Obama to release his own deficit plan right after the jobs speech.

madfloridian

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Fri Sep-02-11 09:52 PM
Original message

Obama to release his own deficit plan right after the jobs speech.

Edited on Fri Sep-02-11 10:13 PM by madfloridian

I am fearing for the elderly and disabled and needy. With all the emphasis being placed on cutting the deficit instead of showing concern for such groups, we are heading for real trouble. This deficit madness goes against those ideals which Democrats should support.

Deficit plan coming after speech

The drama surrounding Obama�s new jobs plan has eclipsed the other major item on the White House�s September agenda: to offer his most specific proposal yet for reshaping Medicare, Medicaid and the tax code.

In the speech Thursday, Obama will challenge the 12-member congressional supercommittee to exceed its $1.5 trillion goal for budget savings � setting a higher target that would allow the additional money to fund tax breaks and other stimulus spending. But the �very specific� deficit recommendations that Obama promised last month won�t come until after the speech, although the exact timing is unclear, White House officials said.

.."The deficit plan will be more specific than the framework the White House released in April. It is likely to include some unpopular measures that, until now, Obama backed only behind closed doors during the July talks with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), according to Democratic officials familiar with proposal.

Before the �grand bargain� fell apart over tax revenues, Obama and Boehner agreed on about $250 billion in proposed cuts to Medicare, including gradually raising the eligibility age to 67 and hiking co-pays and premiums for wealthier beneficiaries. They also agreed to change the inflation calculator for Social Security and other federal programs � which critics call a benefit cut.

�It will include those kinds of things that in a different fiscal environment, the White House wouldn�t be supportive of,� one Democratic official said.

Sounds like these are the things coming from the new Super Committee.

Reuters' Mark Miller earlier wrote an article about the items likely to come from this "Super" Committee. He particularly emphasized the chained CPI which seems to be a goal of Obama.

Social Security, Medicare dodge bullet, but cuts loom

Social Security and Medicare dodged a bullet in the debt ceiling battle, but beneficiaries still have plenty to fear from the next phase of the deficit reduction war.

..."The enormous pressure to identify $2.4 trillion in cuts boosts the odds that Social Security benefit cuts will be proposed. Re-stating what I�ve said so many times: this would be unfair and unwise. Social Security doesn�t contribute to the deficit, and it will be a critical source of support for recession-ravaged seniors in the decades ahead.

The most likely cutting tactic is the chained CPI measure of cost-of-living adjustments (COLA). This is the only way to get near-term savings from Social Security, since it reduces benefits for current retirees. By contrast, a higher retirement age would have to be phased in over many years.

A chained CPI could be implemented as early as 2013. The chief actuary of the Social Security Administration estimates that the chained CPI will rise about 0.3 percentage points less per year than the inflation measure used now, the CPI-W. With compounding, that translates to a monthly benefit cut of 8.4 percent for a retiree at age 92 (calculated from age 62, the first year of eligibility), according to the National Academy of Social Insurance.

A benefit cut of 8.4 percent. That is wrong in so many ways, and it is not necessary.

We who speak out are reprimanded by centrists who see no harm in this. Trust me, talking down to us who are concerned is not working, will not work.

The worst part is the fear that is spreading among seniors now, and not one major Democrat is noticing.

I do not know how a party can alienate these groups and expect them to go excitedly to the polls. I do not understand how party leaders can keep labor unions and teachers' unions at arms length...and expect them to knock on doors and do the activist work. To me as a retired teacher the hardest part to grasp is how they can keep allowing teachers to be treated with disrespect and not speak out in support of them.

I am a loyal Democrat who believes in the tenets which our party is supposed to hold dear. I am not being disloyal to the party when I question their compromises with extremists who are out to destroy them.