Goolsbee on MTP-talking about 'dealing with entitlements' as part of deficit reduction

[laughingliberal]

Then talked about how deficit reduction has to be looked at as a 'total package' and cited the commission as having done that. "That's why the President appointed the commission."

I have little hope we're going to stop the SS/Medicare cutting. But we need to be marshalling our energy against it from now on if we're to have any shot at stopping it.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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

[polichick]

2. This is sickening and may finally wake up the slumbering masses! nt

[Dinger]

3. K & R

Fucking hell. I'm hyperventilating.

[laughingliberal]

29. I hear you and so many here are in denial...or are they?

I've no doubt when the mask comes off and the President starts supporting the cuts to SS/Medicare, we'll be hearing all about 'reality.' I believe many people use this 'reality,' and 'what could he do?' meme to push policies they really support.

Who would have thought way back when I'd find myself in 2010 fighting other Democrats and begging them to stand with us against the policies of Reagan?

[glitch]

49. IOkIODI

It's ok if Obama does it.

No kidding about the Reagan zombie rising again. I didn't see it coming either.

[Doremus]

4. K&R

[Slit Skirt]

5. k&r

[jaxx]

6. The President says raise the ceiling on SS taxes.

WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 14, 2010 6:33pm EDT

WASHINGTON Oct 14 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he favored raising more revenue for Social Security to prolong the solvency of the U.S. retirement fund, rather than just cutting benefits or making people work longer.

Obama told a televised youth town hall event that he thought the best approach was to increase the amount of income subject to Social Security taxes above the current cap set around $106,000, but he did not rule anything out.

"I have said that all options are on the table. I think we've got to look at how we preserve it for the next generation," he said.

"I do think that the best way to do it would be to look at the fact that right now, you only pay Social Security taxes to about $106,000, and after that you don't pay any Social Security tax," he said. "That could be modified or changed in a way that would help extend the solvency of Social Security."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1415068220101014

[Better Believe It]

9. While at the same time he wants to cut the Social Security payroll tax for everyone right now!

And once cut it's unlikely that the Republican controlled House, a more conservative Senate and President Obama will approve ending the cut with a Social Security payroll tax hike at the end of 2011.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. And his appointed commissioners call for cutting benefits right now

It's amazing. Astonishing.

Shame.

[jotsy]

16. There are other plans.

<://www.ourfuture.org/report/citizenscommission>

[laughingliberal]

22. Thanks. Schakowsky was pretty much a lone voice for the people on the CFC. nt

[jaxx]

11. And the cut is for one year.

You can what if it to death, but it's still for one year.

[MannyGoldstein]

12. The bush tax cuts were for 10 years.

Many of us know where this is going.

[jaxx]

13. Yeah it's going for 2 more years.

Which means 2 million+ unemployed will survive. Not a bad trade off.

[TheKentuckian]

14. Shit, we lost like 10 million jobs during the Bush years doing the same shit.

There is no promise of a net positive.

[jaxx]

19. People need to eat and pay bills.

That is the net positive.

[laughingliberal]

23. Sure. That's why they kept kicking this down the road until it was a hair on fire emergency.

So we could get another effed up policy that hurts workers/middle class/poor in the long run and say it was a 'net positive.'

They may think they're playing intergalactic chess but many are starting to see through it.

[jaxx]

25. Just remember who 'they' are.

The house and the senate. Obama tried to push them to get it done before the election, but they didn't do it. Now we get the compromise. Get it done.

[laughingliberal]

27. Obama could have been pushing for it long before election season and so could Congress.

It's been obvious since July '09, the House was at risk. Contentious battles like this should have been settled long before we were up against the wall.

I hold President Obama 100% responsible for the payroll tax holiday. I refuse to believe he couldn't have gotten a deal without that. It also breaks his explicit promise that no one with income under $200,000 would see any tax increases. Trading the Making Work Pay tax credit for the SS destroying payroll tax holiday leaves 1 in 3 workers (the very poorest) paying higher taxes.

[TheKentuckian]

31. Not if the deal to do so inhibits the ability to create jobs and continues the funneling of all

resources to the hands of the few.

