Peter Orszag, Obama's former director of OMB, defends proposal to cut social security benefits!

[Better Believe It]

Peter Orszag defends deficit commission
By ANDY BARR
November 15, 2010

Peter Orszag is defending the deficit commission’s recent proposal to cut Social Security benefits from critics on the left.

Orszag, former director of the Office of Management and Budget for President Barack Obama, writes in a New York Times column Monday that the commission's leaders have “bravely” proposed putting Social Security “on sounder financial footing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leading liberals have attacked the planned cuts, but Orszag argues that the left should be looking at the commission as an opportunity to get what it wants from Social Security reform.

“It’s too bad their proposal has been greeted with so much criticism, especially from progressives — who really should look at it as an opportunity to fix Social Security without privatizing it,” Orszag writes.

Orszag concludes by writing that the White House should “recognize the opportunity and respond to it more positively.”

“The White House has been handed a highly progressive reform plan for Social Security that could attract Republican support as well,” he writes.



Peter Orszag is supporting the deficit commission's proposal to cut Social Security benefits.

Read the full article at:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45131.html

You can read Orszag's New York Times article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/opinion/15orszag.html?_r=1

[saracat]

1. Peter is an ass hat. There is no such thing as a "progressive plan, that cuts SS benefits and would

attract GOP support. The terms are all in conflict and he knows it. STFU, Peter. You really need to stay gone, completely.

[Hawkowl]

2. Traitorous filth.

The good news is he is the FORMER director of OMB.

[somone]

3. "See, Mr. President, we have a HUGE crisis here with Social Security":

[Better Believe It]

5. "It's taking in more money than is being spent and is solvent until 2037. We have to cut benefits!

Or something like that.

[glitch]

27. Who do these people think they're kidding?

Rhetorical, they've got plenty of believers.

[QC]

4. Shocking!

Well, no, not really.

[Hardrada]

6. When these corpocrats say this crap, do they think people are

not paying attention? Do they think everyone is going to forget what they say?

[Dinger]

7. I Can't Believe It!

:sarcasm:

[Better Believe It]

8. Better Believe It!

[defendandprotect]

9. More right wing opinion makers ... put in place by Obama... this is just about attacking the weak...

Why not attack Senior citizens -- can they really defend themselves --

They always start with the weakest -- Reagan was removing paralyzed people off

of the disabled rolls!! Thousands killed themselves!!

Now THIS is the model for the Obama Administration?

Could I be more disgusted?

[TacticalPeek]

10. Fuck these fucking motherfuckers.

:grr:

[Starry Messenger]

11. These plans have been afoot for years.

The actors have changed, but the script is being followed. The little people must pay for the gambling losses of the rich. There's no way this isn't coming to pass.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Here is another chapter of the plan, just announced.

Guess which pal of Orzag's has also been nominated for The Federal Reserve?

Next week The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee will have a
business meeting to consider the nomination of Peter A. Diamond, of Massachusetts, to be a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;
(Tue, Nov 16, 2010 2:30 PM)

Ben Bernanke, the current Chairman of the Fed, was once a student of Diamond.

Diamond wrote a book on Social Security with Peter R. Orszag, President Obama's former director of the Office of Management and Budget, titled Saving Social security: a balanced approach (2004,-5, Brookings Institution Press). An earlier paper from Brookings Institution introduced their ideas.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x83927

*************************************************************************************************************************

The Bernank, Orzag, and Diamond, all working in DC against us.

[chill_wind]

13. Yes, despite the "strident left ". And he favors compromise/extending the Bush tax cuts

for two more years.

He said so as far back as September, laying the admin prep work for compromise.

"In the face of the dueling deficits, the best approach is a compromise: extend the tax cuts for two years and then end them altogether. Ideally only the middle-class tax cuts would be continued for now. Getting a deal in Congress, though, may require keeping the high-income tax cuts, too. And that would still be worth it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/opinion/07orszag.html?pagewanted=1&sq=peter%20orszag&st=Search&scp=2


He's also been writing about SS previously. The "strident left" and all that.

