Erskine Bowles to bankers: "We're going to mess with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security."

[Better Believe It]

Op-Ed
Touching the 'third rail'
The co-chairs of President Obama's deficit commission have taken aim at Social Security. But their proposals are unfair and unwise.
By Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson
November 22, 2010

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of President Obama's deficit commission, have signaled for months that they are not friends of Social Security. In August, Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, wrote that Social Security is "a milk cow with 310 million tits." Last February, Bowles, who made his fortune on Wall Street and served as a top aide in the Clinton White House, boasted in a speech to bankers, "We're going to mess with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security."

In releasing their plan, the co-chairs went out of their way to make clear that they were proposing changes to Social Security "for its own sake, not for deficit reduction." This was an acknowledgement that Social Security does not and cannot contribute to the deficit, because it has no borrowing authority and by law cannot pay benefits unless it has sufficient income and reserves to cover their cost. But Simpson and Bowles just couldn't keep their hands off the program.

One thing they propose is increasing Social Security's retirement age to 69. Every year that Social Security's retirement age is increased amounts to a 6% to 7% across-the-board benefit cut for recipients. The retirement age is already being raised to age 67 for those turning 62 in 2022. Increasing the age to 69 would cut benefits by one-quarter from a decade ago, when the retirement age was 65.

The co-chairs also want to increase the early retirement age to 64. Currently, the majority of Americans start claiming benefits at age 62, despite the fact that this means they receive reduced benefits. As a new General Accountability Office report concluded, the people who take early retirement often do so because they work in jobs that are too physically demanding to continue or because they have health problems or can no longer find work. Raising the early retirement age will shut out workers who are disproportionately low income and minority, and it will do it when they are most vulnerable, potentially forcing them to seek disability benefits or welfare.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/22/opinion/la-oe-altman-social-security-20101122

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the commission on U.S. deficit reduction, said entitlement programs such as Social Security will turn the nation into a “second- rate power” if their costs aren’t reduced.

“We’re going to mess with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security because if you take those off the table, you can’t get there,” Bowles said today in a speech to North Carolina bankers in Greensboro. “If we don’t make those choices, America is going to be a second-rate power and I don’t mean in 50 years. I mean in my lifetime.”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-09/bowles-says-entitlements-may-turn-u-s-into-second-rate-power-.html

[MichiganVote]

1. To "mess with" Social Security is to certify that the US already is second rate.

[molly77]

95. We're going to mess with Erskine Bowels

[molly77]

96. I could add to that, but won't.You are welcome.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. No Mister Bowels

Social Security is not the problem. It's dumbassed politicians who use the Social Security taxes to make the deficit look smaller than what it really is.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. And remind me again.

Who appointed Mr. Bowels to this commission?





TG

[leftstreet]

5. A Republican administration could never get away with this

:grr:

[readmoreoften]

10. +1

[Jakes Progress]

50. This is getting to be a common, but true, refrain.

Many of the things this administration does with the full-throated support of many Democrats would have been met with cries of "Not in my country" from all Democrats were the plans to be announced by a republican.

Personality trumps principle. When people talk about cult politics, I think they mean just this. We have been blessed and cursed with a charismatic leader.

[slay]

54. Very sad - but true

it's sick the things Dems have done since WE elected Obama - escalating a WAR, refusal to even investigate the crimes of the Bush admin, continued almost all of the "patriot act", etc.

Why do some people - even here on DU - accept this just because Obama is a Dem when we would NEVER accept this from a republican?

I have come to the even more sad conclusion that at this point the Dems are not opposition party, they are an enabling party - enabling the Republicans to keep their policies in place - even when they are not in power.

THESE CORPORATE DEMS HAVE GOT TO GO! We desperately need a party of The People.

[Jakes Progress]

59. You want a party of the people.

You must hate Obama and want him to fail. I guess this means you want palin to be president. No other way to take what you say.

:sarcasm:

Notes after the smilie: It is Democrats like you that will make the party. Those who ignore principle for short victory or for popularity condemn the party to shame.

