"We didn't need a Democratic President to go after Social Security. But we sure got one."

[Better Believe It]

On Social Security, Obama Goes Where No Republican Dared to Tread
By Matthew Rothschild
Editor of The Progressive
November 12, 2010

.... Obama has chosen to go where no Republican President has dared to tread: to prepare the public for the slashing of Social Security.

No one made Obama empanel this commission on deficit reduction in the first place.

No one made him appoint Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles to head it up. Simpson has a long record of hostility toward the social safety net, and Bowles, yet another Clinton retread, is a triangulator from way back.

We didn’t need a Democratic President to flatten the progressive income tax in America.

We didn’t need a Democratic President to go after domestic spending.

And we didn’t need a Democratic President to go after Social Security.

But we sure got one.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.progressive.org/wx111210.html

[blindpig]

1. Well, that depends upon who 'we' is...

if 'we' means the finance sector then the answer is, yup.

[SidDithers]

2. Unrec...nt

Sid

[displacedvermoter]

11. There you go again!

[Dr.Phool]

101. You can always find the good ones with his seal of approval.

[Gold Metal Flake]

49. Rec...nt

[pnorman]

50. UN-RECOMMEND here too!

Here's a recent posting of mine on DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4612741&mesg_id=4613097

I notice that there was ZERO response from the usual gang of Obama-bashers.

[The Uncola]

59. Rec.

I'm the UnSid.

[inna]

80. there you are again, thanks a lot for reminding to rec this very deserving thread.

[MNBrewer]

96. Rec for your Unrec

[emilyg]

100. Of course you do - I'll rec.

[struggle4progress]

110. Yep: No real analysis; no real info; no real action suggestion -- it's just whining crap

[DJ13]

3. Rec

Im not Sid.

[donco6]

5. Rec - me neither.

[laughingliberal]

44. Rec-me neither nt

[Kolesar]

4. -1 ... Does not deserve a click

[regnaD kciN]

8. Agreed...

Besides, it's an attempt at fortune-telling from a magazine that would undoubtedly consider Dennis Kucinich or Alan Grayson to be conservative traitors to the cause.

[Better Believe It]

17. Why are you commenting on a magazine, The Progressive, that you never read?

Obviously you don't know what you're talking about when you describe The Progressive as "a magazine that would undoubtedly consider Dennis Kucinich or Alan Grayson to be conservative traitors"

The Progressive has always run highly favorable articles on Grayson, Kucinich, Feingold and others who are hardly "conservative traitors".

And if you read and are familiar with The Progressive, why did you make that false claim?

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

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

[Bluebear]

53. "Undoubtedly" you know nothing about The Progressive. nt

[jonnyblitz]

58. they embarrass themselves. nt

[jonnyblitz]

57. WRONG.nt

[JDPriestly]

74. 192 nations in the UN and we have over 740 based overseas.

That's per Chalmers Johnson in Dismantling the Empire.

The economic "reform" did nothing to protect our savings from the financial predators on Wall Street. American businesses continue to outsource jobs and import the products we use in our everyday lives.

YET OBAMA'S FIRST PRIORITY IN BALANCING THE BUDGET IS TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY.

Obama is a Reagan in a Democratic cloak. He is not a good Democrat.

If you don't trust me on this, watch the film Inside Job. In that film, you see Obama for what he really is -- a tool of Wall Street.

I know this is hard for people to face, but the fact is we have many good Democrats, some serving in Congress. Obama is not a good Democrat.

If you can show me facts that disprove what I have said in this post, I thank you in advance.

[Skittles]

122. YOU'VE CONVINCED ME!!

:rofl:

you folk are acting like fucking clowns

[WhiteTara]

6. He wants the Big Dog award

for being the best republican president.

[leftstreet]

7. "where no Republican President has dared to tread"

K&R

[doc03]

9. Well I heard this several years ago that it would have to

be a Democrat to fix SS. I don't agree it is broken in the first place. I do agree if a Republican tried to do this probably no Democrats would support it and it wouldn't get done. Just like it took a Democrat to reform Welfare and to pass NAFTA and to this day the Republicans remind us that Clinton passed NAFTA like they have nothing to do with it..

[abelenkpe]

102. And in years ahead people will say

Citizen's United happened under Obama's administration as if it had nothing to do with the slant of the supreme court. Of course it's not like the dem controlled congress did anything to aggressively counter Citizen's United either and time is slipping away.

But you're right there is no reason to touch or even discuss social security. I think that's why the deficit commissions recommendations are so infuriating.

