Just before the House adjourned for Christmas, Sam Johnson, the Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, introduced a bill that would make major cuts in Social Security benefits. Many media outlets have picked up on this as a harbinger of what's to come in the next Congress.
Before the election, many Congressional Republicans privately expressed grave concerns about Donald Trump's integrity, knowledge, and temperament. They worried about the Russian attempt to influence the election. The gravest concern of these Republican members of Congress seemed to be that Trump isn't a true conservative. However, almost none of these Republicans spoke up publicly because Trump is popular with Republican voters. Now, some people are expecting these profiles in courage to march in lockstep to enact Social Security cuts that would be highly unpopular with Republicans and Democrats alike, when it would be completely predictable that Donald Trump would pull the rug out from under them?
And so it begins...
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are quickly going to lose their mandate if this is the platform they embrace. All these complex benefit changes are unnecessary. Simply raise the FICA income cap and solve the problem. Trump plans to reduce income and corporate tax so raising the FICA cap shouldnt be too painful for higher earners.
ReplyDeleteThe congressional billionaires club had better have a little fear of their constituents. They think with the gerrymandering and the capitulation of the democratic party that they are safe. This is their most powerful position since 1922 and we all know what happened in the 1920's. This election was about the fear and resentment of the common person who has been downsized, eliminated, lost comp benefit systems, lost family members to opiates, and seen their towns and lives go to hell. Social security is one of the last pillars of American certainty and the supposed most reliable safety net. This will only destroy the already torn social cloth of this society. Someday they will fear the people as much as they lapdog their billionaire owners. They need to cut their own pensions and healthcare plans. F them all.
ReplyDeleteThe American people need to take to the streets in mass if they try to do this. There needs to be a coordinated effort among many groups and organizations and they need to see the biggest demonstrations since the Vietnam war or the veterans marches of the 1930's.
ReplyDeleteMid-Term elections come up in 2018. We will be paying attention and voting out the politicians that want the Social Security cuts!
ReplyDeleteWhile there are several senators and congressmen who would love to cut SS benefits, medicare, etc., there are also plenty Republicans who would appose most, if not all, cuts. Also, the Democrats have enough votes to filibuster any cuts in the Senate. Additionally, the best way help SS funding long term is to increase employment and wages.
ReplyDeleteFrightening times indeed. ACA, Medicare and Social Security on the block for repeal or reform (cuts). A lot of people can be hurt by this. Its like the GOP has no fear of the voting base. I thought Medicare and Social Security compromised a large swath of their voting base. Why is Trump so quiet on these issues after campaigning on being the only Republican wanting to protect Medicare and Social Security from cuts. I am afraid we are heading for very difficult times. I hope the voters speak out in mass and start doing so very soon.
ReplyDeleteBack in the golden age of capitalism in Europe and America we didn't have these socialist programs and we did just fine. If someone has not worked and become wealthy why should they ever get to retire? Let them work until the day they die. In the olden days we had debtors prisons, poor farms and churches that handled these problems. The old or disabled unfortunate went to live with their families if they had any social value at all or they went out into the street or woods to die off. Good riddance. It relieved us of the surplus population. They are worn out parts in the great machine they really don't count at all. Who are we to interfere with nature's order. soon we will be living in John Galt's world. Get out of the way and let the new golden age of capitalism begin!
ReplyDeleteI remember another great defender of the program named Obama who was ready to cut a deal with the devil until he faced a revolution in his own party. Hillary wasn't even on board until Bernie took his show out into America's heartland and raised holy hell getting two mile long lines to get into his rallies in the heart of so called red state America. If preppy Paul Ryan would have run on his cuts and vouchers even Hillary would have beaten him. Trump ran a campaign to win but was as vague as Mr Hope and Change was. Don't count on Trump to do the right thing because he's not that kind of guy. If he fights to preserve social security it will be to win a second term. Lookout for a Trump second term because everything will be on the table if he can keep a republican majority. In all these years this is the only election where I have had my disabled clients vocally express they were voting for someone and that was Trump. I truly hope he doesn't throw them in the fire. The republican party has taken on a bunch of new, middle aged, sick white voters in fly over country.
ReplyDeleteTo see the future, revisit the past:
ReplyDeleteFrance circa 1789-1799
Coming soon to a town near you once all the Trumpites have figured out that they have been duped. But its going to take a while, they are not too bright in the first place. Snarky but true for the most part.
