believe in some reforms, and I think with the right people in Congress, they could be intelligent reforms, not political ones. He's either going to convince me to vote for him in 2012, or I will NOT be voting Republican, if you know what I mean.

[jtown1123]

7. He won't destroy it, but he could severely weaken it more so than any other Pres.

if he continues this nonsense that it isn't a "primary" driver of our deficit I won't "slash" benefits double speak nonsense.

[kenny blankenship]

14. After all, he IS an incrementalist

It would be completely foreign to him to propose outright destruction of Social Security. But he is happy to falsely link Social Security to deficit negotiations and the national debt, and that sets up the next wave of attacks against it.

He's an incrementalist, and I think his record (Health Care Reform Swindle, putting Safety Net programs on the table) is very clear about which direction he is incrementing in.

[JAnthony]

9. Letting Republicans in the House walk the plank....right out of office

next year.

Divine plan! We need a heavy (2/3rds) Democratic Party majority in House and Senate in 2013, reverse ALL this Bush tax cut business, start a public employment plan like the WPA, regulate financial industry, fulfill a more streamlined single-payer-like health care system.

Republicans will be choking and sputtering in a small minority in House and Senate. Fox News will be losing sponsorship, as the Murdoch/Ailes empire is collapsing, amidst charges of collusion, non-reported in-kind campaign contributions to the Republican Party, etc etc.

This is my dream, if ONLY we can make it to 2013 without a worldwide economic collapse.

[Doctor_J]

13. Yeah, like they did last year

wow, the denial is neck deep today

[BeFree]

20. Denial?

Tell me what you know about the voting machines.

Do you deny they could have stolen many votes in that election?

[Doctor_J]

23. So how is giving them SS and Medicare going to solve this again?

That was your original fantasy

[BeFree]

28. So, you are in denial?

Your slap shit spewing does not influence me.

If all you have are one liners and are in denial about the voting machines, you got nothing. Pfft.

[JAnthony]

25. Voters that put this Republican Tea bag slime in office just wanted

jobs and a turn-around in the recession!

They are learning that the Republicans in the House and Senate are only about Defense of corporations's untaxed profits and tax subsidies and about protecting the super rich.

Republicans in the House have done NOT ONE THING about jobs, and have passed ZERO bills into law in 7 months.


Not all voters are stupid.

We have another 15 months to wake up SOME voters who put these teabaggers in the House, and get them out of there.

It won't be easy, but it must be done... and yes, I am dreaming, and hoping it comes to pass.

[BeFree]

29. It's coming

No guarantee of success, but people are realizing the pubbies are total liars.

[Kennah]

10. Obama is going to have to choose between being Hoover and being FDR

If he's practicing the policies of FDR, I'm good with voting for him in 2012.

If he's practicing the policies of Hoover, I'm not at all good with voting for him in 2012, but I fear we won't then get FDR (from the GOP, HA!) in 2012--instead we'll get Hitler.

[mike_c]

15. he's politicking a very dangerous game that DOES threaten SS and Medicare....

If it's brilliant politicking, it's the political equivalent of playing with matches in a straw house-- and I doubt his ability to control the results. Sure, the republicans are looking like a bunch of petulant children, but the dems aren't coming off much better!

Look, there are pretty straightforward causes for our fiscal problems, but SS is not one of them. Not even remotely. Obama is not proposing solutions for THOSE problems. Instead, he's using discretionary spending and the social safety net as a smoke screen to HIDE the real problems and their straightforward solutions. If Obama was actually serious about reducing the national debt he would focus his efforts where they might be highly productive, or at least propose high yield solutions (like ending the wars sooner rather than later, shrinking the hideously costly U.S. empire a bit, or taxing the rich).

One might argue that republicans will block meaningful reforms, but that doesn't explain why Obama is going after SS and Medicare in response, since neither is really the problem. That's like saying that "well, my leg is broken but I'll order surgery on my head because that's what's in fashion these days." It's misdirection at best, delusion or an ulterior motive at worst.

Brilliant politicking? That's not what I want from national leadership. I want pragmatic and real solutions to the nation's problems.

[BeFree]

18. Me too, Mike

I too, want pragmatic and real solutions.

So did Jimmy Carter, and look where that got him. And here we are.

The reality is that most of America is messed up. And any leader has to, if he wants to stay in power, has to mix it up and play along.

Besides no one gets to play Emperor without wanting to be an Emperor.

I just don't see where he is set out to KILL SS. Tweak it? Sure. Kill it? No.

[cottonseed]

17. If you're goal is to see a 3rd party candidate split the Democratic vote.

Then that is what you would want people to believe.

[Davis_X_Machina]

19. Nach Bachmann, Uns! n/t

[reformist2]

21. I can't answer that until I know what long-term damage a default will do.

I worry that a post-default landscape may ruin our credit and throw us into a financial spiral where we are forced to downsize, a la Greece.

[BeFree]

22. Granted that could be the plan

But is pretty deep into conspiracy theory.

Are there republicans who work everyday to accomplish the destruction of the US? Yes.

And what Obama is doing is exposing those America haters. That's what I see.

[reformist2]

26. I agree with you about Obama. I just don't know how far he should go...

[MrDiaz]

24. If i recall correctly

The same type of things were being said when the Health Care Bill was being "fought" for.

[sofa king]

27. I'm still trying to sort out Republican motivations.

At first I thought that because nearly a trillion dollars' worth of debt is owned by wealthy Americans, they would never allow their pet political party to pee on the rug.

But then I started thinking about Social Security, and how several trillion dollars has already been diverted from it, distributed, and spent. The federal government owes Social Security many times what it owes American debt-holders... but what if the debt-holders also currently control all that former Social Security money somehow? Couldn't they benefit from a default by pinching off all that cash and keeping it? Wasn't that the primary objective of the Bush Administration after they stole Ohio? Is this whole thing just another elaborate heist?

I don't know. Finances are a mystery to me, as someone will point out soon enough, I am sure.

But the basic motivations are easy to foretell, because they never change: whatever their exact nature, they are greedy, self-serving, malevolent, and criminal.

[BeFree]

32. There is a lot of money on the table

And they have pinched a good bit of it already.

Every month about 50 billion dollars gets taken from the workers' paychecks.

That's $50 billion of floating dollars, each and every month, so that is a great temptation.

And while I get the fear that our money is in danger, I just don't see Obama as the one who is eyeing our money with greedy fingers. I do see the republicans drooling, tho.

[Common Sense Party]

31. Washington politicians destroyed Social Security and Medicare.

They've been doing it for decades, and we're all pissed because now something has to be done to fix it. Both parties have gotten away with pretending that there is no problem, and no changes need to be made, and they kept getting re-elected. Well, guess what. There IS a problem, and if a fix isn't made, these programs WILL be killed, for everyone.

[BeFree]

33. 10-4

Which means acknowledged. What you say is true.

Years ago, I had no hope that I would ever see any of my SS money again.
Today, I have about a dollar's worth of hope.

It certainly is gaining interest.