Tell the President That Social Security IS NOT On the Table!

New stories today say President Obama is willing to negotiate cuts to the social safety net to resolve the sequestration issue:

These include the Social Security retirement program and Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs for the elderly, disabled and poor that are becoming more expensive as a large segment of the U.S. population hits retirement age.

Social Security shouldn’t even be pronounced in the same area code as other social safety nets items…it is funded outside the budget…paid for outside the budget…distributed outside the budget…and has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the budget deficit!

Let President Obama and your representatives in Congress know that Social Security must not be in play!

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22 thoughts on “Tell the President That Social Security IS NOT On the Table!

  1. Social security has nothing to do w/budget matters, so please don’t even consider it, other than strengthening the program.

  2. You are absolutely correct that Social Security has nothing to do with the budget since it is an insurance plan funded by participants during their working life and is independent from all other programs or government agencies.

    But there will be a future shortfall which can be adjusted by an increase in the contribution rate as it has been in the past. Another way is to increase or remove the payroll cap for contributions which is currently at $113,700. A means test is another way to reduce payout of Social Security for the very wealthy.

    As a retiree, who “hung it up” at 62, I can tell you from my experience and from fellow retirees that increasing the retirement beyond age 65 is totally unacceptable. For a vast majority, full-time employment is not physically and/or mentally doable after 65.

    Chained CPI is another contentious offering which will reduce the benefit at retirement for current, young contributors I am told: http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Chained-CPI-How-Much-Will-You-Lose

  3. Twenty-four members of Congress are urging the President to hold firm on Social Security and Medicare (the Grayson-Takano letter) by not giving in to Republican’s push for reducing (and eventually eliminating) “entitlements”.

    Will Obama cave in again?

    Support the Grayson-Takano letter, and call your representatives about this issue. Rep. Gwen Moore has not yet signed this. Why not? Give her a call.

    The signers of the Grayson-Takano letter are: Alan Grayson (FL-09), Mark Takano (CA-41), Keith Ellison (MN-05), Raul Grijalva (AZ-03), Maxine Waters (CA-43), Rick Nolan (MN-08), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Luis Gutierrez (IL-04) Nydia Velazquez (NY-07), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Jose Serrano (NY-15), John Conyers (MI-13), Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), Eni Faleomavaega (AS-01), Graciela Napolitano (CA-32), Alcee Hastings (FL-20), Corrine Brown (FL-05), Matt Cartwright (PA-17), Peter DeFazio (OR-04), Gene Green (TX-29), Danny Davis (IL-07), Kathy Castor (FL-14) and Ed Markey (MA-05).

    We need to shower these brave Democrats with recognition for the leadership they are showing, and get after those who do not support protecting Medicare and Social Srcurity. Gwen Moore– where are you on this issue?

    We need to keep on fighting.

  4. Best Laugh of the Week, Mr Ed. Seriously?

    You ignored his first four years, worked for him, voted for him, and NOW you are going to hold his feet to the fire. HAHAHAHAHHAA!!

    1. Says nonquixote: “Best Laugh of the Week, Mr Ed. Seriously? You ignored his first four years, worked for him, voted for him, and NOW you are going to hold his feet to the fire. HAHAHAHAHHAA!!”

      Really– I don’t recall seeing you oversee me in the voting booth– so how do you know who I voted for? Instead of personal jabs, why not address the issue and offer solutions to the problem?

        1. Sorry Ed, I should have been a tiny bit more specific using the noun, “You,” at the beginning of, “You ignored…”

          Should have said, “All of you who ignored…” in that sentence, but there was absolutely no snark in that statement. The hilarity was/is real.

  5. Might as well start holding his feet to this fire, on the KXL too, after his golf weekend with Tiger Woods and James Cramer, Mr Petro magnate.

    http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/03/01-7

    Oburnba’s environmentalist faux-spokesperson McKibben will be appropriately outraged that his do no wrong, POTUS will have no other choice than to approve it, now.

    From the comments at the link, McKibben, “well then it will become Obama’s pipeline.”

  6. Have to agree with nonquixote that Obama is a politician who realizes the need to remain “in the pale” to have any real influence. The U.S. and World economies cannot take the kind of stress necessary to bring the financial and oil industries into pre-Reagan compliance; they are, in fact, ready to start World War 3 to prevent that. Also, we have a history of assassinating presidents.

    This galls me as well: Whenever the Republicans “move the goal posts” in negotiations, they immediately accuse Obama, not Democrats, of moving the goal posts. Mass media goes right along with this…and every other return the blame nonesense offered by any Republican. They accomplish two things by these lies.
    1) they get shakey Dems like nonquixote to quake and begin to attack their own primary champion, President Obama, thus “divide and conquer”; 2) they ameliorate the accusation with soundbite over exposure.

    I’m not kidding about Republicans and World Right Ringers starting World War 3. Actually it would be World War 4, Since Bush started WW3 when he went into Iraq.

    1. Please don’t call President Obama the primary champion of anything except President Obama. That man is more conservative than Nixon and frankly, with his program of assassinating American citizens without due process, just as amoral.

    2. Kat, listen up.

      Kindly refrain from saying you are agreeing with me, and then making up sh*t that I didn’t even say, as you just did here.