The problem with this kind of extremist behavior is it eventually leaves almost nobody standing except a handful of super rich predators. I think in the long term this is one of the most destabilizing moves they could make. It scares me that they would even go this far because it strongly suggests they are ready to rule us by totalitarianism and suppression. Perhaps we will see more of the militarized police in action. The reason you had so much middle class, professional class and even some upper class support for the progressive movements during the Gilded Age was because of all of the social damage. Outsourcing of jobs, job elimination, robots replacing workers and constant social destabilization. If I was in their shoes I would strengthen the program to give the population a softer landing and attempt to prevent social chaos. The banks and the medical establishment will own almost all of us through medical expenses and reverse mortgages before we die. Ceasar will take it all.
ReplyDeleteWe need to learn from our opponents. They have drawn lines in the sand on certain issues and publicized and enforced them through powerful interest organizations. Two examples are gun control and tax increases. you are told if you are an office holder that breaking the line on these issues costs you your job. Through existing and possibly newly created grass root organizations we need to start a defend social security and medicare campaign. we need to set up social media pages and do petition drives and mobilize the American people in mass. we need to make it crystal clear that if these purchased Koch brothers clowns do this they will lose their jobs on election day. this needs to come from the top and bottom up.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the Trumpite set that isn't rich is they want their benes but they want to keep some undeserving other from getting their's. It's always some lazy minority, immigrant, or some young person playing crazy while they are drinking a bottle of ripple. They can't seem to figure out this is a zero sum game and they are in the crosshairs to lose their benefits also.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this vile, disgusting election and facing the fact that our system could only vomit up these two nasty creatures to lead our great country I am just disgusted. However, the globalist economists tell us there is an emerging middle class in place like China and Vietnam that we can take solace in. I think of my father who fought fascism in World War II and my uncle who made a top combat sergeant in Korea but came home a broken shell of a man. To think they fought and sacrificed for this G-damned plutocracy that has no loyalty to this country at all but is only looking for the next payday or cut they can inflict on us just makes me want to puke. This is going to be a huge overstep. They need to get slapped down hard.
ReplyDeleteIt may be time for the "American Spring".
ReplyDeleteThe solution to this is the American people need to charter a Wall Street investment bank with full privileges to use the Fed funds window. They then need to declare themselves insolvent from their reckless investments and then go to the congress and the fed and get a multi-trillion dollar bailout. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteTrillions spent looking for the WMD's in Iraq (mission accomplished!), millions at least spent in untraceable cash to Iraqi tribal chiefs for reasons never fully explained. Trillions spent on bank bailouts (including foreign banks that posed a systemic risk)and still being spent. But, the American people can just go saw it off. This is what you get when both political parties are paid for by the same corporate, Wall Street and billionaire money. The folks bringing this on us are the same ones who were shutting down the government and obstructing at every turn. FDR, Harry Truman, or LBJ would have had a whale of a time attacking them relentlessly and without mercy. They would have run them out of town because the voters would have been ready to travel to DC to mob them. However, our Conciliator and Chief chose to kill them with bipartisanship and extremely unclear, mixed messages. Totally foreign when considering his exceptional communication skills when campaigning. Now he will slip out of town in January leaving a hollow corporate shell called the modern democratic party. What the hell is it? What does it stand for? No more republican lite for me. I will only support democrats that fight like hell for the American people from now on. I would rather lose fighting for our principles than lose like turncoats and cowards. I proudly voted for Bernie Sanders in my primary because he is a fighter who spoke the truth to America. I hope we see more like him in the future. Saying you were a republican in my part of the country got you socked in the mouth here fifty years ago, now it is hard to find one. The democratic party has given up the field and committed political malpractice. Time to stand and fight like hell again.
ReplyDeleteDuped....yep! minions are going to wish they found a different direction.
ReplyDeleteDon't touch these items.
