Wednesday, November 10, 2010
President Obusha’s so-called debt reduction commission is out with its first proposal and it includes slashing Social Security and Medicare, as well as reductions in income tax rates in exchange for curbing tax breaks, according to a Republican aide who attended the meeting.
The Federal government is projected to run $8 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years, which would push the national debt up to more than $20 trillion. Obusha directed the commission to find a way to reduce the annual deficit to 3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product by 2015 from about 9 percent now.
Social Security and Medicare, the government health program for the elderly and disabled, will consume a steadily growing share of the federal budget.
One simple way for the Federal government to slow the budget deficit is slash military spending by 10% and increase Federal income tax brackets to 38% for wage earners making more than $200,000 a year.
But such a populist solution is contrary to Mr. Obusha’s conservative world view. It is far easier for him to launch a brutal attack on American seniors and the disabled.
From the Left 
Nevermind Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan, Obama is on-target to become the most hated and reviled US president in history.
If he tries to tamper with Social Security, trust me, he will be impeached, as he should be.
One simple way for the Federal government to slow the budget deficit is slash military spending by 10% and increase Federal income tax brackets to 38% for wage earners making more than $200,000 a year.
Obama will never cut military funding.
First, he lacks the courage to do so and second, such a move is antithetical to his conservative values.
Half of the Federal budget goes to two things: the military and paying the interest on the debt. So, why would Obama target Social Security when more than 50 million Americans rely on it for their survival? I don’t get it. But this much I know. Obama is not who I thought he was when I voted for him in 2008 and I will not vote to reelect him in 2012.
A horse built by commitee usually ends up resembling a camel. This problem requiresd leadership from the president not a delegation of the responsibility. Although I voted for Pres. Obama I fear my concerns are now coming true. He is not a leader, he doesn’tknow Washington and doesn;t seem to realize you can not talk a prblem to solution. It requires bold action and he doesnot seem to be ready to take any action. He just farms out the big decisions. it is a shame we dod not have ANY leaders in either party that are interested trulyu in the middle class citizen. As a retirted business man and disabled vet I can not face a reduction in my benefits which i worked and fought for in the Korean war before Obama was born.
Americans have paid into Social Security 30, 40 and even 50 years.
Obama can’t cut pay-out amounts when in as many as 50% of cases, Social Security is the only source of retirement income people have.
If this president is committed to deficit reduction, he can cut military spending and leave the American people out of the equation. This is outrageous and will not be tolerated.
Obama will be impeached if he doesn’t dial this nonsense back.
In America, it’s always the poor, the elderly and the disabled who must sacrifice so the Pentagon and the wealthy get an even bigger slice of the pie.
This is what MSNBC says is contained in the Bowles proposal.
For individuals and families
– eliminate child tax credit
– eliminate mortgage interest deduction
– eliminate COLA increases for SSI recipients
– reduce top tax rates from 35 percent to 23 percent
The elimination of the mortgage deduction will kill what’s left of the housing market.
I think we’re on the brink of an armed revolution in the country, as Americans of all ages and political persuasions, are about ready to take to the streets and burn down Washington DC.
Enough is enough.
They don’t call it the “Cat Food Commission” for nothing.
Where are the O-bots who always appear to defend their boy from us big meanies? Defending this bullshit is a task in itself.
Time to order the Articles of Impeachment.
How much money could OBUSHA save if he ended all of our useless wars????? Obusha, do the Country a favor and jump into one of Indoneesia’s Volcanos
Bush inherited a surplus and blew through it in six months.
Things grew worse after 9/11 and a series of tax cuts targeting rich Americans while Bush started two wars paid for on credit.
If Obama wants to effectively address the deficit, he can withdraw 100% of the troops from the 900 bases were maintain around the globe, and follow this up with a withdrawal of 100% of the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon amounts to a shadow government crawling to the Congress every other months with its paw extended begging for more, more, and more tax dollars.
Leave Social Security and the mortgage deduction alone.
This is a clear declaration of war against the elderly, the disabled and the Middle Class. Obama is playing with fire here. He can’t attack the very people who rely on the Federal government for their survival but leave the military alone and intact. He’s a ghoul.
Please. This phony-baloney commission was set-up to help the Obama administration find ways to transfer revenue to his healthcare reform legislation.
You see, the program needs to raise nearly $1 trillion before it can be phased in beginning in 2014. As of now, there is no way they can cover the estimated 60 million Americans without insurance.
I can already see the future.
Elderly Americans aged 70 and 80 will be working at fast food restaurants for minimum wage, and bagging groceries at the local supermarket because they can’t retire on slashed benefits.
Americans need to rise up and nip this insanity in the butt before it becomes the law of the land.
I’m so tired of politicians claiming Social Security’s solvency is a problem. Assuming today’s contribution levels are the benchmark, the account can pay benefits for another 40 years. The actual problem is, Federal lawmakers keep “borrowing” from the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for pork projects and the military. As Al Gore correctly observed, “Social Security should be placed in a lockbox.” These monies should not be used for anything but paying benefits.
What a crock of crap! The Cat Food Commission says these cuts will save $4 trillion in 10 years.
Here’s what the unfunded Iraq war has cost to date:
$742,000,000,000
Here’s what the unfunded Afghanistan was has cost to date:
$364,000,000,000
Total of the two unfunded wars:
$1,105,000,000,000
SOURCE: http://www.costofwar.com/
Apparently, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles think the American public are idiots and can’t use the web to get these numbers.
If President Obama thinks history will portray him as some kind of deficit hawk and treat him kindly, then he’s even more naive than I thought.
Withdraw the troops, Barry. Stop the madness.
These recommendations represent class warfare at its ugliest. I can’t believe anyone in their right mind is committing them to paper?