You can't point to a positive element and ignore the damage getting it does.

Your "cure" is not a net positive because it is simply ramping up what caused the problems in the first place.

You are fighting to be the modern equivalent of Esau. Trading away your birthright for a bowl of stew.

[sabrina 1]

51. Why was UI insurance allowed to be connected to the Bush Cuts?

Why do YOU think it was allowed?

Why was this not part of the discussion DURING THE CAMPAIGN?? It was a winning issue for Democrats, a real loser for Republicans? Why did this WH keep it off the table until AFTER the election?

And why did the Majority Party allow the Bush Tax Cuts to be off the table during the campaign also? Why? Because there was a deal. Because they KNEW if it was part of the campaign anyone talking about extending them, iow, Republicans, would have lost.

Now tell me that if the situation was reversed and Republicans had a few winning issues like this they would have kept them off the table until after the election!! No damn way would that have happened.

And the same goes for the Deficit Commission garbage. SS. Why was all this NOT allowed, by Democrats, to be part of the campaign? What was the reason? THERE IS NONE, unless certain Democrats along with Republicans intended to do exactly as they are now doing.

People better take the blinders off. We are being lied to and manipulated. And I think many Congressional Dems know this, people like Sherrod Brown and Jerry Nadler, and Bernie Sanders.

The whole thing is just a total outrage. It's all a game to them, and they laugh at us.

[MannyGoldstein]

15. Absolutely. Obama will fight to repeal these in two years

when he's in a better position.

And monkeys might fly out of my butt.

Unemployment would have been extended if Obama had held tight - history clearly shows this.

[jaxx]

17. Unemployment ended Nov. 30th.

The senate denied the tax cuts for those under 250k twice last week.

Reality.

[Marr]

41. They have repeatedly backed away from that fight.

Odd that they suddenly found the will to dig in their heels for a week on that issue, isn't it?

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if Obama's White House and the Dem leadership encouraged them to make the denial now, to give them a little cover on these tax cuts.

[YvonneCa]

37. ...

...:7 Thanks for the morning smile. :)

[notadmblnd]

18. for how long? Just how much longer will they survive?

I have family members that are still out of work (a 99'er). If it weren't for family (who are struggling already) she would have already starved, died from illness or be frozen dead in her car. If the bucket drops out from under those helping her out (which I know it is going to do next June), they'll all be screwed.

I don't have much faith that this cut is going create any real life sustaining jobs, so what happens in 6 months when people are facing winter again?

If the wealthy wont open their wallets to invest and provide jobs, they need to have it taken from them by the government in the form of taxes to provide a long term solution for the people suffering from the actions of corporate and political greed.

I wish the president would turn the table on these monsters and hold their tax breaks hostage until we see real growth and a reversal of the direction this country has been going- in the past decade.

[laughingliberal]

24. Right. I love the self righteousness of those pushing this with their 'concern' for the unemployed..

as long as they haven't been unemployed for 99 weeks. Then it's 'reality.'

[Hannah Bell]

53. the 99'ers didn't get anything out of that deal.

[Marr]

40. Please stop pretending that UI could not have been extended on it's own.

Using it as an excuse for passing these cuts is transparently phony.

[Mojorabbit]

50. It is a horrible trade off. nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

30. True, the cut is only for one year... This time...

I don't believe for one second that it'll be allowed to expire, given the performance of most of our fearless leaders this year. Sorry, I just don't have that much faith in the backbone of the Democrats OR the President, right at the moment.

But I suppose all we can do right now is to make a date for this time next year, same time, same channel, to watch a rerun of this year's festivities. Some of the congressional players will have different roles, but the script will be the same.

[Hannah Bell]

52. like the bush tax cuts were going to sunset in "just 6 years".

[laughingliberal]

21. He has been unwilling to say he is against cuts for some time now. Quiet as a church mouse since...

the Cat Food Commission report. First, it was we needed to wait until the report was complete. Now we've heard how we'll have to make 'tough choices.' Then Goolsbee in on MTP indicating the comprehensive approach CFC took is how it needs to be done.

