Reid appointed Senator Bernie Sanders to the upcoming Budget Conference Committee.
And incidentally, it looks as if Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson will also be on the Committee…
A compendium of reports:
The House also named its conferees…. Paul Ryan among them…..
And Dick Durbin (DINO-IL) went on Fox News to “chain the CPI.”
http://my.firedoglake.com/letsgetitdone/2013/10/21/dick-durbin-insults-everyone-elses-intelligence-about-social-security/
Obama and the rest of the corporate Democrats still want their “Grand Bargain.”
Thanks, John. Where does Baldwin stand on lifting the cap? I’ll be pretty disappointed if she doesn’t fight for it.
The fact that both of us have to ask speaks volumes. She should be out front leading the fight.
No surprise that the same oligarchs who want to privatize public education want to cut Social Security.
“Public Education Privatizers Join Fight To Cut Social Security”
http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/10/22/public-education-privatizers-join-fight-to-cut-social-security/#
They’re taking a page from “robber baron,” Jay Gould: “I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half.”
I should think you’ll see an uncomfortable number of proposals upcoming from the Dem side to accommodate the unyielding Right-Wing desire for “entitlement reform.” You’ll see benefit cut proposals, you’ll see means testing. Not a shocker. The more substantive matter is how those proposals are “negotiated.” You’ll not see an end to compromises on “entitlements” until you see an end to the Right-Wing desire to eliminate them altogether.
Did Durbin specifically mention chained CPI in the quoted exchange provided by your link or is that conclusion backed up elsewhere in the piece? Clicking on the embedded Fox link opens an interview with Wallace and Rubio. In the rushed transcript Durbin doesn’t address it and defers all specifics to Patty Murray. I probably missed his mentioning of Chained CPI in the transcript.
I’d say the most significant matter Durbin addressed was that the GOP shutdown cost America $30 billion dollars. That should be receiving far more attention than it has gotten.
PJ,
1. please let us know what “benefit cut,” proposals you support.
2. Are you off the “raise-the-cap” bandwagon?
3. Why isn’t Sen. Durbin complaining about this from 2011 “Bank Of America Dumps $75 Trillion In Derivatives On U.S. Taxpayers With Federal Approval.”
http://seekingalpha.com/article/301260-bank-of-america-dumps-75-trillion-in-derivatives-on-u-s-taxpayers-with-federal-approval
To put that in perspective, US GDP in 2012 was around $16 trillion. Really conservative estimates of the costs in Iraq and Afghanistan are running at $6 trillion. Social Security’s Trust Fund is $2.3 trillion.
All the other Wall Street banks have a lot more derivative exposure. I’ve seen estimates of $700 trillion, but no one really knows.
4. IMHO, this is an excellent description of “the debt.”
“…
When a bank has $1 trillion in deposits, that $1 trillion is lent to the bank by depositors. It is a $1 trillion debt. However the bank also counts the same $1 trillion as an asset. This is not a scam. It is standard double-entry bookkeeping.
In order to attract more customers, the bank boasts that it has “$1 trillion in assets.” The bank also has $1 trillion in debt, but customers don’t want to hear that. Again, this is not a scam. It’s how banking works.
Likewise, the Federal Reserve has $16.7 trillion in debt, and $16.7 in assets. $16.7 is the amount of T-securities that have been purchased. You can call this a debt if you like, but it is also an asset. Hence in my previous comment above, I did not say the US government has no debt. I said it has no debt BURDEN.
The whole thing is a Fed matter (the sale of T-securities, and their status as debts and liabilities). It is trivial, and has no connection whatsoever with the U.S. government’s ability to continue creating money out of thin air. Even if federal taxes fell to zero, and the Federal Reserve stopped selling T-securities, there would be no effect on the federal government’s ability to spend. The US government has INFINITE money.
Therefore it is deeply insulting to hear morons issue threats about the “national debt.” And it is especially insulting to hear clowns speak of the USA debt-to-GDP ratio, which is meaningless, since the USA has no debt burden, and since the GDP is a one-year measure, whereas T-securities have maturity dates ranging from 30 days to 30 years. (By contrast, Debt-to-GDP is not meaningless for Euro-zone nations, since they surrendered their monetary sovereignty to the Troika).
On a different note, one reason why the lies continue is that everyone uses the lies for his own ends. Right, left, capitalist, socialist, progressive, conservative, everyone uses the same lies. Just as everyone calls everyone else “Hitler,” so too does everyone point his finger at others, saying, “They’re to blame for the national debt crisis.”
Of course the US government has no debt crisis, but the slaves don’t want to hear that. The slaves prefer to cling to the lies, since this lets them bicker, and it lets them posture self-righteously.
Hence the slaves fall deeper into poverty and misery by the day, while the rich get richer.
Therefore, anyone who rejects MMT is not worth your time. Such people would rather whine than be free. They would rather be “right” than be prosperous.
In short, they insist on remaining worthless peasants.”
It’s from Mark Robertson’s comment on Oct 20 at 12:48AM here http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2013/10/messaging-message-progressives-dont-think-elephant-2.html
As you know, the debt that matters is our climate debt. Without potable water, safe food, and energy, it doesn’t matter how much retirement savings you have.
Hi John,
1. 0
2. I wouldn’t describe support for lifting the cap a bandwagon, and yes. I do support lifting the cap.
3. I can’t speak to why Dick Durbin didn’t discuss what you wanted him to talk about. Perhaps reevaluate the exchange with Chris Wallace?
Do you know where Bernie Sanders stands on MMT?
Here’s Labor on compromising Dems:
The AFL-CIO has a blunt message for Democrats who may be willing to cut Social Security or Medicare, shortly before long-term budget talks are set to begin in Washington: “We will never stop working to end your career” if you slash entitlements.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2013/10/21/labor-warns-democrats-on-social-security-medicare-ahead-of-budget-talks/