Catfood Commission? What Catfood Commission? Wut?

[DirkGently]

WASHINGTON — The leaders of President Barack Obama's bipartisan deficit commission launched a daring assault on mushrooming federal deficits on Wednesday, proposing reducing annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security, gradually raising the retirement age to 69 and taking aim at popular tax breaks such as the mortgage interest deduction.

The article goes on to say the proposal is not expected to pass as-is, but is a "starting point" for a plan to cut the deficit. You know, that deficit-thingy that didn't matter when Bush was running it into the stratosphere cutting taxes for his friends and hunting for WMDs.

Because, cutting, say, a few trillion in "defense" spending aimed at controlling the entire Middle East and Afghanistan in a series of needless wars, or cutting tax subsidies for oil companies, or even letting tax subsidies for the rich expire as they were could not possibly be a "starting point."

There's that $700 billion in tax cuts for the extra-wealthy to make room for, you know.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40111748/ns/politics-more_politics/

[Hannah Bell]

1. There are corporate tax cuts in those initial recommendations.

[DirkGently]

2. Unsurprising. Tax cuts are apparently the second best way, after cutting SS, to reduce the deficit.

[leftstreet]

3. Don't be so negative! We'll be getting cake!

K&R

[DirkGently]

4. ... tossed down to us from the penthouse of the Blackwater-Exxon building, no doubt.

[JackRiddler]

9. Well, you can't have the pony, so make do.

[nashville_brook]

29. Social Security is the NEW PONY!!

[dgibby]

15. Only if you're into dumpster diving. n/t

[Vinca]

5. They're a day late and a dollar short.

There is no cost of living increase to cut. Time for the commission to have a reality check. What they're proposing will amount to real hardship on the most vulnerable in society. Did they even discuss raising the ceiling on deductions for social security? Do they know that social security is separate from the general budget?

[laughingliberal]

19. After almost 30 years of juggling CPI to hide the real inflation numbers, they propose this?

Are they nostalgic for the days of Dickens?

[Greyhound]

6. Can you say President Romney without puking?

This theatrical production is getting cheesier by the minute...
:eyes:

[nashville_brook]

7. me-owwwwwwwww! Catfood Commission Co-Chairs Just Told Working Americans to “Drop Dead”

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/11/10/trumka-catfood-commission-co-chairs-just-told-working-americans-to-drop-dead/



What does AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka think about the recommendations made by the co-chairs of the Catfood Commission?

"The chairmen of the Deficit Commission just told working Americans to ‘Drop Dead.’ Especially in these tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines for working people, Social Security and Medicare.

Some people are saying this is plan is just a “starting point.” Let me be clear, it is not.

This deficit talk reeks of rank hypocrisy: The very people who want to slash Social Security and Medicare spent this week clamoring for more unpaid Bush tax cuts for millionaires.

What we need to be focusing on now is the jobs deficit. Working families already paid for Wall Street’s party that tanked our economy. If we actually want to address our economic problems, we need to end tax breaks that send American jobs overseas and invest in creating jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and green technologies."

[DirkGently]

8. Could they be any clearer that "cutting the deficit" is just another way for the Haves to screw us?

[FiveGoodMen]

14. No they really couldn't

And by THEY I'm including the person would set up the commission.

[laughingliberal]

20. Well, it would save a bundle if we'd comply. nt

[nashville_brook]

42. "Die Quickly" -- it's not just for healthcare, anymore.

[laughingliberal]

49. ROFL!! nt

[gulliver]

10. Elections have consequences.

The above is exactly what the voters decided, either by voting Republican directly or not voting for Democrats. No one should be surprised at this result. I'm sure the Dems will do what they can with their diminished power, but the voters have acted.

[enlightenment]

11. Excuse me?

This commission was in place before the elections. That worn-out justification won't play anymore.

[DirkGently]

13. Yeah ... can't say anyone can claim "We the People" asked for this. Although Reps may claim that.

[Buns_of_Fire]

51. They do -- constantly.

Note how many times "the will of the American people" is cited as their justification for everything utterly stupid and self-destructive they propose. Or even after the fact, when these shitcakes say that "the will of the American people has been heard, and we have successfully passed this new legislation that requires each citizen to purchase at least two AK-47s and a portable Surface-to-Air missle."

Just pronounce it as "the will of the teabagging idiots who fall for our crap" and it becomes much more descriptive.

[gulliver]

16. There were most likely many options on the table before the election...

...The one most favored by the Republicans moved up a notch or two after the election. The Republicans can and will say that the people voted for reducing the deficit and for leaving all Bush tax cuts in place. Republicans have always been for take-aways from Social Security, up to and including some of them wanting it entirely gone. It's simply denial to say that the election didn't change things.

Did the people actually want to hurt Social Security for current and future beneficiaries? No. Did they vote for that? Yes.

[Catherina]

12. That was certainly creative. n/t

[Starry Messenger]

18. Indeed! n/t

[Marr]

25. Obama created and appointed much of the committee.

This isn't the result of the fucking election.

[nashville_brook]

26. big time fail. this commission was appointed under this administration, so by your logic...

well, maybe not such a fail. they do have consequence, just not the ones we were expecting.

[DirkGently]

30. Possibly the election emboldened the Catfood Commission ... to do exactly what we expected?

But yeah ... it's not like they weren't already going there.

