Social Security Cuts: Early retirement age upped to 64 and half of retirees will see benefits cut!

[Better Believe It]

These astounding proposals was pretty much buried in most news coverage. BBI

Deficit panel leaders propose curbs on Social Security, major cuts in spending, tax breaks
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
November 11, 2010

To meet that goal, Bowles and Simpson are proposing to slay a herd of sacred cows, including the tax deduction for mortgage interest claimed by many homeowners, the tax-free treatment of employer-provided health insurance and the practice of letting retirees claim Social Security benefits starting at age 62. The blueprint would raise the early retirement age to 64 and the standard retirement age to 69 for today's toddlers.

Step five is an overhaul of Social Security, though Bowles and Simpson took pains to make clear that any savings would be dedicated to the solvency of the program - not to reducing deficits in the government's general fund. The retirement age would go up, while benefits for the wealthiest 50 percent of retirees would go down from currently projected levels.

Obama, speaking Thursday at a news conference in Seoul where he is attending the G-20 conference, cautioned that "before anybody starts shooting down proposals, I think we need to listen, we need to gather up all the facts."

"If people are, in fact, concerned about spending, debt, deficits and the future of our country, then they're going to need to be armed with the information about the kinds of choices that are going to be involved, and we can't just engage in political rhetoric," the president said.

"I set up this commission precisely because I'm prepared to make some tough decisions," Obama said, adding that "I'm going to need Congress to work with me."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/10/AR2010111004029.html

If you make over $30,000 a year you're probably in the top "wealthy" fifty percent who will see a social security benefit cut under the plan.

The overall median income for 155 million persons who worked in 2005 was $28,567 and the median income hasn't gone up much, and perhaps has even declined, since 2005. BBI

[MineralMan]

1. It is a draft. It is not the report from the Commission.

Contact those on the Commission with your comments.

[texastoast]

8. +1

Lots of "done deal" antics on this board the last couple of days. Staying away (generally;-)).

[Autumn]

31. It is a discussion board. I believe members are allowed to

post their comments on whatever is going on in the news cycle. Draft or not, it's still worth a discussion. Fuck the Commission, I gave Obama, my Senator and my Congressman my comments. They know where I stand. Now I will find out where they stand.

[MineralMan]

39. I didn't say otherwise. I clarified the issue. The OP's title

was misleading, so I clarified it. By entering the discussion, I am part of the discussion. There is still time for you to have an input into whether this becomes the Commission's proposal or not. It is still a draft. That's why I posted. Please take a little time to communicate with those who will be making the decision. They do not read DU.

[Autumn]

44. I'm not bothering myself with the cat food commissioners,

the decisions rests on Obama and his ink pen. That, I have already done.

[earth mom]

33. The "plan" is to screw over the people, STEAL their Social Security & let em eat cat food.

"Draft", what a load. :eyes:

[MineralMan]

40. I see. Well, thanks for replying to my post.

It is, however, a draft. That is fact. What you posted is speculation, not fact. Nothing wrong with speculating, but it is not fact.

[HubertHeaver]

36. Its more of a "trial balloon" to see how much flak it generates.

Contact your congress-critters. If yours is one of the new tea party babies, hit 'em before they get into office. They need to learn this job is no cakewalk.

[MineralMan]

42. Yes, indeed. That's part of why it was released. It's very important

to provide input into this. I recommend contacting the commissioners right away. Failing that, your Congress members. We must not let this go unquestioned, and DU is not how we reach individual legislators. We have to do that ourselves. My letters to the commission members were mailed this morning.

[blindpig]

45. Trial balloon or setting the parameters of debate?

The latter, I am sure, your 'input' is a waste of paper, yours, mine and the rest of us peons. The workings of government are the needs of the ruling class, to believe anything else is delusional.

[sasha031]

2. last night Keith showed video of Obama's promise to protect SS

I'm really sorry to say, I don't trust what my president says anymore, and it makes me sick to admit and think about it.

