For a lot of reasons, it would make so much more sense to turn Social Security into a national pension plan that covers everyone.
Category: Class War
Catfood commission’s nine lives
I hardly know where to begin. First of all, it’s clear that the Democrats plan to implement the recommendations of the Catfood Commission, the same recommendations that couldn’t muster enough of the votes it allegedly had to get before it would be presented to the House for a vote. So that’s one really big lie to the American public; we were never meant to have any say, it’s already decided.
Second, this reporter talks about what Mark Warner’s presentation “shows.” It does not “show” anything — it contends, and it is widely disputed by many reputable economists, two of them Noble Prize winners. It is in the same factesque vein of a prosecutor’s opening statement to the jury.
But facts don’t seem to matter anymore, do they?
RICHMOND, Va.—A bipartisan group of senators is close to proposing legislation they hope will force Congress to tackle the federal government’s ballooning debt, and they have begun a road show to win public support.
The proposal would cut the federal budget deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, roughly four times the savings the White House proposed in February, Sens. Mark Warner (D., Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.) told about 200 business leaders at a meeting in Richmond.
If enacted into law, the plan would likely force Congress to boost revenue through new tax rules, cut spending and bring down the growth rate of Medicare and Social Security over time.
Some executives at the meeting appeared skeptical that a bipartisan deal could eventually win support from Congress and the White House, but many encouraged the lawmakers to try.
“They know they have to do it now and if they don’t do it now, we are going to have other countries in charge of our future,” said Doug Gray, executive director of the Virginia Association of Health Plans trade group, who attended the meeting.
Messrs. Warner and Chambliss are crafting the proposal with Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D., Ill.), Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.), Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), and Mike Crapo (R., Idaho).
Mr. Warner’s presentation showed that if current trends continued, interest payments on federal debt would skyrocket from more than $20 trillion in 2060 to $80 trillion in 2080. It also showed that U.S. government debt as a percentage of total economic output could soon equal that of Greece, whose fiscal problems have threatened to destabilize Europe.
“If we put this off, we are approaching financial Armageddon,” Mr. Warner said.
The senators said their plan would seek to largely implement the recommendations made in December by the White House’s bipartisan deficit-reduction commission. That group called for cutting spending in myriad government programs, and trimming costs on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The proposal was made by commission co-chairmen Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson.
WI Dems file complaint against Walker
The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent has a copy of the complaint Wisconsin Dems are filing against Gov. Scott Walker during a call he thought was from David Koch, and he says it builds a persuasive case:
The complaint, which reflects a sense among Dems that all bets are off in this standoff, makes an interesting argument. By any reasonable standard, it says, Walker’s conduct should undermine “public trust” and fell well short of standards designed to ensure “the faith and confidence of the people of this state in their state public officials and state employees.”
The complaint focuses on several aspects of the prank call, but I think these two may be the most interesting:
16. Respondent states during the Call that he has the Attorney General’s office “looking into” strategies to force the Democratic senators to return. This constitutes a misuse of the independently elected office of the Attorney General for primarily political motivations.
And:
19. Respondent states during the Call that he will send out 5,000-6,000 layoff notices to public sector employees in an attempt to “ratchet up” pressure on the Democratic Senators. This use of threat against, and intimidation of, public sector employees for political purposes constitutes an unfair labor practice in violation of Wis. Stat. Section 111.84.
The complaint also alleges that it was improper for Walker to suggest to Koch that Republicans in swing areas might need shoring up, since this smacks of illegal coordination, though to my mind it isn’t clear what he was asking for. It also says that Walker’s claim that he “thought about” planting troublemakers in the crowd “constitutes a conspiracy to recklessly endanger public safety,” though here too it’s not quite clear what Walker really considered doing.