[SammyWinstonJack]

88. But a DINO administration is willing to try.

:grr:

[Better Believe It]

6. Bowels is the "liberal" and Simpson is the "conservative". That's balance.

[Enthusiast]

33. Yeah, Bowles is the liberal,

just like Juan Williams is.

[TheKentuckian]

102. Bowles makes Juan look like Che

[femrap]

37. TPTB told

the prez who to appoint. He's a mere minion below the true rulers of the world.

[BrklynLiberal]

75. -puke-..I mean REALLY !!! .... -PUKE!-

[Karmadillo]

4. Somebody email Obama! He'll fight this guy for us!!

nt

[Bluebear]

8. lol

[Dinger]

23. LOL #2

[DBoon]

9. email? more like show up at his door and demand to know WTF

not that that would ever happen, mind you

[pa28]

12. Obama's got this.

Chill the F&*! out. Oh wait . . .

[readmoreoften]

14. Yeah, just wait until Obama here's about this. Man there's gonna be hell to pay.

He will shrug and calmly and coolly walk away. Or talk about the weather in Paris, maybe.

[Jim Sagle]

17. Hay wait a minnit, that's HIS GUY!!!! He'd have to fight HIS OWN GUY!! Wha' hoppen?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[donco6]

19. "To the Wizard! He'll explain it to us!"

:rofl:

[Jim Sagle]

91. 'To the Bankmobile, Timmy!'

[pattmarty]

27. You are kidding, right? Who the fuck do you think appointed both........

.........these fucktards?

[sendero]

29. YEAH!....

.... let me get right on that!!!

[mdmc]

30. hehe

[slay]

58. OT - Nice China -> Rider

in your sig line.

Make sure to check out archive.org for tons of downloadable and streaming Dead show all the way back to 1965. :hippie:

http://www.archive.org/details/gd1975-06-17.aud.unknown.87560.flac16

[slay]

55. ROFL

funny and sad and true - George Carlin woulda loved it. :rofl:

[xxqqqzme]

66. With what?

A speech in Boise?

[KG]

69. waiting on the blue links to explain how it's all gonna be ok.

:eyes:

[glitch]

7. Corruption.

Hideous to witness.

[neverforget]

11. I'm happy to know which side he's on: the poor, downtrodden, put upon

wealthy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. I got news for these guys

We already are a second rate power... it is just not official yet, and it is not because of Social Security...

[femrap]

38. Did you see this...

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-11/24/content_11599087.htm

We're 3rd World.

In a way, I wish China would embargo the US. Then we'd have to build up our manufacturing base again.

WASF. Burnt Toast. So yesterday.

And all the nations we have attacked, physically and economically, are glad to see the US's comeuppance. I don't blame them.

We're # 12! We're # 12!

Being it's Thanksgiving and I have a meal to eat, a roof over my head, and fairly good health, I'm grateful. I have it so much better than most of people on this planet.

But I do hope to see the day where the wealthy choke on their money.

Oh...I'm extremely grateful for Tom Delay's GUILTY VERDICT! When I heard the news, I got up from my chair and did a little dance...'Do a little dance, Make a little love, Get down tonight..Get down tonight!'

There should be a little dancing emoticon!

[mix]

15. Obama, help us!

:rofl:

[Lint Head]

16. Excuse me. I feel a Blowles movement coming on.

[inna]

18. obscene.

this whole monstrosity of a commission, unleashed upon the american people, *is* the line in the sand.
this is inexcusable, period.

[pa28]

20. They took it upon themselves to cut taxes for the rich financed by slashing Social Security.

That measure is outside the commission's scope but they did it anyway.

It's so telling that Bowles addressed these comments to a room full of bankers (I'll bet he got bracing round of applause too).

We've heard the term "class warfare" but this is what it really looks like.

[socialist_n_TN]

49. It's not class warfare until we fight back..........

Until then it's just a class massacre.

[truedelphi]

77. Andas I have said before, the Republican message is out there,

And the young are being carefully taught.

Conversation at local coffee shop with the nineteen year old barrista -

"So we really have to end Social Security."

Me: "Why is that ?"

"Because it is an entitlement program, and we cannot afford any more give aways to people."

