We laugh about Alan Simpson. We call it the Catfood Commission. Ha Ha. But this is deadly serious.

[Stinky The Clown]

There is a concerted effort to rob us even more blind than we've already been robbed. They now wish to have us work until we're 70 and then quickly die. That really IS the plan.

The REAL solution is equally elegant. Remove the cap on FICA and tax the living fuck out of the big money earners.

Too bad for us. It appears the former will happen and the latter can suck wind. Ain't we just so so so lucky?

[DireStrike]

1. Ain't nothing we can do but laugh.

And leave the country.

[HuckleB]

12. Well, I'll laugh.

It's human.

But there are no wonderful alternatives out there. I've traveled the world. Good ideas abound, but most places face the same type of crap we face.

[laughingliberal]

39. "but most places face the same type of crap we face."

Some truth to that but most of the developed world is ahead of us in providing a safety net for citizens. Health care is the big example of that but just a couple of months ago the French were in the streets over a proposal to raise their benefit age from 60 to 62. They also have provisions for earlier retirement for those in arduous occupations. As it stands now, the late boomers are already having to wait until 67 (people born in my year are at 66 and 2 mos) for their full SS benefit and there is no provision for arduous occupations, here. I know. I'm a member of a profession whose average 'retirement' age is 57 and, unless we can prove to SS that we are disabled we're just out of luck. The direction of the commission appears to be towards upping the age to 70.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Thats why I ignore most of it.

It would be real easy to see if they were serious about anything.

What will happen to them will be there own doing, :shrug:

Although I think most of it at this point is information systems more then what happens.

If the posts were accurate, then there would be secondaries.

So weather they are serious or not, they need to correct things, or they have no validity.

[Autumn]

3. When the joke is on you

what else can you do but laugh. :shrug:

[Matariki]

4. Have you seen the vid of him going on about how the average life span was 57 when s.s. was created

and that's why age 63 was set? He's so full of shit.

And yeah, it must be the last big pot of cash left in the treasury - or they wouldn't be going after it with such desperation. Seriously, the Bush years were one big raid on the treasury.

[truedelphi]

6. Bush/Obama can be blamed. Obama is now president precisely because he rounded up

All the Democratic Senators (remember that in Fall 2008, the Dems held the majority) and got them to vote for the Bailouts that have totalled over twelve trillion and counting.

And that is a huge sum of money. Which is why they need to raid the Social Security funds.

Oh, and please, though of you who may feel the need to enlighten me, do not start to suggest that the TARP "has been paid back in full." Some of it has been paid back, however, then those doing the paybacks set about to borrow other sums of money.

And the paybacks occurred through tax breaks.

[truth2power]

45. Yes, paybacks through tax breaks..

or something like that. I wish I could remember exactly how that worked (read or heard it somewhere)but it wasn't as if they actually repaid the money.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but maybe someone here can briefly explain.

[Raster]

10. The Social Security Trust Fund IS THE TREASURY.

Funny thing: The citizens and their employers pay into Social Security. The US Government does not pay one nickle into Social Security. They only administrate the program, and quite frankly, if the US government was forced to obey the laws of the land like everyone else, the government would probably have to face charges for defrauding the citizens and embezzling funds from Social Security.

Here's how we "fix" Social Security:

1. Remove the funding caps. All earned income is subject to being taxed, no matter if you earn $50,000 per year or $5,000,000,000 per year. Period. No exemptions for "investment income."
   
2. Demand the US government replace every last dime, to the penny and never touch another dollar of the fund again. If the truth were told, the Social Security Trust Fund has paid it's fair share of rich man's tax cuts. Thank you Ronald Fucking Raygun.

[Matariki]

15. Indeed. And here's Alan Simpson babbling about making the Gov't pay it back

being 'a double hit' - whatever that means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic415oTGOWQ

[truedelphi]

50. Iknow I am gonna feel slimed while I watch this,

But here goes...

[Canuckistanian]

5. The cap on FICA is going to be lifted?

You mean the rich are going to get taxed for their actual week-to-week wages? Exactly like the peons?

[Stinky The Clown]

7. No. Quite the opposite

[Canuckistanian]

18. So sorry, I misunderstood

I didn't realize that "work until we're 70" was the FORMER option.

