Social Security--very, very popular. I mean REALLY popular.

[eridani]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/11/public-opposes-cutting-so_n_678374.html

Social Security turns 75 this week and remains an intensely popular program with voters of all ages, who strongly oppose cutting it to reduce the deficit, according to a new survey paid for by AARP and conducted by GfK Roper.

The poll, which was provided exclusively to HuffPost, finds that 85 percent of adults oppose cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit; 72 percent "strongly oppose" doing so.

Numbers like that simply don't appear in surveys of almost any other national issue that is subject to debate.

[HillbillyBob]

1. What a lot of folks especially the other side

is that SS is directly paid for by us and is not really part of the budget and those funds are Supposed to be in a trust fund not the general treasury.

I mean those that pay attention to the rpuke spew.
Most of us here are educated enough to realise that.

[eridani]

2. There are unfortunately a few exceptions

Plus, everyone needs to learn to be as good as possible at countering that crap.

[HillbillyBob]

3. I have been feelin like the lone voice of

sanity since raygun. I lived in Ala and heard the same shit from unedumacated(sic) maroons. All this shit from the teabaggies is not new I have heard it all ad nauseum since then.

Since Obama rehired / nominated all the same suspects from prior (mal)administrations really lost me. I did vote for milktoast, because I could not see Mac and Failin in the who house. I was hoping against hope that DK would get the nom, I don't hate HRC, it was just the reich hated the Clintons with unreason that she would not have been able to get anything done..or if she did it would be worse...

Im at the point I just want to leave. I have told enough of my story on here that I doubt anyone could blame me for the mistreatment and abuse I have lived with for 48 yrs. You get fucking fed up. I told of DNC and DLC fundraisers over the last few days and I wish I could have moved farther into the woods than we have. America has not been a dream for me it has been a nightmarish misadventure since the night that NSA told me "we have good evidence that you are a fag" and coerced me into confessing and leaving the navy..not that its all been shit there were some good times but the shit has outweighed the good for years on end, homelessness, HIV, Cancer, fighting to keep a job(been fired from 16 or 20 construction jobs because of being gay or being suspect since I don't act like a dog when a woman walked by the construction site. I have survived several severe beatings (one or 2 i can take on but not 6 7 thugs. I had some ass turn on a high voltage/amperage panel that I was working in in a murder attempt..I kicked his ass for him, but good, but got fired for fighting and tried to get that other electrician blacklisted.
That is the short list. I can no longer work , hell i can barely walk now and can't walk far. My partner and I (he does most of the work and it bugs me that I can't help more) bought a house on some acres very cheap so we could at least grow food. We have seen the way this mess is going since raygun..and still the country is circling the drain it seems. We grow organic heirloom veggies and for the most part would like to be left alone. Keep the jezzos off my door step, the bigots at bay..what happened to My persuit of Happiness?
I worked construction, and always had a part time job or 3 and paid into SS, now that I am disabled they pull this shit? Same for my partner, he is still working, but for how long? He has health issues different from mine, but stil no less painful or debilitating and he keeps getting pay cuts for a job well done too.
WE better get off our fat asses and address this shit this slide to the right is not just ideology. I have had oh any number of people from retired fed employees/LEOs to Holocaust survivors(some relatives) to Governors and Ex governors talk about the direction of this country and the Nazi / fascist meme is not false.

[eridani]

11. I appreciate your stories a lot

And those of others who have left because of widespread contempt for real struggle.

[Enthusiast]

20. +1

If we allow the right wing extremists to gain complete control of this country I have no doubt we would eventually see arrests of people on suspicion of being gay. Imagine such a nation. Anyone could be accused of being gay. How could you prove otherwise?

The extreme right wing of this country is nearly indistinguishable from the Nazis. Oh, there is less beer. But the real tangible difference is their treatment of Jews and that is far from universal. Much of the new found love of Israel by the right is because of political expediency anyway.

[roguevalley]

7. for some that is all they have.

[Ignis]

13. No kidding.

For all the incessant MSM mocking of Gore's "lockbox" mantra in 2000, the average American voter is still far too uneducated about how SS works.

:banghead:

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. Not surprised. It's the only lifeline that many people are...

counting on.

[Obamanaut]

5. Another way to reduce the deficit is to reduce spending. Real reductions,

not simply reducing the planned annual increases.

[Vincardog]

6. Another way to reduce the deficit is to repeal the RAYGUN tax cuts for the rich

[Obamanaut]

9. Make a budget, and live within it. If my outgo exceeds my income, it behooves me

to reduce the outgo - not supplement my income by seizing money from my neighbor.

[eridani]

10. Maybe the adminsitration could stop seizing money form us for imperial warfare

Spoken like a true death panel advocate. If your 401k tanked, just die already. No thanks, we'll fight back without your approval.

[Obamanaut]

12. Well gee, my day is truly ruined now.

That was sorta the leaning of my post.

There is not enough money to do all the stuff, with 'stuff' including all these seemingly endless wars. Therefore, make a national budget that is reasonable based on national income, and don't borrow any from other folks.

Do not write into that budget projected increases for all the pet project the washington weasels like/endorse. Do not go over the budget. Just simply spend what is there. That's what we do at my house, and it works quite well. We haven't seized anything from any of the neighbors.

[SoCalDem]

8. Imagine how "solvent" SS would be if rightwingers would just say "no thanks"

There are many ob the right who object to "entitlements", so maybe they should put OUR money where their mouths are & just opt out...and opt out of medicare as well..

That would free up a lot of moolah to pay for benefits for others:)

[Curmudgeoness]

14. Kudos. But they love "their" SS checks. They just want to take it

from the future recipients. I hear it all the time---"I paid for this".

[dmosh42]

19. Especially the teabaggers! n/t

[seattleblue]

15. Social Security is popular but I have always wondered why the American people

did not issue a peep in protest when Congress raised the retirement age from 65 to 67 in 1983. Maybe it is because the boomers were in their 30s and early 40s then and retirement was still a long ways off. Congress probably figured there would be no reaction from them. They were right.

[eridani]

17. Partly that was because the recession of that year was just a recession

--not a harbinger of a really terrible "new normal" with massive underemployment. The conservative attack on living standards had just started to gather steam. Recovery was not jobless for ANY pustwar recession until 2000. Older people were not, as a group, terrified of being forced back into a labor market with hardly any room for them.

[Curmudgeoness]

21. I wondered that same thing. I peeped. And peeped and peeped.

All of my legislators ignored me. In fact, I had always thought that this really was a third rail in politics, and never expected anyone to be able to change it. I wonder if the talk of raising the age again to 70 will bring more outrage. Different times now, but again, that would hit the younger people who are buying into the myth that they will never get anything from SS. They are being worn down by the lies.

[seattleblue]

22. They may do the same trick they did last time.

Keep the retirement age the same for people in their 50s so they won't protest and then have a gradual raise for people younger than that. People in their 40s and below just don't have retirement on their mind as a imminent thing and thus may not protest much.

[Curmudgeoness]

23. I guess that leaves it up to us people in our 50's to fight this.

If they do get to the point where they are intent on raising the age to 70, I think it is up to everyone to stop it. They are lying to the people about the solvency of SS and the average lifespan increases in this country, and this has to be exposed.

[lib2DaBone]

16. Please do no tlet them steal Soc Security this November

I don't know what we can do?

If they vote late on a Friday after the news cycle and bury a resolution deep inside some other bill... they will get away with it and there is nothing we can do.

I am writing, calling, faxing... but the Lame Ducks do not care because they already have jobs at Goldman-Sachs.

[laughingliberal]

18. +1 nt