But Alan Simpson? Seriously? Alan Simpson?
If President Obama says he supports these draconian changes then I agree with Aunt Peg. Obama should be impeached.
The Cat Food Commission was stacked from the start.
What Obama & Friends are really banking on is lower income workers dying sooner than later, thus upper income Americans will have full benefits over a longer period of time. I agree with Joost who said this is a declaration of war on the elderly, the disabled, the poor and the Middle Class.
The mortgage interest deduction is the last, remaining deduction working and middle class Americans have left. People earning more than $250,000 don’t need it because they have other deductions to off-set their expenses.
I smell a people’s army descending on Washington DC if the nitwit in the White House tries to make these horrible recommendations law.
The assumptions are incorrect. We currently have 9.6% unemployment in the USA. If, for the sake of argument, unemployment falls to 5% in 10 years and revenue is flowing into the Treasury, will the cuts to Social Security, increases in retirement age and the mortgage deduction go back to 2010 levels? These recommendations are crazy. They’ll never become the law of the land.
I thought things in America were awful under Bush but, this is the most cynical scheme I’ve ever seen. I don’t recognize the U.S. any longer. It’s as if I’m in a foreign country.
Your readers may find this article interesting. They may, after reading the link, ask “why is President Obama and his team lying to the American people?”
Selling the Big Lie on Social Security
http://blogs.reuters.com/deep-pocket/2010/07/27/selling-the-big-lie-on-social-security/
FACT:
* Social Security benefits are not gobbling up the U.S. economy. Benefits are equal to 4.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, and will rise to just 6.2 percent in 2035, when all baby boomers will be 65 or older, according to last year’s Social Security trustees’ report. After 2035, Social Security expenditures are projected to stay around that percent of GDP through 2085, according to Virginia Reno, vice president for income security at the National Academy of Social Insurance.
FACT:
* Social Security had a $2.5 trillion surplus in 2009, a number that will hit $3.8 trillion in 2020, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The surplus has been accumulating since implementation of the last Social Security reform measures in 1983.
All I can say is, what the hell is Obama thinking? At my age, these proposed changes won’t have any impact on me. But, what of my daughters? My nephew? There are many ways to cut spending and waste but cutting Social Security will send this country into a tailspin that I fear we won’t recover from. We’re becoming more and more like Argentina. Is this what we want to do to future generations?
Let’s hope these proposals fall to the wayside before the voters can toss Obama out on his bony ass in 2 years. By then, the Democrats may have found a real progressive they can run for president like newly elected NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo. All I know is Obama can’t be allowed to serve a second term.
By the time Obama’s Cat Food Commission is done gutting this country of its safety net, we will become the land of the walking dead. I expect by the time I can retire, the money in Social Security will be transferred to the Pentagon and I will have nothing to bank on. Thanks, Barry — you asshole.
Obama, you slipped in shit and fell down, and soiled yourself in Conservative values, and you’ve neglected to wash it off! So Now you just STINK! I am now officially sorry to admit I ever voted for you…… as is the rest of AMERICA……. Boy! When you’re done bowing down to Muslim potentates….. why don’t you bow down and KISS MY FUCKING ASS!
Social security reduction today, higher taxes tomorrow. Now that he has spent all our money, he is looking for ways to balance the budget? Really! Consider this…reduce the dollars we send to other countries by 25%. Our government sends more money to other nations but yet neglects to take care of its own. Why is that? They (the government) will have us believe that is for the greater good. I wonder whose good they are talking about. It sure it’s the people of this country. President Obama, if you are reading this, answer me this, who’s side are you on?
As most of you know, I’m a real estate broker here in San Mateo County, CA.
If the Cat Food Commission eliminates the mortgage interest deduction, I expect I will be forced to find a new career because the industry will cease to exist.
I also have a problem with the corporate interest reduction proposal lowering the index from 35% to 26%. This will result in even less money flowing into the US Treasury.
At very least we now know who Mr. Obama is working for and it isn’t middleclass America.
Makes me sick.
Entirely out of sync- and the next post talks of keeping tax breaks for the rich.
What next? A military draft?
We are going backwards in time here w Obama @ the helm.
Someone give the man a spine!
These debt reduction proposals are among the most odorous and offensive suggestions I’ve ever seen in all the years I’ve observed the political process.
The reason we’re in the mess we find ourselves today is relatively simple to understand:
1. two, unsupported tax cuts for people making more than $200,000 a year
2. two, unfunded wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq
3. a recession and a reduction of the gross receipts deposited in the US Treasury
4. the 9/11 terrorist attacks
For Obama’s debt clan to suggest the cure is punish the old, the disabled and young Americans paying into the system but not retiring for another 20 to 35 years, is nothing short of criminal.
If Obama pushes this garbage in his remaining 24 months in office, then I think the American people need to consider if the time is upon us for an armed revolution.
Tear it down and start all over.
Insane from the membrane. Barry needs to get back on the pipe ASAP. He’s done lost his mind.
“Barry needs to get back on the pipe ASAP. He’s done lost his mind.”
And lost America, too.
To those of you who are thinking Obama should be impeached for some un-named offense,I’d like to remind you. Neither Bush nor Reagen were ever brought up for impeachment. Nixson was not impeached(he most certianly should have been).So explain to me, why a man should be impeached when he has not,broken the constitution in any fashion. As Bush did throught his administration.( war, torture) We as a nation certianly lost our morality high ground on that one. We can expect our young men and women to be used in the same fashion, as we did to others.
If Bush, Nixson and Reagen deserved a second term, so my friends does President Obama. Or are you all so blinded by the fact he is a black person? He my friends has a degree in constitutioal law, what do you have?
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true… you know what they say…The more the state