[jtown1123]

3. Do you know where I could find that video?

[sasha031]

28. it wasn't last night, sorry

but I did see video footage of Obama talking about raising payroll see to help with SS. Just looked on youtube, can't find it.
I rememberer him talking about how unfair it was that people making over 100,000 didn't have to pay into Fica

[laughingliberal]

19. I didn't see it but I know during the campaign he would only commit to opposing privatization.

I did not take that as reason for optimism.

[jtown1123]

27. Yes, we have no reason to be overly optimistic.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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

[MineralMan]

5. Of course it hasn't. It hasn't even been adopted by the

Commission itself. The title of the OP is misleading in making it look like a done deal.

There is so much misinformation being promulgated about this that it's impossible to even keep up with. This causes a real problem, since people will think there is no way to stop this and will not communicate with the members of the Commission to tell them what they think of this draft proposal.

Facts are what we need, not speculation, and this OP is nothing but speculation and misrepresentation of where things are.

I just don't know how to battle against this kind of thing and get people responding to the right people about it. I've posted more than once that people need to be contacting the Commission members in an urgent way. This is nothing but a draft proposal. 14 out of 18 Commission members must approve anything that comes out of the Commission for action by the Congress. We desperately need to communicate with those commissioners and do so in an accurate way. If we do not, then this could possibly end up as the proposal.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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

[jtown1123]

10. The point is, this could very well end up in Obama's budget.

He is going to have to convince the Republicans to let him raise the debt ceiling and of course, they will refuse to pass that without spending cuts somewhere. What do you think will be first on the chopping block? You got it, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, VA Health Benefits, etc. Why did Obama put togther this commission in the first place?

[Aramchek]

12. you don't know what you're talking about.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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

[jtown1123]

23. Really? Is that you President Obama? I have no idea why you are so loathe

to believe that these proposals won't still pop up during the Spring budget. These proposals to dismantle Social Security have ALWAYS been around but now are getting the most attention. This is the first time they have ever been proposed in bulk and in a nice tidy package. Because this recession is a drag on our economy, Obama will have no choice but to get Congress to increase the debt ceiling. As we saw with the emergency relief package for the states, many social programs like food stamps were pared down to pay for that spending.
I suggest you stop shooting down every criticism of Obama and wake up to the fact that our President is no ally to Social Security. Sad, but true. If he were, he would have come out, like Pelosi did, thank god, and say this proposal is draconian and a deliberate transfer of wealth from the middle class to upper...did you see any tax increases for the wealthy in this proposal? Financial transaction tax? I think not.

Great Krugman commentary on this: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/opinion/12krugman.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[Better Believe It]

15. "Why did Obama put together this commission in the first place?" mmmmm ........ because of this?

[laughingliberal]

20. That nails it! nt

[jtown1123]

25. Brilliant!

[texastoast]

18. You don't know any of this

Lots of miles ahead.

Need warriors on the phones with their reps, writing letters to the editor, and raising consciousness. All this "sky is falling" handwringing is divisive and ineffective.

[jtown1123]

26. I don't think we are saying "the sky is falling" but we obviously

need to be aware of this threat. Which is especially concerning with a Dem in the White House who has not come out strongly to defend these programs.

[Better Believe It]

6. "The Great Compromiser" and some Senate Democrats may agree to increase the early retirement age

to "only" 63 and cutting benefits for "only" forty percent of social security recipients.

Now that's clever negotiations, chess playing big time!

Let's make a deal!

[originalpckelly]

9. My mother was injured on the job and became disabled...

her only hope was to collect early retirement, because she was turned down for disability. It's like only $700 something for her, but it's something. It's pretty fucked up that she would have had to wait another two years just to collect.

[jtown1123]

11. agreed. So sorry to hear about your mother. At least we have these programs!

No doubt we will have to fight tooth and nail to hold onto the meager benefits we receive.