[Cerridwen]

8. Only Nixon could go to China.

Only the Democrats can destroy; or put in place the mechanisms to destroy; social security and any remaining social programs and safety nets.

I have only one dispute with your OP, another "REAL solution" is to cut the MIC off at the...knees. If we spent the same amount of money supporting people as we do killing people, we might have a chance.

[Raster]

11. The MIC owns the government and just about everyone in it.

The MIC and Pentagon will bleed this country dry, literally and figuratively.

[Cerridwen]

16. "will bleed"? Have bled.

But, hey, we "support the troops" in our militaristic run up to...what?

Excuse me. Perhaps I shouldn't post about this as it makes me look like one of those people who want to "destroy the Pentagon".

[Raster]

19. The question must be asked: Does the Pentagon exist to serve the Republic...

...or does the Republic now exist to serve the Pentagon?

[Cerridwen]

21. Shall I answer or was that rhetorical?

Just in case..."the Republic now exist{s} to server the Pentagon."

[tomp]

30. agree the MIC is the problem, and the dems are a big part of that.

the answer is to expose the democrats.

[truedelphi]

52. That sums it up.

Quite nicely. Thanks.

[Lugnut]

9. I'm definitely not laughing.

You posted the simple solution to this bullshit. Raise the cap or, even better, eliminate it entirely.

And Alan Simpson can still bite me.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Steely_Dan]

34. Nice Rant...Perfect

Isn't "betrayal" the highest (or lowest) level of Dante's description of Hell?

I agree that what is happening within my own party is far worse than anything the RW could do. I KNOW where the RW is coming from. I am never surprised when they screw the American people. There could only be on thing worse than the actions of the RW...it is the betrayal of one's own party. It is like being blind-sided...I never expected this.

-P

[Robeson]

14. No laughs here. This is a line in the sand moment...

...no laughs at all.

[global1]

17. Call The White House And Make More Noise, Don't Let This Die......

this guy Simpson needs to resign or be fired from this commission. The White House number is: 1-202-456-1111.

I don't know why in the first place he was picked for this commission by Obama. Unless the fix is in.

Simpson must go. Call the White House and protest.

[Still Waters]

20. I have thought for years that they would not allow us to count on SS

Simpson really let the cat out of the bag about how our "betters" truly feel about us. Those of us who live very modest lives, who did not get some big whiz bang career but had a job, who have no exalted connections or inherited wealth--we are objects of scorn for them to pander to during election years and put the screws to at all other times. Our betters are completely out of touch with how we live. Last time I heard a figure on this, the average national wage was $15 per hour. How can someone manage to pay a mortgage or rent, maintain a home, pay for utilities, maintain a car, pay for the car insurance, pay for food, pay for health insurance, pay medical bills, try to help our children at least a little with higher education...all on the average national salary of $15 per hour? How on top of all these expenses do we save for a retirement that will begin for many of us at age 50 as our beloved corporations kick us out the door? How could any politician justify a health care system that extracts $1000 per month in premiums for people with take home pay of $2000 per month? (and to add to the pain, that $1000 all too often buys a woefully inadequate coverage.) Did anyone ever force Baucus, or Nelson, or Lieberman, or any of the other opponents of the public option to answer that question--how could they justify a system where half of one's take home pay goes to health insurance? Does Ben Nelson or the rest of his priviliged ilk even know or care how to stretch $1000 a month to live on?

And that's why SS is so crucial to us "suckers." We have a lifetime of experience in stretching a $1000 or $1500 a month to live on and were hoping and praying it would be there for us in our retirement years. Is that asking so much? We have paid into it all our lives! But I have long feared that this big pot of money in SS is too attractive to these slavering wolves and vultures who have nearly succeeded in picking all the meat off the bones of the American dream. Do the Democrats even have any bedrock principles anymore? I thought SS and Medicare were surely the last and strongest of our party's principles. Having someone like this fool Simpson chair the Commission gives me a sick feeling of betrayal in my stomach.

[Warpy]

22. I'm not laughing. I'm furious and sick

because I suspect you're right.

I never thought we'd have to fight our own party over Social Security.

