Reaction to Deficit Reduction Plan Runs Hot, Though Obama Urges Open-Mindedness

[DearAbby]

For a few, the latest plan for tackling the nation's huge debt problem is a "dose of fiscal sanity." President Obama, among others, took a cautious approach, saying the bipartisan panel should be able finish its work before anyone begins "shooting down" its draft. But many in official Washington couldn't hold back -- they reacted with horror to a package of painful cuts designed to rein in the federal spending that has created a runaway national debt.

Do away with the treasured income tax write-off for mortgages? No way, they said, it's a slap at the middle class. Cut defense spending? Ever heard of the military-industrial complex?

And raise the early retirement age for Social Security to 64 and the full retirement to 68 (by mid-century) and eventually to 69? "This not a package I could support," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a liberal member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. That's the formal name of the deficit panel appointed by the White House and congressional leaders and tasked with issuing a final report on Dec. 1. Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), another panel member, said parts of the preliminary plan were inspirational, but added that he hated other recommendations "like the devil hates hot water." AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's went further: "The chairmen of the deficit commission just told working Americans to drop dead."

The best thing that Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire could say about the recommendations -- really just ideas at this point -- was that they represented a "starting point." Yet, the 18-member commission has been at its work for more than eight months and is just weeks from its deadline.

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[lib2DaBone]

1. The war in Afghanistan is costing us $436 Million a DAY...24/7/365....

..of course stopping the war is nowhere on their radar... just whip grandma and grandpa a little harder.. make them work until they are 90.

[Philly219]

4. What if grandma can't

work anymore. Here I am retired at 66. If the retirement age had increased, I would have had to go on SS disability. There's no job for someone my age with a disability. As a matter of fact, there's no jobs for healthy, vigorous people my age (who are not already employed).

And - who is going to sell us medical insurance if they cut medicare to the bare bones and doctors refuse to accept it after the cuts?

And - there are so many, many more out there in my shoes and in worse circumstances.

[Vincardog]

2. These 'recommendations' or 'starting points' are exactly the points we have been warning about

ever since commission was chartered by OBAMA TO COME UP WITH THESE EXACT RECOMMENDATIONS

[aquart]

3. We are at WAR. We require a 90% tax on incomes over fifty million.

Whether earned or simply accrued.

60% on 10-50 million.

It is time the freeloading unpatriotic rich stopped enjoying the benefits of freedom without paying for it.

[ananda]

5. Cut wars and defense spending.

Tax the rich.

Problem solved.

[Lasher]

6. Why did they release a draft if they didn't want anybody to react?

This is a trial balloon to see how extreme they can make it and still get the votes. Now on to the hard work of seeing how many souls are for sale. If Congress is expected to pass or reject their recommendation 'as is,' how is it that this committee is not being held to the same standard?

[EFerrari]

7. There is no reason in "opening your mind" to proposals that are obviously WRONG. n/t

[CoffeeCat]

8. I've heard this speech before...

...as our corrupt Congress and the President worked on passing
a healthcare bill that kow towed to the insurance companies and
did NOTHING to reform the system.

We were told to sit down, shut up and compromise. We see what
happens when we do that. Corporations are enriched beyond their
wildest dreams, while American citizens are treated like chattel.

I am sick and tired of being treated like a petulant fool for
calling out our government's insane ties to corporations and
the sick, twisted way our money is being stolen from us to
enrich the elite.

This damn plan hurts hardworking American people. The gas tax
will harm us. Getting rid of the mortgage interest tax break
will hurt us. Cutting SocSec will hurt us.

And I don't see one damn mention of ending these ridiculous wars that only
exist to enrich a corrupt pile of warmongering elites. So essentially,
grandma will be doing with less, while the corrupt cronies at Haliburton
and Lockheed clink their cocktail glasses at the windfall.

I can't believe what I'm seeing in this outrageous proposal!

And NO, I'm not open minded enough to allow the lower, middle and upper-middle classes be destroyed while greasy politicians and their corporate cohorts
make out like bandits as they continue to pervert our democracy with
their crimes against the American people.

ENOUGH!

[ladjf]

9. Obama might describe himself as being open minded. But, it appears

to me that what he calls being "open minded" is, to listen to the opposition, then side with them while abandoning much better ideas on his side of the political spectrum.