[DrDan]

10. K&R

[Autumn]

12. K/R I'm not

Sid either.:rofl: I think the republicans got one to go along with what they wanted.

[Scurrilous]

13. Unrecc. n/t

[stray cat]

14. Bush and the republicans -have you forgotten them so soon?

if it wasn't for the democrats your SS would have been in the stock markets in 2008

[Better Believe It]

27. It is now 2010. Will Democratic politicians fight just as hard today against Social Security cuts?

And stop them?

What do you think?

[stray cat]

15. Such short memories!

[Better Believe It]

28. We all remember. That's an old battle we won. Now we have a new fight to defend social security

So what's your point?

[Hydra]

46. No

We cheered when we somehow stopped Bush the first time.

Now we have a bigger problem- it's coming from "our" party.

[David__77]

16. He owns the commission and must eliminate it.

If he abides these monstrosities, the price to pay will be gigantic. Every word in this article is true. Those who are upset about it are deluded or supportive of a right-wing austerity agenda. It's not time to plug one's fingers in one's ears and say "la la la la la": it's time it fight the agenda this commission embodies and completely reject this austerity program.

[stillwaiting]

25. He absolutely owns every bit of it. It's unforgivable for me if cuts come to pass.

He created it after the Senate voted it down.

It's Obama's.

[LWolf]

18. "Barack Obama keeps pushing a Republican agenda."

Rothschild's right. And those who support him, his administration, and their republican agenda are complicit in the nation's mad stampede to the right.

[ClarkUSA]

19. lol! Prove it. Rhetoric does not "a fact" make. Funny how not a single GOP lawmaker agrees.

[StreetKnowledge]

21. Would any Democrat before this one even allow a commission to propose chainsawing SS?

Not a chance in hell. Even Clinton would have never allowed it.

The progressive is right. The "deficit commission" arrogantly expects US to pay for THEIR fuckups. THEY blew our money on unsafe securities. THEY are the ones who have been getting one bailout and tax cut after another for a generation, and WE pay for that with crappy schools, a collapsing Social Safety net, ridiculously expensive healthcare and our young people dying so some assholes at Haliburton and some generals with far-too-big egos can have their wars for oil. WE pay so THEY get what THEY want.

And if this President dares to think about this, run him out of town on a rail. America needs a more just society, not more of the bullshit we've been force-fed for decades.

[ClarkUSA]

26. That's hyperbole. The commission also proposed cutting defense spending.

The commission is made up of 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans and their allies. The full report isn't even out yet. There's no need to hyperventilate, especially since none of the controversial bits of the report have any likelihood of passing Congressional muster.

President Obama has already shown he's to the left of Clinton, which has earned him the emnity of Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce. Bubba invented a new form of torture called extraordinary rendition and rubber-stamped GOP legislation re: welfare "reform" as well as deregulated Wall Street and the media, and pushed for and passed CAFTA and NAFTA. No doubt Hillary "Lobbyists Are People Too" Clinton would have furthered the DLC agenda her hubby championed.

Why do you think Republicans are calling on President Obama to emulate former DLC founder and chairman Bill "The Era of Big Government Is Over" Clinton now?

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

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

[ClarkUSA]

41. Yes, the OP is "hogwash" as is any fact-free Obama-bashing op-ed rhetoric...

... which is so beloved by a certain whiny subset of DUers.

[RC]

90. Which Clinton?

"President Obama has already shown he's to the left of Clinton..." Maybe Hilary. Bill was a southern Democrat and he was more progressive than Obama.
I'm not really seeing much 'Left' in Obama policies. He also seems to be a slow learner with his 'Across the aisle' reaching.

[LWolf]

31. Simply read the article, to begin with.

That's the first statement in the article, and it's followed by numerous examples.

And, of course, GOP lawmakers don't have to agree to make something true.

[ClarkUSA]

32. I did. The "article" is another bullshit Outrage op-ed by a hack who openly admires Palin's methods.

Republicans want Pres. Obama to emulate Clinton now. That should tell you something.

[StreetKnowledge]

37. Yep, and none of us want him to do that.

But we don't want him being a lame-duck coward, either. We need him to get his back up and smack the GOP in the head.

[LWolf]

45. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

:rofl:

[Cherchez la Femme]

67. So,

based on the comments above, a far, far-left publication "openly admires Palin's methods"

Riiiigggghhhttttt........... :eyes:

[The Uncola]

60. "Rhetoric does not "a fact" make,"!!!!

The only thing you've said that's true. Obama the Weak has proved that time after time. He's all big talk and nothing else.

