Obama Warns Super Committee

[ProSense]

Obama Warns Super Committee

In a statement to the press, President Obama on Friday warned Congress that he would not accept any action by lawmakers that would attempt to delay or weaken the scheduled cuts to defense and entitlements if the Super Committee doesn’t reach a deal by the end of this year.

The President also made clear that he will not accept any measure that attempts to turn off part of the sequester. The sequester was agreed to by both parties to ensure there was a meaningful enforcement mechanism to force a result from the Committee. Congress must not shirk its responsibilities. The American people deserve to have their leaders come together and make the tough choices necessary to live within our means, just as American families do every day in these tough economic times. The President urged the leaders to get this done.

Dear Republicans, you agreed to the deal.

[rug]

1. Scheduled cuts to entitlements?

Which ones are scheduled?

[mikekohr]

15. THE DEBT DEAL BY THE NUMBERS

$4 TRILLION
The amount bond rating agencies agree needs to be cut from the annual deficits over ten years to get our fiscal house in order

$3.2 TRILLION
The amount the original Republican debt reduction plan proposed.

$4.2 TRILLION
The amount President Obama countered the original Republican proposal with.
This would have consisted of a 4/1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases on the rich.

$2.2 TRILLION
The amount of debt reduction finally arrived at after the Republicans nearly drove America into default. Speaker Boehner used the Congressional Budget Office numbers as a baseline for the plan. The CBO’s numbers include the end of the George W. Bush tax give-a-ways to the rich which expire in 2012. Elimination of the Bush tax policies will cut the Federal Debt by $3.7 trillion over a decade.
In effect this works out to approximately a 1/2 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases on the rich.
Only 1% of the spending cuts come into play in 2012, the other 99% coming in the out years. Under the enforcement mechanism of the bill, Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, food stamps and other low income programs are immune from cuts.

98%
Is what John Boehner is saying he got in this bill. If getting schooled by President Obama, and positioning the Republican Party in 2012 as the goon squad for millionaires and billionaires is what John Boehner wanted I think he actually got 100% of what he wanted.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheet-victory-bipartisan-compromise-economy-american-people

http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2011/08/upon-further-examination.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021517/US-debt-deal-Obama-declares-end-tax-breaks-wealthiest-Americans.html

http://www.editedforclarity.com/2011/08/01/debt-ceiling-deal-the-devil-is-in-the-details/#disqus_thread

Postscript: Within days of approval of the debt deal compromise the S&P rating agency downgraded the United States credit rating to AA from AAA. Had the Republican leadership accepted President Obama's original plan of a $4.2 trillion reduction in the federal debt over the next decade this downgrade would have been averted.
The strangle-hold the Tea Party has over the Republican Party has in this case exposed the American taxpayer to billions of dollars in increased interest payments due to this easily predictable lowering of our credit rating.
No sane American would deliberatly poisen their personel credit rating, but the Tea Party and the lack courage and failure of leadership in the Republican Party has poisened our nation's credit and credibility, and yet again handed the bill to the next generation.

http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/2011/08/debt-deal-by-numbers.html

[TheWraith]

23. There's some reductions to Medicare provider payments, but none to benefits.

Basically, smaller payments to the hospitals and and equipment providers that receive them for being part of the Medicare system, rather than specifically for treating a patient.

[NorthCarolina]

24. Of course, that's the primary reason for the existence of the "super committee"

automatic cuts to entitlements so cowardly legislators don't have to go on record as having voted FOR cuts.

[TheWraith]

26. But DUers assure me that the super duper committee is going to destroy Social Security any day now!

I'm assured of this. :sarcasm:

Of course that's bullshit, just as the claim that the small reductions in provider payments--NOT in benefits--will be destructive is bullshit. But hey, let's not let facts get in the way of a good, frothy head of fearmongering! Catfood commission! Poverty! Death panels!

[russspeakeasy]

28. Guess who pays for that "small reduction in provider payments".

[woo me with science]

32. How hateful your posts are.

Gratuitously hateful.

[russspeakeasy]

27. Northcarolina...you are correct.

[newfie11]

2. Yep Democrats like this, who need repugs

I am on the fence about voting and if cuts to SS come then I am done.

[GentryDixon]

5. They are looking to cut the fraud

in the medicare system. They could probably reduce the deficit by a great deal by eliminating the fraud that is perpetrated by the medicare doctors & lawyers who are in cahoots to bleed the system dry.

[rug]

7. It's the damned trial lawyers who are ruining this country!

[newfie11]

8. The chained CPI is NOT good.

as I understand it that is one of the proposals to change in SS.

[ProSense]

9. Well,

"The chained CPI is NOT good."

...you'll be happy to know that it's not part of the trigger.

It's also not in the most recent proposal by Congressional Democrats.

[former9thward]

10. Every administration since Medicare started has talked about getting rid of fraud.

It never happens. If they know where fraud is at why not get rid of it now? Don't need to wait for the super committee or anything else. Just do it. It won't happen because it is just talk.