Me: "fine with me if they end it, as long as they give me back every red cent I have paid into it since I was your age."

Barrista: "You paid into the Social Security fund? How?"

Me: "Look at your wage statement on your pay check. You pay into it also. Used to be the rate was around 3.5% with your employer paying 3.5 % also. Now it is over 7 percent, with the employer still contributing.

Barrista: "I didn't know that."

Me: "By the way, the fund is solvent, with a surplus of at lest two point one TRILLION bucks. And it isn't facing any major problems until at least the year 2037."

She shut up about this issue the next few times I saw her.

[bettyellen]

92. thank you, it shocks me many DUers are just as ignorant as that Barrista was

[truedelphi]

98. I thank the Goddess (or whoever) for that conversation

I wasn't in a good mood, but for some reason didn't give the young woman a dirty look, and walk away.

And talking to her politely, with conviction and the FACTS, seemed to turn the tide on her opinion.

Would never in a million years have thought that she didn't understand we pay into the Fund.

[bettyellen]

101. never assume... good for you. we can be so very impatient here

[Mimosa]

105. Economics and personal finances should be taught in high school.

The kids seem to know NOTHING. :(

[JDPriestly]

21. Shock Doctrine

The Reagan administration said that debt didn't matter.

The Bush administration ran up enormous debts.

Suddenly, debt matters.

What a bunch of nonsense.

Does Erskine Bowles really want to kill grandma?

That is the question. Does Erskine Bowles want to kill grandma?

Or does he just want to force grandma to move in with the grandkids?

Wonder how the younger generation will take to that solution to our deficit problem.

[BlueJac]

22. Just one more nail .......

in the Americans coffin. We are living the destruction of this once great country. Now it is right wing heaven. We did it through Central America, South America, and now the United States. The Shock Doctrine lives!!!!

[Bluenorthwest]

28. Bowles does not even think about grandma

He does not want to kill her, that requires engagment. He and his kind have no thought at all for those they intend to harm. To raise it to active hate is to give it too much power and reason, what it is is apathy, a full tilt unconciousness of the people involved in those programs. Hate is actually easier to deal with than apathy, which is a matter of active ignorance. People like Bowles, and I think Obama as well, are not fully developed and lack the ability to connect with emotions outside their own, to acknowledge others as peers and fellow Americans. A cold, detached way of being.

[femrap]

40. First, this sadist waste of

human flesh, Bowles, wants Grandma to spend her last penny to the Big Pharma/Insurance/Disease Conglomerate, then push her out of her house onto the street where she can die. These evil pricks get a kick out of that...they're all made of the same DNA that W inherited from his evil heirs.

The state of Ohio, now known as Dumfukistan, went from all Blue to all Red in four short years. This POS new governor used to work for Lehman Bros. He is going to cut social programs to the bone. He's a mean, sadist, son-of-a-short-dick.

Pretty soon sick people will be demanding Assisted Suicide. Instead of DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) sick people will want KMN (Kill Me Now) orders.

Hell...just tattoo KMN on my wrist.

[madrchsod]

24. if obama does`t reject all of these proposals....

it will cost obama and the democrats the election in 2012. this will be one of the biggest political blunders of all time if he agrees with any of this.

[dana_b]

46. and it will cost all of us even more n/t

[inna]

48. he *created* the darn commission by Executive Order and appointed the creeps.

it's not a "blunder", he went out of his way to do it, after Congress voted against the commission.

[Dragonfli]

52. I am beginning to think that is the plan, he was just a placeholder to prove there is no left.

A way to direct the rage over what was happening to this country and then disperse it in a wave of hopelessness.

The neo-liberals will continue to pry open the door that is protecting our safety nets and then in 2012 the neo-cons will be back in for the final dismantling of them and any rights or protections the poor and working people have left.

I do not think anyone can believe that they are so stupid as to not be able to see the defeat that will follow all this corporate fellating and anti-working people (poor) legislation and back-stabbing.