That said, even those examples were eyebrow-raising, and the complaint is worth reading, because it’s a reminder that taken together, Walker’s shenanigans on the call add up to conduct that by any reasonable measure should raise serious questions about Walker’s judgment and approach to his office. Some in the national media were quick to exonerate Walker after the call, but reading the complaint, the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s claim that his conduct risks undermining the public trust in state government doesn’t seem particulary unreasonable.
Advice for the rich
A self-perpetuating system
Labor activist/reporter Mike Elk in Alternet makes many, many good points and you should go read all of them:
Since the financial crisis and President Obama’s election in the fall of 2008, there have been two major actions taken by working people that commanded the attention of America’s financial elite — the 2008 occupation of Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago and the current Wisconsin State Capitol occupation. Both events won enormous public support.
However, these types of events not only threatened economic elites that run our economy, but posed a challenge to established progressive leaders in Washington; how to incorporate them. The mass, spontaneous civil disobedience and direct action allowed workers to take matters into their own hands and upset the normal function of the insider relationships the progressive elite tend to rely upon.
Continue reading “A self-perpetuating system”
Silly
This is the latest wingnut argument, and Ezra Klein does a fine job shredding it:
As David Brooks puts it, the problem with public-sector unions is that they “help choose those they negotiate with. Through gigantic campaign contributions and overall clout, they have enormous influence over who gets elected to bargain with them, especially in state and local races.” Then they negotiate with these same leaders — or representatives of these same leaders — for pay, pensions, etc.
But the same goes for corporations. The income of many corporations — Boeing is a good example — depend on government contracts. Tax policy is also important when it comes to setting take-home pay. Then there are rules, regulations, bailouts, backstops, and all the other ways that the government helps structure and shape the economy. And “through gigantic campaign contributions and overall clout,” corporations “have enormous influence over who gets to bargain with them.” And in the aggregate, of course, the business community spends much more than the unions — in 2010, business groups spent $1.3 billion, while unions spent $93 million.
Continue reading “Silly”
Homeless children in America
Go watch the videos. Nice to know there are still some bleeding heart liberal journalists left:
Destiny Corfee, 11, joined the line at one local motel a year ago. “I never really noticed what people were actually going through until now; until we’re actually going through it too,” she told “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley.
Destiny’s parents David and Theresa never imagined their family homeless. Together they were making about $40 an hour detailing expensive cars. There was a three-bedroom home, vacations and extras for the kids. But both jobs went, and then the house. Evicted, they found that the homeless shelters wanted to split their family up – boys and girls.
“That was definitely something that I wasn’t gonna have, was being separated at a time like this. I figured the time like this that we needed to be together more than anything,” David Corfee said.
So David, Theresa, Destiny, Jorge and Chance, moved into their van.
“I was embarrassed that maybe one of my friends might see me. I don’t want anybody to know that I was actually in there,” Destiny told Pelley.
Continue reading “Homeless children in America”
Tax breaks vs. budget cuts
Scott Walker is a right-wing tool
From the Cap Times (via First Draft, a blog that’s done an amazing job cover the Madison movement). This insurance plan is something that doesn’t cost the state government anything — but doesn’t profit any of Walker’s friends, so it has to go:
If you need a prima facie example of how this extremist Republican governor is taking the side of the big guys against the little guys, I’ve got one for you.
Hidden in the 1,300 or so pages of his 2011-13 budget is the dismantling of Wisconsin’s little-known State Life Fund, a small state-operated life insurance plan that was enacted 100 years ago this year by progressive Republican legislators in the wake of insurance scandals that rocked the state back then.
The fund costs Wisconsin government nothing, but operates off investing the premiums paid by the 30,000-plus state residents who hold policies with face values ranging from a minimum of $1,000 to a maximum of $10,000. The fund, which isn’t well-known because it is forbidden from doing any advertising, nevertheless earns dividends that substantially reduce the insureds’ premium costs plus build cash values that policyholders can cash in if events in their lives make it prudent to do so.
Continue reading “Scott Walker is a right-wing tool”