[flyarm]

72. +1 MILLION

[ClarkUSA]

20. Zero facts but more bullshit rhetoric from yet another shit-stirring Obama bashing media whore.

Is this the Outrage of the Week?

[grahamhgreen]

36. Your comment is fact filled!

[democracy1st]

55. Quit cursing and kissing the butt of this Goldman Sachs admin

[Cali_Democrat]

22. .

.

[Tx4obama]

23. UNrec.

Obama is out of the country.
Obama has not done anything to SS.
The commission is only giving 'recommendations'.
Obama will not accept any recommendations that hurt SS.
Everyone needs to stop bashing Obama about the things the media is spinning.

[Better Believe It]

24. Deficit Commisssion's Executive Director is on leave as CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council

Bruce Reed, the panel's executive director is on leave as president and CEO of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.

Bruce Reed is the CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). He is credited with coining the welfare reform catchphrase, "end welfare as we know it."

He was founding editor of the DLC magazine, The New Democrat and served as policy director of the DLC from 1990 to 1991 under DLC Chairman and Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton. In 1992, he was deputy campaign manager for policy of the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. During the Clinton presidency, Reed served as chief domestic policy advisor and director of the Domestic Policy Council, and helped to write the 1996 welfare reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.

In the spring of 2010, Reed took a leave of absence from the DLC to become Executive Director of President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Reed

[ElsewheresDaughter]

75. we're screwed

[OregonBlue]

29. What a bunch of hogwash. Obama has not done anything to SS. This article would be more

appropriate at FDL than DU.

[Better Believe It]

30. President Obama "Everything is on the table"

I encourage you to read what President Obama has actually said about the deficit commission.

[ClarkUSA]

33. lol! Is that all you've got? What is the full quote and include the link.

[Better Believe It]

35. And when Obama does sign legislation to cut Social Security, Medicare, etc., will you defend it by

proclaiming "it would have been even worse with a Republican President and Senate"?

Now that should be a winning message in the 2012 elections!

"Vote for the least worst" or "it could have been worse", "vote for changes that aren't as bad" or perhaps "what do you want, a poney?"

Ya. Those are real catchy campaign slogans.

Should result in a real political landslide .... for Democrats?

[OregonBlue]

38. Aren't you getting just a tinsy winsy bit ahead of yourself? So far I have not seen Obama propose

cutting SS or Medicare but you can always hope.

[Better Believe It]

39. We can hope he doesn't go along with cuts that will be proposed, but,

I think it will take a lot more than hope to stop them.

Oh .... did you just suggest that I hope Obama supports such cuts with your comment "you can always hope"?

Well, is that what you suggested or not?

[eridani]

51. He appointed a commission himself that he knew would do that

It is totally stacked with lifelong opponents of Social Security and Medicare, even the Democrats. Only two Dems are unequivocally on our side--Becerra ahd Schakawsky.

[Bluebear]

54. FDL! Oh noes!!!!!

[inna]

107. FDL is one of the best progressive sites around, FYI.

But of course you wouldn't know it if it bit you.

[Bluebear]

120. Thank you.

[Ikonoklast]

40. Unrec.

Opinion piece, no facts.

[Better Believe It]

42. Governor Ed Rendell not sure deficit commission co-chairs proposed big enough Social Security cuts!

Today Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Edward Rendell was interviewed on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Mathews".

Here's what he said about the deficit commission chairs proposed cuts.

"Everyone's gotta suffer, entitlements have to suffer. To tell you the truth Chris, and I love Erskine Bowles and I love Alan Simpson, I'm not sure they did enough on social security (cuts) to be honest."

[Kall]

88. Consider the source...

Ed Rendell is the guy who tried to sell the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Middle East to cover his budget shortfall. With friends like these...

[SoCalDem]

43. "Change" often happens that way..

Dems are known for their "flexibility" and willingness to compromise.

Republicans are known for the exact opposite, so it's not surprising that when changes come to programs & policies that benefit the "little guy", it's often done at the hand of a democratic president who ends up using them as bargaining tools to get other things done..

Nafta...Clinton
welfare "reform"...Clinton
DADT.....Clinton

What exactly did Bush 1 "compromise" on?
Bush 2?
Reagan?

When we have a democratic president, we still end up losing, because the recalcitrant republicans REFUSE to cooperate with anyrhing that's positive for "the people".

We usually have to bargain away things that benefit us, to get anything done...

The last republican president who did anything positive for us all..was ...Nixon.
He was a scoundrel/law-breaker/profane,racist guy, but he did usher in EPA and some other pretty decent things that have managed to stay with us.