They are not afraid of losing power in 2012 because the real power has not changed in 2008 and will not change 2012.
They are all legion and their name is plutocracy, and they are all working towards the same ends.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. They admit

"proposing changes to Social Security "for its own sake, not for deficit reduction." When they were seated to examine deficit reduction. Yet Obama has not told them to focus on their actual job, he seems to stand with these creeps with machettes, these rich, old theives.
A real leader would be telling them to do what they were aked to do and no more. What Obama is doing is called selling out the people.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

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

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

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

[katnapped]

31. Hey, stop complaining about this!

The Big Big O picked him and by complaining about it, you're saying you want the Republicans to WIN. Just accept your Medicare and Social Security cuts (while you bend over for TSA) and clap louder or else you'll have Palin in office come 2012. 'K?

:sarcasm:

[laughingliberal]

57. +1000 nt

[Overseas]

34. They are so cruel. Millions are suffering, desperately needing those safety nets,

and they're not saying-- "We're going to start by getting rid of war profiteering. We got rid of ACORN because they were accused of fraud, but we're still dealing with defense contractors who have been convicted of fraud in their contracts with our government. That cannot stand."

Nor are they saying-- "We have looked at the income gap in our country and the wealth of the top 5 percent has increased by a much larger percentage, while the middle class income has stagnated, so we're going to have to mess with the income tax rates for the top brackets. We tried trickle down economics a few times already. Those Bush tax cuts did not create jobs, they just increased the wealth at the top, so we're going to have to let those top tax cuts expire."

Enough with the cruelty already.

When they've really addressed the waste among the already rich, then they can take a look at the poor and suffering.

Instead it seems like-- "we can't mess with the war profiteers or companies that pay zero in taxes, they will fund campaigns against us if we do, so we need to further crush those who can't resist because they are already too weak."

[fascisthunter]

35. thanks for appointing the guy

[Hissyspit]

36. LOL

This is such a big fucking joke on us all. Remember at the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan ears when many of said we couldn't afford the eats and were told to shut up?

[old mark]

39. Change we can believe in...nt

[formercia]

41. "America is going to be a second-rate power."

Maybe that's a good thing. Dreams of Empire start when you think you're number one.

We're getting our asses beaten badly by a ragtag 50th rate bunch of Afghan hillbillies with no Air Force, Armor and very few field guns.

Perhaps we should emulate their model and train these Xtian Martyr wannabies to wear a suicide vest.

[femrap]

42. The Decline

of the American Empire is right before our eyes.

Think I'll go :hide: before the 'patriots' hear me say that.

[Recursion]

79. That's not an "if"; that's a fact of demographics

The last century was ours. We have to face the fact that we'll be playing England to Chindia for the next 100 or so. Then it will probably be the Latin American Union and the African Union. *shrug*

[BadgerKid]

43. FALSE CHOICE -- fix CEO pay, b.s. wars, and outsourcing. n/t

[kenny blankenship]

44. Where are all the apologists?

[Umbral]

45. Over in the Chris Hedges thread, working their asses off. nt

[Jakes Progress]

51. They gotta get their orders.

You can't expect them to spin this without a lot of help and planning. Our contributions to the party paying for PR groups to try and convince us that what is happening is not happening.

My guess it that they will trot out the same old,"Well he appointed them just to get ideas and it will look good to the republicans so they will vote for us."

[Recursion]

80. I guess that's me

Though I'm more anti-Bowles than a lot of the other moderates here. I think this whole commission was just theater to embarrass the Republicans, and that their recommendations will get absolutely nowhere. I liked what's-their-names' VAT idea somewhat, though, and I like the tax code simplification ideas from the commission, so rant away.

[Poboy]

47. "Democratic leaders about to commit mass suicide of Party" -nt

[slay]

53. Why don't you MESS WITH THE RICH who can afford it

asshole. :mad: :grr:

I am fucking EMBARRASSED to call myself a democrat these days. :banghead:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

56. Donchya just love those re-cyled Clinton employees?

From October 1994 to December 1995, Bowles served as Clinton's White House Deputy Chief of Staff, in the first-term of the Clinton Administration.