[Hannah Bell]

23. Your adoption of the "solution" proferred by the PTB means you've accepted their claim

that there's currently a "problem" that needs a solution.

There is no such problem.

[Raster]

38. Hear! Hear!

There is NO problem with Social Security, that honesty won't fix. The United States citizens and their employers pay into Social Security. The US Government does not pay one nickle into Social Security. They only act as administrators of the program, and quite frankly, if the US government was forced to obey the laws of the land like everyone else, the government would probably have to face charges for defrauding the citizens and embezzling funds from Social Security.

Here's how we "fix" Social Security:

1. Remove the funding caps. All earned income should be subject to FICA, no matter if you earn $50,000 per year or $5,000,000,000 per year. Period. No exemptions for "investment income." The only exemption should be if your income is below poverty levels.
2. Demand the US government replace every last dime, to the penny, and never touch another dollar of the fund again. If the truth were told, the Social Security Trust Fund has paid it's fair share of rich man's tax cuts. The United States Congress AND every President since Raygun have used the Social Security Trust Fund as slush fund. It's NOT the government's money. It never has been.

The United States government wants to "fix" Social Security because Washington knows they don't have snowball's chance in hell of making it right and they know the bill is about to come due.

Here's how to repay the Social Security Trust Fund: STOP funding the war machine. The Pentagon/Military-Industrial Complex is bleeding this country dry, literally and figuratively.

[Mimosa]

24. Why did the president appoint this man? n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

41. Because he was following orders...

DC is a sideshow, politicians are servants of the rich, nothing more.

[metapunditedgy]

25. We KNOW this is serious. At this point, I think we're all just hoping that the wealthy

and powerful will see fit to drop a bunch of anti-depressants into the metaphorical mine shaft where we're all huddled in a few years.

What to do but laugh and simmer?

[pleah]

26. I'm not laughing. :( n/t

[MadHound]

27. Sometimes all you can do is laugh.

I've seen this coming for a long while. Didn't think that it would be a Dem that pulled the trigger, but hey, given the track record for the past few decades, it isn't that surprising.

I write, I call, I do what I can. But apparently Dems, like 'Pugs, really don't respond unless you have an assload of cash.

So I watch as we circle the drain, and I laugh just to keep from despair.

[Enthusiast]

28. K&R. Another nice OP, Stinky! nt

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[w4rma]

32. It's the role of the DLC infiltrators to make it the role of the Democratic Party.

The DLCers will support gutting Social Security but non-"New" Democrats will and do not.

[tomp]

37. i do not refer to rank-and-file registered democrats...

...although many of those need to come to their senses and stop supporting politicians who do not represent their interests.

when i say the party i mean the party leadership, with obama at its head and virtually all (though not all) politicians with D after their name.

tell me who among those people are going to defend social security. who in the senate in particular?

i guarantee it will not be enough to prevent cuts.

[quakerboy]

49. How many DLC Infiltrators does it take in the top ranks

before they are the party, and we are the infiltrators?

[asdjrocky]

33. Once again the poor are being fucked with their pants on.

And once again a Democratic President is doing the fucking. Welfare reform, Telecommunications Act, NAFTA, fake health care reform, fake financial reform and now this.

How can we believe any of these fuckers? I'm not amused.

[laughingliberal]

40. +1 nt

[indepat]

35. But Stinky, those that own 90%-95% of the wealth already pay most of the taxes and we should not wan...

to further burden them. So what if the tax code is grossly unfair, the fiscal policy in shambles as a result thereof, income inequality off the charts, and the US ranking at or near the bottom in almost all statistical measures of quality of life among industrial nations: the primary domestic job of government since the gipper foisted his brand of voodoo economics upon us is to do every thing possible to further concentrate the wealth of this nation among a precious few, to increase that 90%-95% to maybe 95%-98% and something has to give. While some might say this assessment is over the top and overly cynical, I would only say "Look at the record for the proof of all these assertions is fully in the congressional record (the pudding that has been cooked for us)." :)

[Spheric]

36. There is nothing about that prick Simpson that I find amusing in the least.

And, I am rapidly losing any respect for anyone who would hire and continue to support him.

[Usrename]

42. It ain't no government handout like Simpson believes.

IT'S OUR INVESTMENT!!!!

