More Than 20 Major Amendments were Made to Improve Social Security between 1935 and Today

[berni_mccoy]

Today's HCR Bill will also see improvements after it passes. If you are saying this de-electirfies the 3rd rail or won't ever be improved, you are simply wrong. Today is an Historic Beginning to Health Care Reform in the United States.

[TransitJohn]

1. LOL

Rah rah! Go team!!!

[Bicoastal]

4. Dean and Kucinich are on that team.

But feel free to sit on the sidelines for this one.

[TransitJohn]

8. Sidelines?

Are you kidding? I'm being forced to pay prices for corporate skyboxes to sit in the weed patch across the parking lot, on the other side of the freeway, where I can't even hear the crowd roar, let alone the cheerleaders (that's you, by the way). But you keep assuring me that maybe, someday, I'll get to see the game in some sort of small way, but it'll still cost an arm and a leg. Go team.

[Bicoastal]

12. When do you honestly think we'll get another chance to at least BEGIN this process?

It took us months of wrangling to get the bill we have now--how much longer would a more progressive bill have taken? How many more congresses and election cycles?

It's YOU that's holding out for a "someday" that may never happen.

[TransitJohn]

15. I'm not holding out for anything in this corporate driven country.

I'm working a plan to retire somewhere more sane in 14 more years. Sucks, but I can't afford to live here much longer.

[Bicoastal]

16. And you objected to my use of the word "sidelines."

[TransitJohn]

17. No I didn't. I thought it was a spectacular analogy.

Where do you get that I objected to the use of that word?

[Bicoastal]

18. Ah. Mea Culpa.

[TransitJohn]

23. No problem

:hi:
I'm just heartbreakingly crushed by this Presidency, even though I knew this was exactly how it was gonna turn out. I tried this morning to feel good about today, but can't when I stop to consider what's in the plan that's going through today. More people buying "coverage" they can't afford to use.

[Dappleganger]

20. If you're planning to leave...

bon voyage.

[TransitJohn]

24. Thanks.

I'll still come visit frequently, Wyoming is the absolutely most beautiful spot I've been in all my travels. I feel priveledged to have grown up here and to still live here, and will miss it dearly, but I'm tired of struggling so much. With the money I'll save, I can afford two roundtrips yearly and still come out ahead.

[troubledamerican]

27. Hey, wish me & the other expats here bon voyage too -- YAY, we WON a mandate/excise tax

and used a steamroller but not to steamroll through a public option because that would've been distasteful.

[yodermon]

14. I agree. Better to let the status quo evolve to the breaking point.

Then, single payer will emerge organically as a "bailout".

The deaths in the meantime are acceptable losses & collateral damage.

Rah rah, go team!

[berni_mccoy]

28. Rrriiggghhhtt... I gotta bridge to sell ya. In the meantime, millions will die.

NOTHING will get done if we get to the breaking point except that millions of poor will be culled from the population.

[Faygo Kid]

2. Agreed.

[KingFlorez]

3. Yes, this is just the beginning groundwork

It can and will be built up over time.

[sufrommich]

5. yep, although the purist here would rather see nothing

happen if they can't have exactly what they want right now . A sign of political immaturity in my opinion.

[icee]

6. No, it is not--Democratic majorities will suffer huge defeats in

November and be gone in 2012. Guess who'll probably do the billing for the mandated insurance should you fail to pay? Guess how many companies will either reduce employment, cut insurance and/or raise prices when they are forced to provide insurance for all employees? With Medicare bankrupt in 2017, SS not breaking even for the next four years, we are going to put in a new Healthcare system and provide subsidies for those who can't pay it? Disaster.

[laughingliberal]

7. Yes, after they passed that bill mandating everyone to invest with a for profit company on

Wall Street, they came back, fixed it, and gave us the system we have today.

[Edweird]

9. Yeah, that's why the left was ignored to 'include republican ideas'..

[Donnachaidh]

10. and Social Security was NOT built with a FOR PROFIT cartel in the mix

FAIL.

EPIC FAIL.

on to the next spin....

[Mojambo]

26. THIS. n/t

[berni_mccoy]

30. But it was IMPROVED several times after passage. That's your big argument for NOT passing this bill.

[eridani]

35. If the bill needs fixing, that guarantees that it will never be fixed

We did health care last year, so take your Medicare buy-in amendment and stuff it. That's what we'll get told.

[quiet.american]

11. Agreed, Berni. nt

[dflprincess]

13. Social Security was a new program designed to fill a need where no other program existed at the time

It did not require that people invest in private companies in the hope that they might have some money available when they needed it after they retired.

As time went on Social Security was expanded to cover more groups - much like Medicare should have been now if the Democrats had had any real interest in Americans actually being able to access care instead of just being forced to buy "coverage" from their campaign contributors.

During the Reagan administration cuts were made to the groups previously covered. And whether or not you can get disablility payments from Social Security often depends on how good a lawyer you can afford because how the rules and regulations for that are enforced can depend on who is running things.

[berni_mccoy]

29. Exactly what program exists today to provide health care to those who've been denied it?

[dflprincess]

33. Several states have programs that are not run by for profit crooks

nothing in the bill being debated will guarantee that those with preexisting conditions have have access to care - only that they will be required to purchase over priced "coverage".

[Oregone]

19. Socialization vs Privatization

A debate that means fuck all to you, I guess

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Most people who needed it for their very survival were DEAD before it even started to get fixed

[DefenseLawyer]

22. This framework has zero in common with Social Security.

But thank you for the valiant effort at spin. I will gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today.

[Karmadillo]

25. And the big Social Security corporations that owned lots of politicians and used that ownership to

engineer the original Social Security bill to their liking fought those amendments tooth and nail. Oh. Wait. There weren't any big Social Security corporations that owned lots of politicians back then. My bad.

[Sebastian Doyle]

31. If Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a DLC congress

We would not only NOT have Social Security today, we would probably all be speaking German.

[Hannah Bell]

32. sure the reagan-era "improvements" = taxation of benefits, older retirement age, increased % taxes

to generate a 2 trillion dollar surplus for wall street.

great stuff.

[eridani]

34. So, did Social Security start out as a mandate to invest in the stock market for retirement?

With the IRS docking your pay if you didn't comply?