[RandomKoolzip]

60. I'd LOOOOOVE to hear how DU's Obama Defense League (aka "You Never Loved Him!") spins this.

Then again, I'd REALLY LOOOOOOOVE it even more if this shit wasn't happening. :( Each new idea is a fucking nightmare.

[bluestate10]

84. I will take a shot.

Before I start let me disclose that I am a moderate, sort of out of place here. Social Security and defense spending make up the lion's share of federal spending. You explain to me where where else cuts can be made that will reduce budget deficits? I absolutely favor cutting defense spending deeply, we spend too much on useless, politically protected weapon systems. But even if defense is cut with no cuts in social security, the national debt will continue to balloon out of control. Social Security must be reformed. The only question is how that reform takes place. The average middle class citizen does not pay enough into social security to match what they get back, even when the effects of interest compounding are taken into account. The net effect is that some payers into Social Security pay in money than they will never see back. I personally pay an amount annually that I would have to lose 47% per year in investments to drop to the amount of money that I will get paid out from Social Security, to be blunt, I pay into the system dramatically to support people that I don't know and whose politics are likely 180 degrees opposite mine.

Citizens of blue, progressive states like mine should be particularly offended by the current Social Security system. ALL of us pay out way more in taxes than our governments get back, from 27% (Income, more for FICA and Medicare taxes) for my state to 46% for California. My excess SS, FICA, and Medicare payments go to elderly citizens of red states, not to the elderly in my state. Several of the most conservative red states get 100% more back than their citizens pay in. I am deeply offended by that, those same elderly red state citizens are the very people that fuel Sarah Palin and other extremists and who vote for some of the most reprehensible and extreme policies in existence outside of those seen in primitive or backward societies.

I would prefer to pay less to the federal government in Income, FICA and Medicare taxes and have the difference added to the tax coffers of my state. My state has a well established record for caring for it's poor and elderly, I prefer to take a chance on my Governor to care for my state's elderly than have my tax money sent to Haley Barbour and Bobby Jindal and have them pose about how responsible their states are and how low the tax burden on their citizens is. To hell with Barbour, Jindal and the tea party, republican voting elderly, my Governor is a progressive democrat who resisted demonizing the poor to win re-election, he won on principle. What the impact of my Governor getting excess taxes paid my his state's citizens back from Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, et al and spending that money on my state elderly is that my state elderly and poor will get cared for exemplary well, my state's already excellent #1 rated schools will be able to offer more excellent students college scholarships. And most importantly, red state elderly and other red state citizens will face the true cost of their voting behavior, that experience will not be a good one for them. Their already shitty schools will become even more pathetic. OR, they will rise up and demand the politicians like Barbour and Jindal stop the BS and reform corrupt, corporate oriented governments.

OR. YOU can continue to defend the system as it is and watch as red state mentality creep and cover the nation until it chokes out everything that is important to progressives and moderates. The Ralph Nader debate last night caused me to come face to face with how limited the thinking of some posters can be. Nader is a pariah who cost democrats a crucial Presidency and who is third in line responsible for 9/11, two wars and 9 trillion in national debt, BUT there were posters who not only defend Nader, but would blindly vote for Nader in a close election ,if say, the choice was between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama with Nader on the ballot as a republican funded democratic vote getter.

Blue state citizens, that includes North Carolina and Virginia (that don't always vote in their citizen's best interests) should not only demand that Social Security gets reformed, but demand that it gets reformed in a fashion that brings excess tax money back to their state for their Governors, and in the case where that Governor is a republican, their legislature or cities and towns to spend on blue state citizen needs.

[riverbendviewgal]

87. get rid of most of the 700 military bases

outside of the country...Make war not a national product.....Look at other industrialized countries like Canada. I am American born and now a Canadian citizen .. I would never go and live in the USA again...It has gone Nazi.

[bluestate10]

89. I am ok with closing some military bases. Many are not needed. nt

[bettyellen]

93. or we can leave it and get rid of the tax cuts for the wealthy and corps

and tighten outsourcing, bringing jobs back. that's a bigger problem, the jobs we have shed. they are putting a stress on all social programs..
you are absolutely looking at the wrong target, and from the substance of your post, it seems largely because the pols have got you to see other poor and middle class citizens as the enemy.
That's a premise that you might want to reexamine.