The really sad thing is that after so many decades of giving back and whittling away of our core "don't-even-go-there's", we are running out of things to bargain with..

[Better Believe It]

47. And now it appears that things helping us are being given away in order to not lose

even more things that are helping us!

Achieving losses and setbacks in social programs incrementally, one step at a time.

Now is that not collective begging or what!

[Citizen Worker]

104. And why did Nixon and congress act? Because there were people in the streets. Tens of thousands

demanding change and Nixon and congress did just enough to take us off the streets. This is how change happens here. Not by writing letters, making phone calls but by getting in the streets and turning up the heat.

[Greyhound]

52. Look at all Clinton "achieved" that his republik predecessors failed to.

This is the current theatrical playbook.

[nashville_brook]

56. ain't that the truth! BO will achieve what the BJ took off the table.

[chill_wind]

61. Straight to the point:

"Since day one, he’s been exaggerating the problem of the debt and the deficit. As the terrific economist James Galbraith noted more than a year ago, “So long as the economy is placed on a path to recovery, even a massive increase in public debt poses no risk.”

And today, with massive unemployment and undercapacity, focusing on reducing the debt is precisely the wrong strategy, as Dean Baker at the Center for Economic Policy Research notes."

[ibegurpard]

62. k&r

[NorthCarolina]

63. K&R. The truth certainly has the power to get the rats scurrying. Fun to watch. nt

[Name removed]

64. Deleted message

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

[somone]

65. It's very simple: Pretty soon Soc Sec recipients won't have gas money to go to the polls

to oppose the unlimited election spending by corporations which own and operate the White House

[TheKentuckian]

66. Recced for those who can't handle the truth

[WillyT]

68. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Ichingcarpenter]

69. Hillary would not have done any better

Even her Husband just Said Bush wrote a great book
and she was Newts buddy when a Senator.

That's why I chose Obama, for the win.
Never expected the powers that be to let go


Did you?

[Liberty Belle]

70. I agree, Obama is absolutely WRONG to go after Social Security instead of the rich

and the corporate moguls who would starve grandma rather than pay their fair share. As someone with medical issues nearing retirement age myself this makes me disgusted.

[flyarm]

71. No one made him appoint ;

No one made him appoint Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles to head it up.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

73. no one made him call for the commission....then why did he?

[somone]

76. He was bored - or maybe he got a call from corporate headquarters?

[dgibby]

94. Congress wouldn't do it,

so this is an end run around them.

[asjr]

77. Mr Rothschild has done what he set out

to accomplish-- put words in Pres. Obama's mouth and set him up for something Mr. R knows nothing about.

[Phlem]

78. Love watching

the cheerleaders and apologists heads explode.

So fucking high on hopium they can't see the gun pointed at their heads.

-p

[Dinger]

98. + 1

[sarcasmo]

79. If he signs any type of Social Security reduction he is one term and done, IMHO.

[jannyk]

81. rec! nt.

[NeonDog]

82. Camouflaged Right Wing Plant

This post reads like a covert operation from the right. This sort of overt speculation is intended to be devisive and maintains the anti Obama atmosphere of negative vibe. Keep the negative-chatter in the forefront, do not let any positive Obama message resonate or gain a foot-hold.

[Bluebear]

106. LOL

[Skittles]

123. LOL and yet, it's really not funny

:o

[Better Believe It]

108. Ya. You've got to watch out for those sneaky right-wing Progressive magazine writers!

:)

[NeonDog]

111. You Lie.

As posted: "We didn’t need a Democratic President to flatten the progressive income tax in America.
We didn’t need a Democratic President to go after domestic spending.
And we didn’t need a Democratic President to go after Social Security.
But we sure got one!"

You lie.

[NeonDog]

112. Progressives and Nader gave us 8 years of Bush.

Thanks but no thanks for the insight.

[Better Believe It]

113. Oh .... did they all vote for Bush? Thanks for the info.

And here I thought the Supreme Court stole the election and appointed Bush president in 2008.

But thanks for the correction.

Is there any other history you'd like to rewrite?

[NeonDog]

114. Correction: Nader saved us from Corvairs and Al Gore

No re-write needed...no Nader...no Supreme rip-off...Gore was an opportunity to at the least make a subtle correction in our countries direction versus the perverse lurch to the right we received with Bush.

History? While Nader was saving the world from the Corvair tipping points I was slodging (and slogging) it out in SE Asia. I have learned all to well that uber-progressives would rather be in someone's face screaming about their utopian rightousness than facing the reality of the American electorate.

