WS now wants to cut SS & Medicare because we can’t afford it.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Guardian:  The classic definition of “chutzpah” is the kid who kills both of his parents and then begs for mercy because he is an orphan. The Wall Street crew are out to top this. After wrecking the economy with their convoluted finances, and tapping the US Treasury for trillions in bail-out bucks, they now want to cut Social Security and Medicare because we don’t have the money.

If there is any effort in Congress to follow-up on this talk about taking away people’s Social Security and Medicare, then there will have to be some very serious pain inflicted on the politicians in Washington. Let’s start with some facts.

Unlike Robert Rubin’s Citigroup, Social Security is solidly funded long into the future. According to the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office (pdf), it can pay all promised benefits through the year 2049, with no changes whatsoever. Even after that date it will always be able to pay benefits that are far higher than what current retirees receive.

–snip

(cross-posted in orange)

The attacks are made even worse by the fact that the attackers, people like Robert Rubin and Peter Peterson, promoted policies that led to this collapse and personally profited to the tune of tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. In other words, after pushing the economy into a severe recession and destroying the life’s savings of tens of millions of working families, the Wall Street crew now wants to take away their Social Security and Medicare. This can almost make killing your parents look like a petty offence.

Who cares what Wall Street wants.  After all, what could be more ridiculous than listening to Robert Rubin .  Well, the spin from the Washington Post is that Obama, like Wall Street, is concerned about and going to “fix” Social Security.

President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare “bargain” with the American people, saying that the nation’s long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.  

That discussion will begin next month, Obama said, when he convenes a “fiscal responsibility summit” before delivering his first budget to Congress.  He said his administration will begin confronting the issues of entitlement reform and long-term budget deficits soon after it jump-starts job growth and the stock market.

“What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further,” he said. “We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else’s.”

Well, we all know that entitlements is code for “Social Security” and fix is code for “break”. So when the Washington Monthly appeared to have a different take on what Obama said to the Washington Post, I was relieved.  All emphasis is mine.

ENTITLEMENTS…. Barack Obama stopped by the Washington Post’s offices yesterday and covered a lot of ground with reporters and editors. There was one subject of particular interest — the Post’s front-page headline read: “Obama Pledges Entitlement Reform.”

There was, I think it’s fair to say, a collective “uh oh” among progressives everywhere. Once we start hearing about “entitlement reform,” it generally means some kind of effort to weaken Social Security.

As it turns out, Obama’s comments on the subject weren’t troubling at all.

Five days before taking office, Obama was careful not to outline specific fixes for Social Security and Medicare, refusing to endorse either a new blue-ribbon commission or the concept of submitting an overhaul plan to Congress that would be subject only to an up-or-down vote, similar to the one used to reach agreement on the closure of military bases.

But the president-elect exuded confidence that his economic team will succeed where others have not.

“Social Security, we can solve,” he said, waving his left hand. “The big problem is Medicare, which is unsustainable…. We can’t solve Medicare in isolation from the broader problems of the health-care system.”

,

Supporting the Washington Monthly’s interpretation of Obama’s visit to the Washington Post and direct from Obama’s keyboard ….

They (Obama/Biden) will protect Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries alike, and they do not believe it is necessary or fair to hardworking seniors to raise the retirement age. Obama and Biden are strongly opposed to privatizing Social Security. As part of a bipartisan plan that would be phased in over many years, they will ask those making over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it sound. Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll tax 12.4 percent rate. Instead, he and Joe Biden are considering plans that will ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2 to 4 percent more in total (combined employer and employee).

So what’s the problem you ask?  Robert Rubin

 It is testament to former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s star power among many Democrats that as President-elect Barack Obama fills out his economic team, a virtual Rubin constellation is taking shape.

Robert Rubin and the people who made the mess we are in should be in jail, not giving advice to Obama.  Bi-partisanship is totally the wrong way to go, and Obama is too smart to be making this mistake.  Bi-partisanship doesn unite, it divides. What we need is non-partisanship.  If Obama wants to bridge the gap, he needs to quit carving out “sides”.  

Our country’s policies and priorities need to be based on science and fact instead of greed and ideology, right or left.  

Supply siders destroyed this country and took away everyones’ opportunity for a better life – except theirs.  Retirements are being cancelled; students have loans they can’t afford for jobs they can’t get; welfare, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and unemployment numbers are exploding; and the Robert Rubins of this world still want more at time when nobody has anything left to give ~ except them.  

The Federal Reserve and the WS meltdown need to be investigated and crimes prosecuted.