THE Center for American Progress (CAP) announced on Thursday that they were walking away from the Washington austerity craze. Calling it a “reset,” which took long enough, they’ve declared the entire budget debate not only stalled but counterproductive. It’s nothing we all haven’t been reading from the entire progressive community for months, or is it [...]
Tag Archives | entitlements
It’s Gabriel Gomez Against Ed Markey
THE contest is set between Ed Markey and Gabriel Gomez to replace John Kerry in the Senate. It’s not a race like when Scott Brown was running, with Gomez against reproductive rights, but also says he’s against overturning Roe v. Wade, and for Social Security cuts. It’s more like Mitt Romney’s resurrection. The question is [...]
Right on Cue, Republican Calls Obama Budget “Shocking Attack on Seniors”
“I’ll tell you when you’re going after seniors the way he’s already done on Obamacare, taken $700 billion out of Medicare to put into Obamacare and now coming back at seniors again, I think you’re crossing that line very quickly here in terms of denying access to seniors for health care in districts like mine [...]
Top Story — President Obama Happy to “Own” Chained CPI Cuts in his Budget
“Paul Ryan, in the worst budget ever presented in the history of the United States, did not mention Social Security, so of course [President Obama] owns it,” Sanders said as he left a rally outside the White House, where he and a handful of congressional Democrats, Social Security advocates, and labor leaders denounced Social Security [...]
Top Story — Obama Moves Grand Bargain Into the Budget, and Women Will Be Hurt the Most
“You can’t call yourself a Democrat and support Social Security benefit cuts. The president is proposing to steal thousands of dollars from grandparents and veterans by cutting cost of living adjustments, and any congressional Democrat who votes for such a plan should be ready for a primary challenge. Social Security is the core of the [...]
Obama’s Budget, Pelosi, and Cuts to Social Security
The arithmetic on the chained CPI is straightforward. It reduces benefits by an amount that increases 0.3 percentage points each year a person is retired. This means that after 10 years the reduction in the annual benefit would be 3.0 percent, after 20 years the reduction would be 6.0 percent, and after 30 years the [...]
Reagan Budget Chief: George W. Bush “Bankrupting the Nation” through Two “Unfinanced Wars”
This dynamic reinforced the Reaganite shibboleth that “deficits don’t matter” and the fact that nearly $5 trillion of the nation’s $12 trillion in “publicly held” debt is actually sequestered in the vaults of central banks. The destruction of fiscal rectitude under Ronald Reagan — one reason I resigned as his budget chief in 1985 — [...]
Obama Pledges in Private Meeting with Republicans to “Challenge His Own Party on Entitlement Reform”
OH, BUT that’s not all, folks. President Obama also tells Republicans he’s not trying to push a deficit deal that might help Democrats win back the House. From The Hill: President Obama pledged in a private meeting with Senate Republicans on Thursday to challenge his own party on entitlement reform. He also asked Republicans not [...]
Congressional Progressive Caucus Unveil “Back to Work” Budget *Updated*
WHILE EVERYONE is listening to the squealing talking heads on morning cable, none of whom know much about what a real budget looks like that doesn’t channel the disastrous notion of austerity, House progressives showed the Democratic party, the White House, and everyone else in Washington, how it’s done. You can read the Progressive Congressional [...]
Obama, the Grand Bargainer in Chief, Paul Ryan as His Foil
“We’re not gonna balance the budget in ten years because if you look at what Paul Ryan does to balance the budget, it means that you have to voucher-ize Medicare, you have to slash deeply into programs like Medicaid, you’ve essentially got to — either tax — middle class families a lot higher than you [...]
Paul Ryan Austerity a Good Target for Democrats
Second, health care. Our budget repeals the president’s health-care law and replaces it with patient-centered reforms. It also protects and strengthens Medicare. I want Medicare to be there for my kids—just as it’s there for my mom today. But Medicare is going broke. Under our proposal, those in or near retirement will see no changes, [...]
Obama Invites Ryan to Lunch to “Sell ‘Grand Bargain’”
President Barack Obama –seeking to sell Republicans on a revival of “grand bargain” talks — has invited 2012 GOP veep candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, over to the White House for lunch on Thursday, POLITICO has learned. [Politico] POWERFUL allies that could shift the discussion on the budget, [...]
Let’s Make a Deal Meals and Unequal Wealth Distribution [VIDEO]
We Americans have an ideal in mind, about a fair distribution of wealth. We know it isn’t reality, and have an idea about what that reality is like. We don’t, however, have an accurate perception of that reality. The video below uses animated infographics to reveal a by-the-numbers look at, as the Occupy movement popularized [...]
Paul Ryan Learns a Lesson
Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget is now expected to exempt seniors 55 years old and above from his Medicare overhaul — despite his personal preference to raise that age to 56 — according to several GOP sources familiar with his plans. For years, the House Budget Committee chairman has sought to transform Medicare from its current [...]
Bill O’Reilly Blows a Gasket
WHAT A spectacle. Politico has a transcript, with O’Reilly yelling “You are lying, you are lying!,” then wishing he hadn’t. The exchange continued as O’Reilly again demanded that Colmes, and later Crowley, name one specific program that Obama said he would cut. As the segment wrapped up, O’Reilly then asked, “Did I go overboard there?”, [...]
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