      When you don’t even know what the f*ck you are talking about when you are speaking for yourself, pretending you know what others, such as myself are thinking or saying, is pure pretentious and narcissistic crap, so please put a sock in it, with your worthless analysis. You obviously don’t have a clue as to where I am coming from politically or otherwise.

      I’ll give you this though, the Republican Obomba and the Republican SoS Kerry were sabre rattling against Iran again, this past weekend, threatening to light off the middle east on another front.

  7. @Paul, I heard, in almost that exact wording, the same comments about Bill Clinton, who I was championing way before he managed to resusitate the American economy that Bush I had let slide into the toilet. If you’re electable and influential as a Democrat in this country, you’ve managed to overcome some very heavy obstacles, especially raising money with any kind of private life.

    1. Bill Clinton is also more conservative than Nixon, which has nothing to do with any kind of private life. I don’t care about an elected leader’s personal life. Have sex with any consenting individual or group you want. Hate any ethnic group or religion. I don’t care as long as you don’t legislate on those issues. I don’t call Obama amoral because of any personal issue, just the whole murdering people thing. Frankly Bill Clinton’s deregulation of the economy was almost as bad as Bush II’s not to mention how NAFTA and Welfare Reform both sold out liberals with ramifications we still feel to this day. On the other hand I didn’t really see him as anywhere Nixon or Obama levels of deception and immorality. He fucked an intern, I don’t care.

  8. Mr President hold tight and stand tall don not cut Social Security we are all behind you on this and this is why you were re-elected. They are wrong and just want to dismantle everything the democratic party has fought for since FDR.

    1. Good reminder, Geraldine, that President Obama did indeed “clean their clock” in the November election. FDR is my hero.

      Even the Catholic nuns are against the inhumanity of the Catholic Ryan’s budget and his fellow GOP members who are seeking a “final solution” to the elderly and disabled and retired.

  9. Thanks Ed.

    Everyone I trust says Obama’s just dying to “chain the CPI.” AFAIK, the only block is the House Progressive Caucus. Based on the February url below, neither Mark Pocan nor Gwen Moore
    will sign the Grayson-Takano letter, which pledges not to vote for any legislation which “chains the CPI.”

    http://my.firedoglake.com/nsolomon/2013/02/27/three-quarters-of-progressive-caucus-taking-a-dive-on-social-security-medicare-and-medicaid/

    Pocan and Moore are imho grade A examples of what’s wrong with the Democratic party. Both are in Dem strongholds that are among the most secure. The only real threat to their tenure is the Democratic primary. Their failure to sign this letter is a clear sign of just how real the threat is that the CPI will be chained and Veterans’ benefits and Social Security will no longer rise with inflation.

    1. Quote from the url above

      “……While still on the caucus roster, three-quarters of the 70-member caucus seem lost in political smog. Those 54 members of the Progressive Caucus haven’t signed the current letter that makes a vital commitment: “we will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits — including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need…..”

      Pocan and Moore don’t want to sign it, because they’re afraid they’ll cave and then someone will “primary” them and use their signature as proof of their massive duplicity.

      The rest of the Dem caucus is scared if they vote to “chain the CPI,” the GOP will understandably blame them. That’s what Romney/Ryan did to Obama and Medicare, they claimed he was leading the fight to cut it.

      I would urge everyone to call their House Rep and ask that they sign the Grayson-Takano letter. Most of the House GOP isn’t going to vote for anything the President will sign. That gives even a very small number of Progressive Dems huge leverage over the process. Back during the Obama care debate, we were begging Tammy Baldwin to use that leverage to get a “public option.” It would have provided a “Medicare-for-all” buy in option for anyone who wanted it. That would have provided COMPETITION to the health insurance oligopoly, which they did not want. So now, since Baldwin didn’t use that leverage, we’re stuck. Middle class and poor are FORCED to buy LOUSY coverage from Blue Cross/Well Point, United Health Care, Cigna……. I hope she got a big check from the health insurance oligopoly, but knowing Dems they give away their votes for next-to-nothing.

      #frustrated

  10. What can anybody be thinking. I have worked in a factory producing car parts for all of my 40 1/2 years in the workforce. I did this before there were ergonomic and safety requirements in place. My body will not withstand another 12 years. Everyday I hurt and ache. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought of retirement at 66, which is still 7 1/2 years away. I work at a small Independent supplier of car parts and make a fraction of the wages the major auto companies pay (approx $25,000 per year) We do not have pension. We do not have retirement medical insurance. When we retire we are done! I believe I am speaking for a huge percent of the population when I say our bodies cannot take another 3 or 4 years of the strenuous work we do. Are we going to be like China and let our citizens die at their job stations, sweep them aside, and let the next victim put in their 52 years!!!!!!!! I just want to have a few years to let my body heal from the years of standing on cement and repetitive reaching, bending, lifting, twisting and walking. Washington! Get off your high horses and look at the Everyday Working Class Joe. We deserve to have a decent life and retirement too!!! Don’t take what little we have away from us. We are the people you represent!!!!!!!!!!!!

    1. Connie, thanks for a great comment. I hope you consider calling your Congressional rep, Baldwin and Johnson. These are not “entitlements.” These are “insurance benefits,” that you have paid into for a lifetime. “Entitlements,” are what Wall Street and the elites get.

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