[laughingliberal]

61. Yay! The new face of the Democratic party! Ain't centrism wonderful? nt

[asdjrocky]

62. How many more straws?

Remember, our good President Obama appointed these asshats.

[City Lights]

63. If this happens, I predict the Democrats will get 100% of the blame.

They seem to get all the blame for anything deemed bad, and none of the credit for anything deemed good. If they want to touch the third rail, they're gonna get shocked. x(

[glinda]

82. They will be blamed if they do not stop this.

[DeadEyeDyck]

64. It is going to be an "Every Man for Himself" country,

No welfare, no WIC, no medicare, no medicaide, no social security, no nothing!!

It will be like the wild-west on the prairie. Everything you need, you will have to make it yourself. Grandma will have her "home grown" elixer to cure everything and mom will curn the milk to make butter.

Sounds bizarre? We were there once and we are definitely going backwards.

[bluestate10]

85. It already is.

Red state politicians are winning because they have no morals and will say anything to rile up low information voters, AND because extreme liberals are brain locked into thinking that every social program must be protected, even when those social programs only protect red state voters at the expense of tax paying blue state citizens. If blue states got their excess Income, FICA and Medicare taxes that are now paid to red states to spend in their blue states for important efforts like renewable energy, elderly and poor care and the environment, the nation as a whole will be better off, because red state citizens will finally see the cost of their low information voting patterns.

[nahant]

65. Simpson and Bowles

Simpson and Bowles to put it simply are Heartless Rich Bastards who really want to undo the "New Deal" and have been trying n ow since the 1930's. I would like to see them actually do hard menial labor for a year or two and then come back to the retirement age. ASSHOLES!!!

[xxqqqzme]

67. Step outside that bubble

Irksome. You haven't noticed America is not second rate - It has achieved THIRD world status! Keep up!

[grahamhgreen]

68. These people are as vile as they come. There is no need to touch anything. Tax the rich at Greatest

Generation levels

Anyone who thinks we should go after any social programs is scum, IMHO

[ProudDad]

70. Meanwhile the war machine gets "slashed"

The good ole' boy's $1,200,000,000,000 "Permanent War Economy(tm)"...

By the obama/gates' plan -- "cut" by a grand total of ZERO dollars...

By the boles/simpson plan -- "Slashed" by .8% per year (that's EIGHT TENTHS of one percent per year)...

And even THAT probably ain't gonna happen...


Bend over, grab your ankles and kiss your ass goodbye...this fuckin' house of cards called the Corporate States of America is goin' down!

:nuke:

[oldlib]

71. I'm so disappointed

in President Obama for appointing these two cruel individuals. He must realize by now that they were an extremely poor choice, unless Obama isn't the man that I voted for. I voted for a Democrat and I want him to act like one.

[rasputin1952]

72. Let the GOP try this...

they are dead in the water. Many people have taken SS into account when they retire, and for these clowns to mess w/SS is a death wish proposition for the GOP.

I'd like to know if these two clowns return their SS payments every month? Simpson is 79 and Bowles is 65...both are receiving SS, if they are serious, they should send the money back to the government and show they really do take such things into account...as long as these goomers are at one apiece of those "31 million tits", they will make sure they don't lose anything. They'd be long dead before the people paying into the system today would be around to pick up what they expect and what they've been putting into the system for years.

I doubt I'd be around, but I'd love to see today's youth ready for retirement, digging up the graves of these to pinheads and setting their rotting corpses afire...:evilgrin:

[tpsbmam]

73. "The message...American people are fed up with Washington elites who don't seem to listen"

Last 2 paragraphs of the LA Times Op-Ed (yup, yup, and YUP!):

The message of the midterm election is that the American people are fed up with Washington elites who don't seem to listen. Despite the clear view of the American people, the elites in Washington seem to think it would be better to reduce benefits than to require the wealthy to pay the same percentage of their salaries into Social Security as everyone else does.