Add in the Republican plan for payroll tax holidays which they've seen as a way to lead into SS cuts in Obama's tax deal and we're idiots if we don't mobilize support for SS now.

<Obama told a televised youth town hall event that he thought the best approach was to increase the amount of income subject to Social Security taxes above the current cap set around $106,000, but he did not rule anything out.>

Obama thought the public option was the 'best way' to meet the goals of cost containment in health care, too. If we're sitting back hoping he'll defend SS against cuts, we're just stupid.

<"I have said that all options are on the table. I think we've got to look at how we preserve it for the next generation," he said.>

Yep. That's the rhetoric the SS cutters use to justify the cuts. The handwriting is on the wall.

[Marr]

42. Exactly-- he's shown his MO repeatedly.

He says he personally thinks this other way is best, then makes zero effort to achieve it, while actively advancing the Conservative approach. I can't believe anyone's still fooled by that. Even know-- while we're in the middle of it. He *says* he'd prefer to do A, but he's actually selling B.

[laughingliberal]

45. I'm not sure people are so much fooled by it as they are either 1) in agreement with it or...

2) willing to go along with anything as long as President Obama backs it.

[madmax]

7. K&R

:kick:

[Starry Messenger]

8. k&r

[me b zola]

20. Sometimes that bright light at the end of the tunnel

...is a freaking train about to make you a grease spot.

[YvonneCa]

38. ...

...:)

[merbex]

26. Everyone who rec'd this ~ and I did myself ~ should consider themselves

the Cassandras of the Democratic Party

For those that need a nudge remembering their Greek mythology: Cassandra was given the 'gift' of telling the future' and 'cursed by Apollo' because of her rejecting him, so as having no-one believe her.

We are telling you - those that refuse to listen and fully comprehend the many statements made by Barack Obama - that he is out to crack the foundation of Social Security.

All evidence points to this.

If you care about Social Security and consider it a bedrock prinicple of the Democratic Party - Obama NEEDS a primary opponenet who will FIGHT for Social Security.

[laughingliberal]

28. I've been playing Cassandra since 8/09 when I said we'd lose the House if Obama kept...

bashing liberals and wish washing on the Public Option.

[spanone]

32. and just as more people will be needing it...how lovely

[QC]

33. Goolsbee's presence in the Obama campaign was one of those early signs of things to come

that no one wanted to acknowledge, lest the hopetastic, changealicious buzz be killed.

Oh well, too late to care about it now.

[laughingliberal]

34. Sadly, I think you're right. It very likely is too late.

I know that but I refuse to go down without a fight.

[Gin]

35. I resemble this remark....heard it on TV yesterday...

I'm not getting older...I'm getting "bitter."

and oh boy is it true.

[QC]

43. Some of us here pointed out the pecularity of the DLC's official economist also being Obama's,

but we were told that it was the candidate's transcendantly pragmatic style to seek counsel from those with whom he disagreed, and besides, we never really loved him anyway and were probably agents of Goldstein um Hillary.

[KoKo]

44. Yes...I remember that. We were told he was "assembling a team of rivals" like Lincoln did...

Yeah. I posted an article warning about Goolsbee and got trashed for it way back when his campaign was falling all over him.

[QC]

48. Yes, the team of rivals business was why he surrounded himself with conservatives

and corporate shills. I remember that.

Has any politician ever inspired so much wishful--even magical--thinking?

[hulka38]

36. The dismantling of the New Deal will be done in the guise of compassion

for the poor and hungry. And the irony will be lost on many who call themselves Democrats.

[Vinca]

39. It seems both parties target the neediest because they have the least power.

Give Rupert Murdoch his giant tax break, but make sure Grandma can't afford premium cat food to live on. Back to 10 for $1 fish head stew.

[laughingliberal]

46. The new food safety laws have probably killed any chance of people getting 10 for $1 fish heads.

I can't think what will still be affordable for people to eat by the time this all comes down.

[GeorgeGist]

47. The Department of Defense

is an entitlement.