Recently on 11/3/10

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/saving-social-security/?hp

[neverforget]

14. He's got his along with all his other rich pals. We're fucked because the

narrative now is all about cuts and raising the retirement age and not about raising the payroll tax cap currently at $107,000. Why's that? The rich are in charge. They get tax cuts while we get austerity.

I for one am fucking sick and tired of this shit. We sacrifice with our jobs and our health care while the rich bitch and moan about the little taxes they pay. Tax the bastards. They have prospered for decades while the middle class has gotten crumbs.

[Safetykitten]

15. Now who is going to come out and say, as usual, these type of statements are just coincidence?

[Safetykitten]

16. dupe

[Mimosa]

17. Robin Hood in reverse

Rich people are always comfortable making the poor and what's left of the middle class 'sacrifice'. *gag*

[glitch]

28. He's a Dooh Nibor alright. nt

[glinda]

18. Either clueless or selfish, I no longer can even guess which.

[Hannah Bell]

19. liar.

[JDPriestly]

20. As Orszag points out, Social Security is not the problem.

Lift the limit on the amount of income subject to the tax and forget the rest.

It is unrealistic to think that people over 65 or 67 are really competitive in the workplace. Just stupid.

Arthritis prevalence increases with age. Among adults over age 65, the prevalence of arthritis is 50 percent.


http://www.arthritis.org/media/newsroom/media-kits/Arthritis_Prevalence.pdf

The thing about arthritis is that it really slows you down. And it can make you irritable.

Older employees suffer too much age discrimination, in part because of their disabilities, to increase the retirement age. Highly paid employees tend to be able to work longer.

Cutting Social Security is a red herring. The big cuts have to be made to the military budgets. Other cuts are just peanuts. They cause enormous pain to the vulnerable people whose income is cut and they do very little if anything to alleviate the deficit. We have to cut military expenditures. That is the key.

[Better Believe It]

23. So no employer will hire you and you won't be able to collect the social security you paid for!

[JDPriestly]

24. That is what will happen.

If the job market changes and employers willingly hire older workers in large numbers, you will see that people work longer. They may take a few months or a year off when they reach retirement age, but they will work as long as it is reasonable.

Of course, many people in their 50s and 60s are caring for invalid parents or for their grandchildren. That is a different issue. It would be better at this time to lower the age for Social Security eligibility than to raise it.

[pa28]

21. Democrats have a special way of moving the goalpost toward the opposition.

:nuke:

[eridani]

22. All those affluent pigfuckers should be carted off in tumbrils n/t

[bigtree]

25. a lot of pols and pundits outside of government are praising the unpublished report

Big deal. What matters is what the President and Congress does with it.

[Better Believe It]

32. It is published. Here's the link. They will "tweak" it to make the proposals even better!

They might soften it a tad bit to make it a little easier to sell.

Than it will go to Congress for a vote and President Obama's signature.

And that will launch stage 1 of the rulers austerity program for working people and the elderly.

Here's the link to the co-chairs draft proposal:

http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/sites/fiscalcommission.gov/files/documents/CoChair_Draft.pdf

[WinkyDink]

26. Spoken like a wealthy man. I mean, seriously: These are SUPREMELY INDIFFERENT MEN.

[ellie]

29. Fuck him

That's the second time in a week I have had to post this in response to something a supposed Democrat said about the catfood commission. I don't know where these people get off saying this stuff about Social Security. It is the most depressing thing I have ever read.



Edited to make clearer.

[Bluenorthwest]

30. This right winger, going after the meager benefits of the elderly

and disabled, tries to slime progressives for defending the weakest among us. I notice that many here on DU are on that bandwagon, making vast slanders against any Democrat who stands for justice in the face of unrelenting attacks by those who see others as less than equal, undeserving, and not quite human.

[indepat]

31. Hey MFer, why not fix the broken tax system by having those with most of the income and wealth

give up their free rides and free-loading? :grr: :mad:

[GeorgeGist]

33. Rob the Poor

[joeybee12]

34. With friends like this, who needs Republcians? nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

35. His pal, Peter Diamond, just placed on Fed. Reserve Board.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9576995


Diamond was also Bernanke's mentor.

Look! On the wall! see the handwriting?

[xchrom]

36. Quelle surprise. Nt