You know it's funny. I was born in Oklahoma in the early 1960's to older parents. as a result I knew many people who were born in the late 1800's and early 1900's. I started life as a somewhat moderate republican and I found these elders would become just livid over the republican party. they hated it with a burning passion which I found amusing at the time. They had been born during the long depression that lasted into the 1890's and had endured the crash of 1907, major labor and farm strife, the agricultural depression of the 1920's and finally the Great Depression of 1929. They despised Herbert Hoover for leaving them to starve and eat dirt on the farm. They idolized Franklin Roosevelt for electrifying the countryside, farm price supports, and social security and for giving a damn about their lives. Life has shown me their wisdom. The republican party since Kanute Gingrich has been an anti-democracy, McCarthyite, evil organization. They have no regard for poor people and in fact don't like them. They classify the bottom 99 percent or so as belonging to this category and are eager to weed us out and put us in our place. They want to destroy social security and medicare very badly. They will ride this horse until it dies like it did in 1929. Then we will either have a restart with democracy and enlightened government with them in the dust bin of history, or we will not recognize the country we were born in. Surveillance, facial recognition technology and militarized police forces strike fear in me for when they crash this thing again.
ReplyDeleteHere's the deal. The Koch brothers and Peterson folks need something for their campaign money to politicians. They know this is the first and best time in decades to dismantle the social safety net. They also know that yes, going that far that fast will get rebuffed, as s aid by someone above. But that isn't the plan. It's a reverse bait and switch, put something onerous out there, talk it up, test the wind and when it looks like it'll get bounced put forward a more "reasonable" plan that people still hate but think "well, it's better than what they put forward before that may indeed pass (or to set up a Trump veto). Either one works. In fact, they win no matter what. If a miracle happens, they get repeal. If it gets watered down, it's still going in the right direction. If it gets vetoed, they get the presidency another term.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to reach out to all members of your state's congressional delegation, especially the republicans, and let them know how strongly you oppose any cuts to Social Security like those in Mr. Johnson's bill. Let them know how much money comes into your state from Social Security and how many of their constituents rely upon it. Let them know how angry they would be at anyone who voted for such cuts. It's time to make the people who propose these bad ideas pay by calling them what they really are. Sam Johnson's proposal to cut Social Security benefits for seniors and people with disabilities sounds about right.
ReplyDeleteI read in an article that Johnson put this out there to "start a conversation." So I doubt even he thinks most of these proposals will ever become law. I also read the response from Social Security's actuaries to Johnson's proposals. While there certainly are some painful cuts to benefit amounts along with the rising of the retirement age, there are also several proposals that would be beneficial to disability claimants. For instance, the bill included a minimum baseline PIA for low wage earners and removing the age fifty requirement and moving the disability onset requirement from 7 to 10 years for disabled widow/widower claims.
ReplyDeleteHe said "Make America Great Again" he did not say who it was going to be great for.
ReplyDeleteAny legislator that stands with the fake respect for the American people who pay their salaries should be charged with Treason and many times over since the sentence is only 7 years and a small fine. For every time they come up with the sinister idea to deny people what they paid for and why these deplorable legislators forget this makes this worthy of being tried for multiple treason acts against the people who worked their fannies off and are forced to pay their FICA through a govt mandate and no legislator gets to undo any of that. I want to see employers pay their share of FICA that injured workers are cheated out of in several ways and that SSA be forced to obey the laws and stop the agency from protecting employers via Congressional members.
ReplyDeleteCongress knows they could pass a bill like this and still get reelected. The people don't care and many will not bother to vote especially in a non-Presidential election like 2018. Younger people have been convinced that either Social Security will not be there for them, it is a drain on the nation, and/or they can do better by themselves. They don't understand the reasons for programs like Social Security and Medicare and the conditions that led to the creation of those programs and they are too disinterested to care.
ReplyDeleteActually younger people are tired of get screwed over to support the prior generation that spent the entire working careers underpaying into the system knowing it would be stressed beyond design by the time they all retired. Yeah, I can do better than SSA, and wont change my dates and lie. The failure of SSA will be at the feet of the Boomers, the most entitled generation EVER!
ReplyDeleteWell, 9:17 AM, as a 70 year old Boomer that has worked since he was 16 years old and is still working and not drawing his Social Security yet, I have to call BS on your tale of woe. The Boomers are one of the last generations that never had the entitlements of you younger generations and what do you have to show for it? Immeasurable National Debt and personal debt and the largest bunch of whiny losers ever. Go back to your parents (Boomers) basement and keep griping. Take responsibility for yourselves...
ReplyDelete10:09 None are so blind as those that will not see. The Boomers are the kings of ignoring their own faults and placing the blame on everyone other than themselves.
