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seafan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-09 06:17 PM
Original message
Hedge Fund Billionaire to keynote Obama's "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" February 23
Edited on Thu Feb-19-09 07:11 PM by seafan
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 Food





By 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."




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Captain Hilts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-09 06:44 PM
Response to Original message
1. Jack Welch been sighted yet?
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seafan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-09 10:32 PM
Response to Original message
2. This summit is getting virtually no coverage. It's a trojan horse by the Blue Dogs.
Jane Hamsher is now reporting that at this moment, no one is really sure just WHO is invited to attend or to speak at the "Fiscal Summit". It really seems to be classic FUBAR.


.....

There's a big summit on "fiscal responsibility" happening on Tuesday that nobody knows almost anything about. Yesterday numerous sources in the health care policy world confirmed that the administration told them (again off the record) that Pete Peterson and Laura Tyson would be keynote speakers, and now both are saying they won't be speaking. According to the WSJ Obama told the Blue Dogs they had his permission to pursue legislation to create a panel whose recommendations on "long term deficit strains" would be subject to an up-or-down vote of Congress, and after Congressional leadership pitched a fit, that seems to be off the table too. But what are they going to talk about at this summit, and who is invited?

On a conference call today arranged by Campaign for America's Future that included Roger Hickey, Jamie Galbraith, Nancy Altman and Dean Baker, Roger said that several of them had been told they might be invited to the summit, but no formal invitation had been issued yet (though Pete Peterson has his invitation). And while they had initially been told that the summit would address Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (which Ezra claims Orszag is desperately trying to separate), now they're hearing from administration sources that nobody is sure.

.....




Digby is on it as well:


.....

This is not the circumstances under which you want to meet with billionaires who have spent decades organizing for just such a moment. They know what they want down to the last penny. They have their marketing slogans all worked out. They have their "bipartisan" advocates. They have the villagers and the media, all believing one, simple thing: that the government is going broke because of "entitlement" spending. You don't face people like this not knowing exactly what it's about and what you hope to get out of it. It's not a friendly game of Twister. It's a death match.

Changing the term "entitlement reform" to mean "health care reform" may seem very,very clever I speculated that was their plan weeks ago. But I wouldn't count on it working. This is an extremely complicated thing to do and I can't say that I have seen any indication that the White House is prepared to carry out something so clever just yet. There's still quite a big learning curve there. Indeed, from the way it looks to me, there is a far better chance they are about to get punk'd by the Blue Dogs and the Fiscal Scolds into making a "Grand Bargain" that cuts the safety net just a tiny bit less than Pete Peterson wants them to. That doesn't seem too clever to me.

As Jamie Galbraith indicated, we are looking at a full-on economic meltdown right now and the last thing they need to do is start talking about "entitlement reform," whatever they want the word to mean. To any sentient person over the age of 40 it means cutting social security and that's the last thing they should be talking about in the middle of a recession. It's not good economics and it isn't good politics. Fuggedaboudit.




Why does Obama need to address Social Security NOW, when we've been told that it will be solvent for decades? Why not slash the monstrous Defense budget, including the billions spent arming unstable, undemocratic countries, and fund expanded Medicare for all in a national single payer system?


Why can't we extricate ourselves from two wars, and start helping the people in our country for a change?

All rhetorical questions, I know.



People really need to pay attention to this very underreported upcoming "Fiscal Summit". I have the distinct impression that lots of shenanigans will transpire by the Blue Dogs in their zeal for "fiscal responsibility".





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seafan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-20-09 09:11 AM
Response to Original message
3. Friday morning kick. n/t
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slipslidingaway Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-20-09 10:35 AM
Response to Original message
4. Thanks K&R n/t
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cap Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-20-09 10:47 AM
Response to Original message
5. People need to understand that you are attacking American mothers
what's next, Apple Pie.
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chill_wind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-20-09 05:27 PM
Response to Original message
6. Paying full attention. K & R. n/t
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Orwellian_Ghost Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-21-09 09:28 AM
Response to Original message
7. This is not okay
Guess we know who works for who and where the people stand in all of this.
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