[donco6]

13. And who's around to advocate for the "toddlers" who will inheret this hot mess?

chirp . . . chirp . . . chirp

[SidDithers]

16. Unrec...nt

Sid

[Bluenorthwest]

47. Rec'd and Kicked because we need to exert pressues on

this vicious commmision and make sure the weak executive branch does not sell us out yet again. Rec'd for the American People.

[laughingliberal]

17. K & R nt

[JPZenger]

21. Cut mortgage deduction on expensive mortgages

The commission is discussing one very valuable change that Dems should strong support - eliminating the Federal income tax deduction for mortgages of more than $500,000. My taxes should not be going to subsidize someone's mansion or penthouse suite.

[SoCalDem]

35. It should also be limited to ONE home..the one you LIVE in

and not for "investors" who buy from distressed home-sellers and then use the rent to cover their full investment, so they can scavenge some more..

[county worker]

22. Social Security and Medicare should not even be a part of the discussion!

I don't understand this. In 2000 there was a surplus. Gore called for putting social security
money in a "lox box." That wasn't done. The social security money was spent as if it was part of the budget not a self funded program outside the budget. The money was borrowed just as if it was borrowed from China. The money is owed to the social security trust fund. To cut social security is to say that the government will not honor it's debt to the trust fund. Will they also tell holders of other bonds that the government will not honor that debt to in order to cut the deficit?


Someone needs to take the government to court to force them to honor the debt to social security.

There is no reason social security should be in this discussion at all and I am sure Obama knows that!

For him to include cuts to social security is for him to tell us to go fuck yourself the government does not think you are as important as China as far as being repaid is concerned.

The same is true for medicare. We all pay into medicare.

[Better Believe It]

30. It's not just "Chinese" bond holders. The vast majority of bond holders are wealthy Americans

and institutional investors. Plus several trillion in bonds owned by Europeans, Latin Americans and others in the upper class.

This should not be a zero in on and slam the Chinese type of zenophobia pushed by some less than progressive and well intentioned forces in America.

Perhaps someone can find the exact breakdown in treasury security ownnership. China of course does have a lot. They depend upon, need and want the U.S. economy to stay afloat, that's a major reason they've bought bonds plus the fact the the U.S. has never defaulted on bonds, even during the Great Depression.

If the U.S. economy suffered a full scale economic/financial collapse that would bring down China, Europe and most of the world.

[indepat]

24. These most extreme measures might as well have come from BHO himself for it is solely his commission

and the outlandish proposals are from those he personally appointed, therefore it must be assumed these outlandish proposals are his wishes or he should repudiate them in the near-term for there is no alternative: surely he is not planning to run in 2012 if these are his wishes for a crushing defeat would be all but a forgone conclusion. :shrug:

[laughingliberal]

37. Yep. The CFC is entirely the creation of the President. He made it. He chose the chairmen.

What comes out of there is 100% on him.

[Bluenorthwest]

29. Too bad we don't have a fierce advocate with a bully pulpit

put in place by millions of votes to counter this sort of assault on the average American.

[glitch]

38. It's a damn shame. nt

[Better Believe It]

32. Obama says commission members need room and space to round up 14 votes for cut recommendations

Obama said he will await the commission's Dec. 1 formal report before commenting in detail. Members "are trying to round up 14 votes for certain aspects of the recommendations, and I want to make sure that they've got the room and the space to do so," he said.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/11/obama-to-congress-stop-shooting-down-deficit-proposals/1

[StarburstClock]

34. Why work with criminal banks and a corrupt Congress?

The president should NOT work with them if he ever expects to get anything done that benefits the American people.

[pansypoo53219]

41. where's means testing?

raising the limit. this is republikkklan's wet dreams.

[Better Believe It]

43. Cutting SS benefits for all those who make over the national median wage of around $30,000 a year

is a form of means testing.

[Better Believe It]

46. For Weekend DU'ers