If politicians choose to cut Social Security benefits, when they could simply scrap the cap, we predict that this midterm will seem like a walk in the park compared to what awaits them in 2012.

[DeSwiss]

74. K&R

Revolt is all that is left.

[TatonkaJames]

76. Making S.S. Solvent

Want to help the states and the nation stop cutting hard working citizens pensions and benefits ? Start by cutting off the double dippers.
In NJ there are multitudes of state workers who have retired from their six figure jobs and then stay on the job while collecting their pensions.
Kick them out and give the jobs at lower salaries to those that need them. Do it across the nation and that adds up to a lot.
Next, anyone who files income tax and has a certain amount of personal savings, say, over $5 Million, they are not allowed to collect S.S.
If they can't live the rest of their lives with millions then that makes them greedy. That alone will save tons of money.
But it seems the easy way is to always cut our benefits.
I get so angry when I see how many millionaires there are in Congress and the Senate and WE have to pay for THEIR heath-care ? What country is this ?
I can go on but what's the sense, we have no voice anymore in this elitist nation.

[Recursion]

81. SS is completely solvent; its creditor (us) isn't

In NJ there are multitudes of state workers who have retired from their six figure jobs and then stay on the job while collecting their pensions.

Here are three big economic myths in the US that bug me:

1. TANF recipients contribute significantly to our problems
2. Public sector employees' pensions contribute significantly to our problems
3. CEO compensation contributes significantly to our problems*

None of these are true, but they are all about convenient targets.

* Caveat: paying CEOs in quickly-resellable securities of the companies they managed did contribute to their problems; fortunately Obama and the Democratic Congress did a lot to address this problem.

[bluestate10]

86. I disagree.

Social Security is not solvent. It is underpinned by tax payers like me that pay in 47% or more than they will ever get back. If I am going to pay that rate, I want my Governor spending the money on my state's elderly and poor, and not have the FEDs send that money off to red states.

BTW. 99% of the "rich" are blue state citizens. I say tax them more heavily, but leave that money in their blue states to be spent for causes that are important to blue states - not send the money to the red south and red interior west.

[Recursion]

78. Social Security certainly can contribute to the deficit

It just can't contribute to the debt for the next several decades.

But, yes, Erskine Bowles is a waste of oxygen.

[Starry Messenger]

83. But it's *totes* not going to happen!!!11

DUers said so! It's all like, a mirage, or something. It's not like every other country that had a big bailout were forced to adopt austerity measures by their governments or anything...or oh, wait. They were.

[blackspade]

90. What in the world does this mean?

“If we don’t make those choices, America is going to be a second-rate power and I don’t mean in 50 years. I mean in my lifetime.”

This guy is nuts! 2nd rate in what way?
Guys like this say crap all the time without defining what it is that they are saying.

[Overseas]

94. He's a Democrat so surely he'll start by prosecuting war profiteers.

Surely our Democratic legislators can start the belt-tightening by going after the war profiteers instead of attacking Democrats' most successful programs in combating poverty.

http://www.contractormisconduct.org/

[JuniperLea]

97. I really hate seeing OP/Ed pieces used here...

We all have opinions.

[Better Believe It]

106. I hope you hate cuts that will be proposed for Social Security, Medicare, etc., at least as much.

[pinto]

99. Pundits, media and the general public are forgetting the process here.

Takes 14 out of 18 members in the Commission to agree to forward a proposal to Congress, and each requires Congressional approval. Many of the co-chairs' suggestions won't make the cut.

[Juche]

100. Something has to be done about entitlements though.

Lift the cap a bit on SS (maybe do a donut hole like Obama wanted, tax at 4-6% on income above 200k, plus raise the tax from 12.4% to 13%.

Then promote single payer with comparative effectiveness and outsourcing of major surgery whenever possible.

[Mimosa]

104. Outsourcing of major surgery? Are you serious?

Just what vulnerable sick people need: to be shipped far from home.

[Mimosa]

103. "... if you take those off the table, you can’t get there" What does he mean by "there''?

"In a speech to North Carolina bankers.."

Sickening.

This isn't why I worked my fingers to the bone for a year to get Obama elected. :(