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

[county worker]

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.

[BeFree]

1. Exactly

The very idea that they would blame SS for their spending on wars, is insane.
Yet they seem to be getting away with doing so.

Are we, the people, going to let them steal our Social Security dollars and use those dollars for more war?

[jtown1123]

2. HELL NO. Cause a HUGE stink. Like we did in 05 against privatization.

[texastoast]

14. And we will again

Better believe it.


;)

[CountAllVotes]

3. tip

There was a surplus in Medicare about 3 years ago. This is the reason the cost per month is stuck at ~$95.00 a month. It was at this price 3 years ago before the shit hit the fan. People on Medicare didn't get hit with an increase because there was a surplus and it was uncalled for at the time.

I know this is true and I read it on Social Security's website at the time! FACT, not fiction!

With the bout of deflation, they cannot raise the cost of Medicare now because they are not increasing Social Security payments (no COLA) and the claim is that there is no inflation!

They made their bed now they must lay in it. They don't like it and they want to figure out a way to screw the person that has paid into all of this their entire lives.

God forbid they might live long enough to actually become able to collect a nickel; many people don't live to be 68 years old!

As for the lock box, I believe it was COLIN POWELL that decided to raid it if I remember right!

The American people have been robbed damn it, robbed!

[laughingliberal]

5. Oh! Good job! Kind of boxed themselves in there. nt

[enid602]

4. Not such a bad thing

Newly-elected tea party house members were largeley elected by the elderly. They need to know what these Republicans really stand for.

[sasha031]

8. what the seniors are seeing with this Cat Report

are the Dems, Obama was the one who created it. This is just causing more confusion for the elderly. Thank god Nancy is making a stand and there are others out there too. Obama who is suppose to be a democrat created this commission. Could the Dems get blamed for this?

[sasha031]

9. what about the seniors who always vote Democrat!

[county worker]

10. It is know as Obama's Deficit Reduction Committee

Whatever the outcome, Obama will be given credit, not repubs.

[StarburstClock]

6. It's a propaganda topic in a corrupt system, just another false premise

that is then backed up by massive networks of propaganda. It's a machine that now eats people alive, grabs them, their homes and their retirements and chews them up and spits them out. It's disaster capitalism, predatory in every aspect. There are only a few things remaining to prey on and "entitlements" in "the homeland" are one of them.

[county worker]

7. posted to the wrong reply

[earth mom]

11. I like how you summed it up simply & quickly.Social Security is NOT broken & the cat food commission

and Obama & Congress know it!

We need to fight the disinfo & lies with quick sound bites!

That's the only way the people are going to really get it!

[me b zola]

12. K&R

[NoNothing]

13. There is no lock box

The situation with Medicare and to a lesser degree Social Security has nothing to do, really, with what happened to the surplus funds. The bottom line is those funds HAD to be invested in something, and Treasury bonds were a good option.

The problem, of course, is that now Treasury has to buy those bonds back with money that comes from *general revenues,* which of course means that it is indirectly competing with funding for everything else.

It's also worth noting that while Treasury is obligated to buy the bonds back, they are NOT ordinary bonds like what China holds, which have to be paid back on a fixed schedule. Instead, they only need to paid back when the SSA cashes them in, so technically while Treasury cannot default on them, they can get away with never paying them if the SSA never asks for the money. *THAT* is why modifications to Social Security are on the table.

[BeFree]

16. You know something?

We've come a long way in a few months. From the place that hardly any of us understood what was happening with SS to the truth of what really is going down.

The Bonds owed others can't be finagled. But the Bonds owed SS can be messed with.

There is no locked box when it comes to SS bonds. Other bonds ARE in a locked box.
That's a huge difference, eh?

[ItNerd4life]

15. Yes it should, people are living longer.

With the rate people are living longer, they will have 20 years of retirements. 40 years of work, 20 years of retirement? Can't pay for itself in that time.