Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake has done some excellent reporting on the upcoming "Fiscal Responsibility Summit", to be held on February 23, to be attended by
90 people: 30 members of the House, 30 senators and 30 scholars and representatives of advocacy groups.
Absolutely brilliant title, Ms. Hamsher:
Hedge Fund Billionaire Pete Peterson Key Speaker At Obama “Fiscal Responsibility Summit,” Will Tell Us All Why Little Old Ladies Must Eat Cat FoodBy Jane Hamsher
February 18, 2009
After a report in the
Wall Street Journal appeared indicating that Obama "met with 44 fiscally conservative 'Blue Dog' Democrats this week and gave a nod to legislation that would set up commissions to deal with long-term deficit strains," noting that "the commissions would then present plans to Congress for an up-or-down vote," it appears things moved rather swiftly.
House and Senate leadership sent word back to the White House, something subtle along the lines of "tha F*!K, are you CRAZY?"
The "fiscal responsibility" summit will still happen on February 23, but plans to empower a commission to make recommendations that are not subject to amendment by Congress have been scrapped. This will no doubt come as a blow to Wall Street robber baron Pete Peterson, who has pledged a billion dollars to
loot "save" Social Security and Medicare.
The head of Peterson's foundation is former Comptroller General David Walker. He recently responded to William Greider's Social Security article in the Nation, saying:
We have sadly concluded that the "regular order" in Congress is broken and that achieving progress on multiple fronts within a short timeframe is not possible on a piecemeal basis.
These Blue Dog dreams of circumventing Congressional procedure were evidently crushed when "Reid and Pelosi sent back word that Congress doesn't get bypassed just because Peter Orszag says it does," said a source familiar with the communications. But Peterson can't be too disappointed -- after Obama and Biden speak at the Monday conference, it will be Peterson himself presenting to the group, and then Laura Tyson of the Obama economic advisory team. Then the guests, which include members of Congress and others, will split up into six groups. But for now, the plan for a specially empowered "panel" coming out of the summit has been scrapped.
Tyson has been a
proponent of the "Diamond-Orszag" plan, which calls for the retirement age to be raised and for Social Security benefits to be cut for those 55 and under as a way to be "fiscally responsible." So anyone waiting to hear the voice of a progressive like Jamie Galbraith, say, who
thinks that Social Security should be increased, or even someone who doesn't assume that Social Security is in the midst of a "crisis" and needs to be "fixed" -- don't hold your breath.
.....
And, guess what--
Blue Dog Jim Cooper wanted these commissions to be able to make fiscal recommendations on Social Security and Medicare that would be impossible to be amended by Congress. How's
that for confirmation of traitors in our midst?
Obama, Social Security and the Diamond-Orszag Plan, Jane Hamsher, February 12, 2009
Social Security, Medicare Reform to Get an “Up or Down” Vote, Jane Hamsher, February 17, 2009
Digby: Until we neuter the Blue Dogs, it will be nearly impossible to enact liberal legislation., February 12, 2009
Digby warns:
Obama will make a huge mistake mistake if he even thinks about bargaining away social security in order to get health care just as the baby boomers are retiring. They have been paying double into social security since 1986, most of their working lives, on the understanding that their cohort was gigantic and needed extra money to pay for the program. They have just lost a huge chunk of their retirement savings in the stock and housing markets, right on the cusp of their retirement, something they were assured could not happen. Even if he tries to sell social security "reform" as the price for saving medicare, it won't matter. If Obama wants to see a generational uprising, wait until he gets a load of the aging boomers, pissed off and freaked out. No matter how much he reassures them that he only means to screw younger workers, they will not stand still for it. (And a few of them may even love their kids.)
Obama does not have to tackle every single problem he sees on the distant horizon during his first term, especially one that doesn't exist. If he puts social security in the mix with health care under the rubric of "entitlement reform" he will weaken the first and destroy his chances of enacting the second. There are no Grand Bargains with political sociopaths. All you do is give them the opportunity to kill your agenda.
And Hamsher reminds us
what has gone down so far:
Before the House vote on the stimulus bill, Rahm Emanuel had promised them that they would soon see "signs of Obama's commitment to fiscal reform," and according to one Blue Dog, "Tuesday night was a fulfillment of the commitment Emanuel made that day."
If Blue Dogs like Cooper have been emboldened by the idea that the left will quietly accept Social Security reforms that include reductions in benefits because of Obama's popularity, they have sorely deluded themselves. As Atrios notes, it would create "an epic 360 degree shitstorm." If people on the left are being quiet, it's not because they don't care...it's because they don't think Obama will ever do it.
A prediction: Anyone caught with their hands in the till, trying to destabilize and undermine Social Security and Medicare will draw back bloody stumps.
An acerbic comment from poster
punaise at Firedoglake:
"Now serving All-Po’, the canned Blue Dog food."