[ProSense]

11. And

"Every administration since Medicare started has talked about getting rid of fraud."

...Presidents have talked about reforming health care for nearly 100 years.

Health care fraud prosecutions on pace to rise 85%

[Maven]

18. Yes, and we're still waiting for real health care reform.

[jeanpalmer]

12. Really

There's fraud out there and he has let it continue going on 3 years now.

What a CEO.

Meanwhile, US militarism continues full bore, with his support.

[mikekohr]

16. It's Happening As We Speak, my wife is a consultant in the medical field

She has been hired to advise and audit agencies that have been caught up in a new government program. The Obama administration is currently, quietly, starting a program whose acronym is HEAT. It is targeting agencies engaged in fraud and it's intent is to recover overpayment's, bar violators from participating in the medical field and imprisoning CEO's, CFO's, that have bilked the Medicare system.

There is an assload of fraud in this field. It is relatively easy to pick out, but the private intermediaries that administer much of the Medicare system have not been doing their job in rooting out this malfeasance. The Obama administration is taking that failure on right now. Watch the papers over the next 6 months.

[Raine1967]

29. +1

This is true.

I have a friend who works in the federal government and he has said the VERY same thing.

[mikekohr]

31. Tell your friend to keep up the pressure

There is a whoppin' buttload of fraud out there. There are four targeted states, Florida and Texas being at the worst of the worst offenders and Michigan and Illinois in the mix as well.

[bl968]

21. End Hospital Fraud First

We need to end the process where hospitals massively jack up the price for procedures and medication knowing that they will be adjusted downward later by the insurance companies and medicare.

There should be a direct link between the real cost of a item or service and the amount charged. I think 30% is fair. Actual prices charged are more like 600-6000%.

For example I overheard a ambulance crew talking about having to get some replacement saline solution (Salt water) from an area hospital and they said the bill was for $600. The actual cost was likely $16-$46. These inflated costs get passed on to consumers.

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. !

:eyes:

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[woo me with science]

33. The "negotiations" were a sham from the start.

We knew exactly what would come out of this committee before it started.

1. Cuts to the social safety net and vital programs.
2. Protection of the tax cuts for the wealthy
3. Protection of the military industrial complex.

Surprise.

We are being ruled now by the "Democratic" and Republican wings of the Corporate Party. We don't have representative government anymore.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. there's plenty they can trim off the defense budget - most of it is waste

the billions wasted in Iraq, Afghanistan chasing fairies.

[The Doctor.]

4. It's kind of like he planned it this way.

Oh, right... he did.

[torotoro]

13. Seriously, does anyone really believe they won't have a deal? Almost All Blue Dogs + 6 Repubs

Recall that republicans only need 1 Blue Dog to go with them to get a deal. So i see it playing out as good cop/bad cop routine as usual until the 11th hour. And then at the last minute a deal will magically be struck which favors the top 1% and Obama will come out and declare victory.

My hope is that the Bush Tax Cuts will still expire but right now i see it as a 50/50 thing despite Obama claiming he would veto it. We are in campaign mode so i dont trust that claim.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

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

[Vattel]

19. I hope the trigger is pulled. Better than what the supercommittee

is apt to come up with.

[woo me with science]

34. Even if the trigger is pulled, the military industrial complex will be protected.

They are working on that. They will get what they want in any case.

[sad sally]

20. Here's some of the Republican's plan - ouch

This similar proposal gives a sense of how dramatically Toomey’s proposal would have to cut deductions for the middle class. In order to raise $3.0 trillion, it would:

1. Reduce the personal and dependent exemptions ($3,800 per taxpayer and for each dependent) by 75%.

2. Reduce all itemized deductions, including the deductions for home mortgage interest, charitable contributions, and state and local taxes, by 75%.

3. Reduce certain above-the-line deductions by 75%.

4. Reduce all personal credits except the EITC, including the child tax credit, college tuition credits, and credits for retirement savings, by 75%.

Meeting Senator Toomey’s requirement of a top rate of 28% would require even more dramatic cuts to tax expenditures than those listed above. He has indicated that he is not open to raising taxes on capital income, including deductions for retirement savings and the reduced rates on capital gains and dividends, which generally benefit high-income taxpayers. This means that the only way to make the numbers add up is essentially to eliminate all of the deductions and credits listed above immediately with no transition, or to enact the tax expenditure cuts above and dramatically curtail the exclusion for employer-provided health insurance.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/chart-of-the-day-the-regressive-tax-plan-super-committee-dems-rejected.php?ref=fpb?du

[DCBob]

22. There wont be a deal.. and the President knows it.

This is political cover because when the commission fails many on the right will claim he wanted this to fail... because in the end nothing will get done except the debt ceiling will have been raised which is what the President wanted from the very beginning.

[ellisonz]

25. No sources.

[Major Hogwash]

30. The link is the headline of the OP.

Everytime someone slanders the President, we must not stand idly by and let it float by like a turd down the Mississippi.