ReplyDeleteCost of college up 600% Thanks Boomer, cant get a good job without college, cant go to college because of the price. Pew Research Center supports the tuition increase data.
National Debt, looking at you Boomer.
Shrinking Middle Class, now a thing of the past, you profited from the joys of a Middle class but have moved the vast majority of income up the ladder. Wage stagnation is the Boomer policy of failure.
Longest war is US history. Thanks again guys, and who served?
Who ran the country into the ground, destroyed the manufacturing base, laid waste to education, healthcare, and personal responsibility?
BTW who raised the Millenials? Boomers screwed that up as well and made that whole mess.
A president with a 22% favorable rating, Mr. Bush, 'nuff said there Boomer.
And no one will ever forgive you for Disco, nobody.
You polluted the water, the air, the land, destroyed the greatest power the world has ever known and left us a TV star president elect.
Look in the mirror, that is who destroyed America, that's who is to blame. The face of failure, destruction, creation of the underclass all fall on the Boomer. Spin it how you want, you made this mess, took the greatest economy, smartest nation, best of everything and left us a hollow shell.
At least once, ONCE, show some backbone and accept that you blew it worse than any generation in history.
Sorry 1114 but silent spring was published when the last of the boomers were toddlers.
ReplyDeleteLongest war ever? Sorry papa Bush was not a boomer and sonny was, well I concede that point, no one can defend him.
College tuition is expensive and good jobs are gone, but you need to look at the 1% regardless of age
As for the Millianals, guilty for raising that group of ungrateful whiners
SSA is the best insurance deal you will ever get. if A small increase in the cap will solidify it. One day when you are eating cat food, you are gonna wish you kept it.
Hood luck young Turk, you are going to need it because those who do not learn from the past are doomec to repeat it. Take a long hard look at the depression era before you go chucking SSA.
But disco? That was living in the edge my friend and you have no idea unless you were there. You all are still chasing the highs from that era and don't even know it.
@10:09. I can't think of any reason not to collect Social Security when you reach 70. Up to 70, you get more benefits for delaying (8%/year after NRA), but that stops at 70. (There's also no offset for earnings after the NRA.) So why would anyone wait?
ReplyDeleteBoomers. Cant live with them, so Soylent Green!
ReplyDeleteI have time to prepare, and I am thankful for that. I am not the one who will have the retirement payments cut, have Medicare moved to a voucher program. Far from eating cat food, we will be moving into our highest earning years. Tucking away for a great future, secured by our own hand, not begging from the government. We don't expect it to be there. We plan accordingly. Be kind to those "whiners" those lazy young Turks, they are going to be in charge of SSA Medicare, your long term care. The government giveth and the government can taketh away. Who is going to be gumming the Meow Mix then? Yes we learned from history, one of us is much closer to the poor farm than the other, and if we use the Boomer model, you are our source of greatest profit and cost savings.
ReplyDelete239 you prove my point so well and provide dramatic entertainment as well. Its good to be young, young Turk but some day you too will be old, believe it or not. Unless your generation gets life estate interests in your parents basement your golden years will be a baser metal indeed! Sins of the father and all that good stuff!
ReplyDeleteAll that has to happen is for America to feel some actual pain and the tide will start to turn. You turn more of this over to Wall Street and they will both steal it and lose it. Also, before too very long they will crash this plane like it has never crashed before. Unless the evil at the top really wants to try to declare martial law and totalitarianize this thing they will be hitting the reset button, liberlizing bankruptcy laws and digging up the carcass of Franklin Roosevelt and Mariner Eccols Probably in the form of someone like Elizabeth Warren and a Fed Chairman for the American people and we will start to restart. Civilized nations will not continue to live with this much social uncertainty for too much longer.
ReplyDeleteI'm on medicare and ssdi at age 57 for heart failure followed by kidney failure. I worked for 34 years. I am worried by all the recent GOP proposals to change these programs. Its like waking up to a new reality that is a nightmare. I think many that voted Trump/GOP will not realize what has been unleashed until it hits them where it hurts. I hope I am wrong.
ReplyDelete10:16, not to worry, you are receiving Title II benefits because you worked and paid into the system. There will be no changes for you. Title XVI benefits are paid to uninsured people and is more welfare than anything else. There may be changes for them.
ReplyDelete