[Better Believe It]

115. And Joseph Leiberman saved us from Al Gore when he sabotaged the Florida recount in 2000

Did you forget that messy little fact or are you just unfamiliar with it?

Plus it doesn't fit neatly into your misleading narrative.

Watch the movie "Recount".

[NeonDog]

118. Fact:: No Nader-No Gore Vote Siphon-Nooo Bush..Game/Set/Match!

Nader felt it his duty to pull votes from Democrats and Al Gore....In addition Obama is no way, shape, or form, a DLC Democrat, though he needs their support. As long as progressives disregard an electorate that buys into a RepubliCON bullshit sales pitch of a smaller less intrusive government the more "right" tilting our nation goes....

[flyarm]

116. nooo the Supreme Court did.

[Marr]

117. Yeah! Just like the stories about how Obama had dropped the public option from HCR

in a backroom meeting with industry fatcats. Criticizing the guy is just unfair! You have to wait for him to actually pass his corporate bullshit before you can complain about it!

[NeonDog]

119. Or you can just get Hillary Care straight from a Democratic Congress.

Yeah..critize him..tell voters to sit on the ass.....drip drip drip....as previously stated you certainly know how to keep RepubliCON's in power...but your negotiating skills are fucking NILL...

[davidwparker]

83. Sure is good to see a lot of us wakening up to this. n/t

[GinaMaria]

84. How many here are really surprised

by what the cat food commission has said or the timing of saying it? So many on DU were shouted down when they said the cat food commission would make exactly this recommendation and right after the mid term elections and where are those who demanded we wait and see? Who insisted we had no proof? Who denounced skeptics and doubters and those who called this the cat food commission, as Obama haters? Seems they were wrong, as many of you rightfully said at the time!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

86. what you said.

When we predicted they would do just that, we were attacked.
Now that the commission leaked (ahem) the SS cuts, the White House predictably attacks us. How dare we discuss it before all the recommendations are in? How dare we?

Talk about an ever more disappointing presidency.

[Ramulux]

121. I remember them very clearly

They seem to have suddenly gone quiet now.

[asdjrocky]

85. There is no "we".

There is them and there is us. The sooner all of us figure that out, the better off we'll all be.

[wildbilln864]

87. k&r! nt

[ProudDad]

89. Why on Earth Would Americans Vote the Old Bush-Cheney Agenda Back into Power?

Europeans Are Perplexed

"Obama’s failure at the Copenhagen summit on climate change to deliver a serious commitment to that agenda, and instead to strike a deal with the Chinese to do next to nothing, was a real wakeup call to the Europeans. It was as if they suddenly “got” it, that it wasn’t George W. Bush who was the problem, but something more profound about America’s broken political system that prevents any leader, even one as talented as Obama, from delivering. That political system is marinated in money, is paralyzed by a “filibuster-gone-wild” Senate that has allowed a minority of Senators to obstruct all legislation, and is hamstrung by a sclerotic, winner-take-all, two-party electoral system that has left voters poorly represented and deeply frustrated."

Keep in mind that these were the conservatives of Europe venting at this conference, who currently are in control of the European Parliament, the European Commission, as well as the governments in Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and elsewhere. The European right is nowhere near as conservative as the Tea Partiers or GOP Congress members. Indeed, in most ways the European right is to the left of the Democratic Party, which is fairly startling to contemplate. If European conservatives were allowed to vote in America’s November 2 election, there is no doubt how they would have voted."

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/148841

[ProudDad]

91. National Propaganda Radio raises the bullshit quotient..

"This week, the co-chairs of President Barack Obama's deficit commission released a blueprint of their plan to reduce the nation's soaring deficit. Host Scott Simon talks with Bruce Reed, the executive director of Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform."

This POS is also the CEO of the DemocraticLeadershipCouncil!!!!!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131292527

Their idea of "Defense cuts":

Cut out the Cold War bullshit --- uh, nope...
Cut out the wars --- uh, nope...

They're proposing the GM/Airline "solution" -- cut Health Care and Pension Benefits for veterans!


Oh, and raise taxes on the lower and middle classes while lowering them for the rich...

Typical DLC/republican bullshit!

[Edweird]

92. We have a Dem president that is unusually fond of RW policy.

[jwirr]

93. K&R

[Riley18]

95. We didn't need a Democratic president to dismantle free,

public education either, but we sure did get one.

[abelenkpe]

103. + 1000 nt

[Dinger]

97. Kick & Rec# 116

[emilyg]

99. K/R -

[BlueJac]

105. K&R

:thumbsup:

[indimuse]

109. KNR! n/t