[QC]

35. The commission was designed precisely to make a proposal like this one. n/t

[DirkGently]

38. Seems kind of hard to question that now, doesn't it?

[QC]

39. It was always hard to question. Alan Fucking Simpson???

Only those still clinging to fantasies of intergalactic googledimensional chess didn't see where this was headed.

[DirkGently]

40. 300 million tits can't be wrong. nt

[Capitalocracy]

45. And the consequences of electing a major Dem majority were...

? :shrug:

[JackRiddler]

47. I missed the part where the Republicans promised to cut Social Security before the election.

[gulliver]

50. I missed the part where the apple said it would fall downward...

...if it came loose from the tree.

[JackRiddler]

53. Not relevant to your argument...

which is, if I may summarize (and you can object), that Americans voted for this so now they get what's coming to them. They didn't vote (or not vote) for the catfood commission's program or anything close to it with regard to Social Security.

[TexasObserver]

17. Yes. Because they'll have seniors eating cat food to get by.

[DirkGently]

23. It certainly looks like that's the idea.

[lib2DaBone]

21. Mr. Obama is coming for Social Security.....

People..DON'T LET THEM DO IT....

Do not let them take the money you have paid into your whole working life... No No NO NO!!!!!

[SidDithers]

22. Unrec...nt

Sid

[DirkGently]

24. Thank you. Annoying the right people is important here. 8)

[nashville_brook]

28. just wondering -- are you in favor of these cuts? or are unreccing b/c it reflects badly on Obama?

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BzaDem]

31. Just because someone says this will be a starting point doesn't mean it will be a starting point

not sure why this is so hard to understand.

[Capitalocracy]

37. This is the starting point. It is the starting point decided on...

by the people Obama hired to determine the starting point.

And what this group ends up deciding on will be what Congress votes on. With no possibility to amend or, if I understand correctly, to filibuster.

[lumberjack_jeff]

32. Here's your fucking starting point. CEO Stroganoff.

Let's negotiate from there.

[DirkGently]

34. F'n A. The people who stole from us with the Real Estate bubble, now tell us the solution is

... to steal from Social Security? Nice double-think, guys.

And I'm sorry, but Obama enabled this bullshit in the first place.

I eagerly await his bold statement that this is an unacceptable "starting point" for anything, and that IF we're going to cut the deficit, we'll start with some conservative Pony slaughter, like the War Budget and those $700 billion in tax breaks they want for Christmas.

[nashville_brook]

43. as opposed to the Strokin' Off they're used to.

[suffragette]

33. One day before Veterans Day, they propose slashing

service members and veterans' benefits for those most in need.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/11/military-debt-commission-recommendations-111010w/

A three-year freeze on basic pay and military housing and food allowances is among 58 recommendations contained in the draft report of President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that was released Wednesday.

~~~

“A three-year freeze at 2011 levels for these compensation categories would save the federal government $7.6 billion in compensation and tax expenditures,” as well as another $1.6 billion in future retirement pay, for a total of $9.2 billion in savings in 2015.

~~~

“To reduce higher-than-average usage of health care by families of service members, the option would also raise co-pays for office visits from their current low levels closer to national averages,” the report said.

Another recommendation would increase out-of-pocket costs for veterans in Priority Group 5 who are enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Department health care system. That category is for veterans who do not have service-connected disabilities and whose income is below a VA-defined threshold.

Those patients now pay no fees for inpatient or outpatient medical care. The commission calls for establishing co-pays for medical care provided by VA to those veterans.






So more money, some through maintaining funding and additional through corporate tax reductions, for the defense industry and cruel reductions for the military members, their families and vets.

[DirkGently]

36. Unbelievable. Where's the outrage, Patriotic Tea Baggers?

[suffragette]

41. It's a triple whammy

A cut in pay, an increase in health care costs and a cut to future retirement benefits.

It's outrageous, yet I doubt we'll hear outrage coming from those quarters.

[DirkGently]

44. This is becoming a life-or-death proposition. They'd kill us all for another nickel for the rich.

[suffragette]

46. Exactly

[somone]

48. Killing off old and disabled people, so rich people can keep their Bush tax cuts

and their war profits, so they can buy more elections

[DirkGently]

52. And fricking Simpson smirking over this, and bragging about "harpooning whales?"

As though Public Broadcasting and National Parks are some kind of grotesque government waste, but a couple of trillion-dollar wars to keep the oil pipelines flowing are non-negotiable?

This is open warfare on the elderly, the poor, AND the middle class. These are things that no one in elected office should be willing to even suggest. They are being brought forward to inure the public to a naked assault on the populate by the rich, so that the next, incrementally less insane thing they suggest can discussed as reasonable.

A few of thoughts for President Obama:

1) How in the FUCK did it occur that these people were elected, by YOU, to even comment? They are the avowed enemies of everyone who elected you. You're not going to find any friends under the rocks where Simpson lives.

2) Take a note on where negotiations begin. Take a note at how little a price these people will pay for putting their most extreme possible position out there. They did not take anything "off the table" in order to seem accomodating and reasonable. They have shown where they are aiming to get to by articulating their "best day" scenario FIRST.

3) Where is your condemnation and outrage on behalf of the people? Why are these ghouls not paying a huge political price for their open contempt for the non-hedge-fund-managers in the country? They are chuckling about their suggestion that people who have paid into to SS should pay for MORE TAX CUTS for corporations. They think they're cute. Do you?

Your silence here is defeaning.