[JDPriestly]

43. Blame Obama. He stacked the committee with anti-Social Security

DLCers, Republicans and Blue Dogs of all kinds. Max Baucus -- a danger signal if there ever was one.

We paid for our Social Security benefits. Many of us also saved - but our savings produce NO INCOME. At just above 0% interest on savings, you can save all you want, you will still need Social Security.

The only solution is to fix the American economy, and to do that we need a tax on imports and on services that are provided to Americans. We have to change our trade laws. Free markets have ruined our economy.

We need to invest in alternative energy in the way we invested in developing an atom bomb. It's a matter of the survival of our planet. All of these seemingly disparate factors are related. All of them contribute to our budget deficits, our unemployment and -- coming next, social upheavals. The Glenn Beck mania is just a sign of the general confusion of the American people who face an economic downturn that they don't understand. Americans are vulnerable to rabble-rousing hate mongerers like the folks on Fox News.

We are going through the same kinds of social changes that preceded the NAZI era in Germany. I have been saying this for some time. The current anti-Muslim craze is just one indication of the frustration of people here. It's very dangerous considering what a huge military machine we control.

[Dr.Phool]

44. Stinky, you're such a clown. Always funin'

Simpson could sit on his butt and suck lobbyist ass all day long into his '70s. No exertion there unless he gags.

The only handout I see are congressional and Senate pensions. Not to mention health-care for life'

Fuck every goddamn one of those weasels. If Obama, Pelosi, and Reid allow this to happen, there won't be another Democrat elected for a generation. With good reason.

We've only got one party anymore, anyway. The Money Party.

[guitar man]

46. Today 70

Tomorrow 72, then 74, then...oh fuck it, just work until you die peon! :grr:

They might want to be careful what they wish for, the thought of that could make some people suicidal....I'm just sayin'

[truth2power]

47. I think this is an indication of how terrible things are, economically, in this country...

I'm not much affected by appeals to fear. I'm just not a fearful person, in general. But this SS thing is really starting to unsettle me, not just because of what Obama & Co. are doing to SS (I don't believe him when he says he'll fight for it) but of what it implies about what's going on behind the scenes.

[LibDemAlways]

48. Just returned from a trip to New York City. If ever there

was a place that reeks of the disparity between rich and poor, it's Manhattan. Donald Fucking Trump owns skyscraper after skyscraper. I assume he keeps an army of accountants busy juggling the books so as to pony up as little as possible in taxes. Meantime, steps from his palaces live (I use the term loosely) people whose only "home" is a bench in a grimy subway station. What's left of the "middle class"in the city lives behind double dead bolted locked doors in cubicle sized apartments they struggle to afford.

If Trump and the other overlords were forced to pay their fair share - tax the "living fuck" out of them, as you so eloquently put it - the $$ would flow into government coffers and a myriad of problems could be addressed.

But, no. Politicians fail to give a flying fuck about helping anybody but themselves and the big donors who call the shots. Empires that don't take care of the "little guy" don't last. This one will be no different.

[Raster]

53. Truth: The big donors that call the shots OWN THE POLITICIANS.

You and I are NOT in the big club!

There's a reason that education sucks, and it’s the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it. Be happy with what you’ve got. Because the owners of this country don’t want that. I’m talking about the real owners now, the big, wealthy, business interests that control all things and make the big decisions.

Forget the politicians, they’re irrelevant.

Politicians are put there to give you that idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, and they’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the State Houses, and the City Halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.

They’ve got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want—they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interest. You know something, they don’t want people that are smart enough to sit around their kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

They don’t want that, you know what they want?

They want obedient workers, obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it.

And now they’re coming for your social security money.

They want your fucking retirement money; they want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later because they own this fucking place. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it! You and I are not in the Big Club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you in the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

The table is tilted folks, the game is rigged.

Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good honest hard working people, white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about…give a fuck about you! They don’t care about you at all, at all, at all.

And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.

That’s what the owners count on, the fact that Americans are and will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white, and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth, it’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.

George Carlin

[valerief]

51. Is there room in Denmark for all of us? nt

[TheKentuckian]

54. I don't much see it as a laughing matter but that is probably the healthiest reaction to the mess.

Goodness knows I can't afford to blow a circuit.