David Broder is minting his own conventional wisdom again:
Nation ripe for entitlement reform
Conrad and Gregg have proposed attacking that larger problem by creating a bipartisan commission to examine the big entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — where savings must be found, and the tax systems that support them.
That proposal and its counterpart in the House, sponsored by Republican Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, have been stymied for two years principally by the adamant opposition of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"Where savings must be found." Well, that means cutting Social Security benefits. The Social Security trust fund will take in a hundred billion more than it pays out this year, but since we’ll blow it on increased defense spending, little old ladies must eat cat food to make David Broder happy. Oh and Nancy Pelosi is mean.
But all that aside, where does Broder get the idea that the nation is "ripe" for this? A poll conducted last month by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare finds that 14% of Americans think it is in a state of crisis, and 5.5% are in favor of reducing benefits (PDF).
But a bunch of extremist GOP demagogues are in favor of it, and Steny Hoyer has opened the door, so that means America is "ripe."
I’ve sampled the people currently drinking beer in my kitchen, and America thinks David Broder needs to get out more.
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I’ve sampled the people currently drinking beer in my kitchen, and America thinks David Broder needs to get out more.
heh – I could have saved you the beer expense….
Entitlement? Don’t we have a portion of our paychecks going to these programs so when we retire we’ll be able to have some kind of income coming in, especially if we’re poor in old age? Jees. The right wingers skew everything to make themselves feel better. The uber wealthy will always be wealthy and won’t need Social Security and Medicare, but there’s a good portion of our society who will.
Agreed, so long as he stays out of my neighborhood. We have enough delusional people on the streets already.
Dammit all to freaking hell, leave Social Security alone, ya hear me??? Some folks are one SS check away from dumpster diving (assuming they are physically able to do so). This totally pisses me off! Oh. Hello, everyone.
I’ve sampled the people currently drinking beer in my kitchen, and America thinks David Broder needs to get out more.
as in GET THE F* OUT, DAVID BRODER!!!
as in call the bouncers………………..
lol
excelloni post Jane!
as was the that tidy little piece on HuffPo this aft.
drink up!
you definitely earned it today, and this week!!!
siri
Is Hoyer on crack? The nation is in a depression.
Social Security is the only thing enabling many people to survive.
And yet people who favor slashing Soc Sec will be invited to the Sunday morning talk shows, because lazy producers already have their phone numbers.
I actually don’t want him to get out more – he might contaminate great numbers of people. I just want him to go away. He’s 80 and needs to retire.
“Entitlement?” ; exactly. when SS came into existence, FDR INSISTED that it be funded from employer and employee contributions AND NOT be subsidized by general revenues.
The Congress has for DECADES played a game of borrow from peter to pay paul in regard to SS revenues.
WHAT they don’t have the guts to admit is that simply cutting the so called defense (which is actually an ‘offense’) budget in half solves all these ‘entitlement’ problems.
Or to recognize how both citizens AND business -as a whole- benefit from a single payer system of healthcare.
Frakkin whores without courage is what most Congress critters are.
Thanks for staying on top of these fools and their shenanigans! Friday night drive by news droppings includes this on the Finance committee’s three foolish versions of a ‘public plan’.
From the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin…..-Plan.html
I think when Broder says “Ripe” he thinks we are ready to eat it, again.
Remind me, please, which part of the Constitution describes governance by financial shell games. We oldsters have a hard time remembering details.
I, as a sensible, bipartisan, moderate, and very sensible person, agree with Miss Broder and disagree with Ms. Hamsher.
I think we should use this opportunity to give a victory to the sensible centrist moderates, and I enthusiastically support a Distinguish Blue Ribbon Commission and Social Security Cuts.
It needs to be very carefully selected, with a broad cross section of political leadership, expert opinion, and the general population. Selection will take a year. That is the sensible and moderate bipartisan thing to do.
This is very tough tough problem, that will present real very extremely, and hard, very hard, tough tough choices for the nation. The moderate and sensible muddle, er, I mean middle of the road, bipartisan thing to do is to give them a long time. Say, two years to cogitate, meet and think. Will need lots of public meetinsg all around the country, and people need to have adequate warning, so two years seems about right.
OK, a through review and open debate on the conclusions, and a very thorough process for vetting the vast muddle, er, I mean, thought provoking cross section of majority, minority, varsity and Jr. varsity reports, position papers, briefs, and mimios, memos, momento mori, memorials, and memmoranda, attachments and exectuve summaries. About a year for that.
I say do this right, and in five years, we dump it all on Miss Broder, who can spend the rest of Time itself reporting the results.
I agree. Around 51% of our tax money goes to defense. Does it really need to? Nope! A majority of our nation is made up of the poor & middle class….the ones who will rely on SS when the time comes. Screw the wealthy who back the republicans on this. They’ll always have money whether they paid for SS or not.
Well, may be that’s what American thinks, but tellin’ ya what Waccamaw thinks broder needs to do might very well make me permanently persona non-pupa at the Lake. *G*
I made a picture of Margaritas tonight for the weekend (doing yard work this weekend so Margaritas are needed!). Would anyone like one? ;-)
Cutting into Social Security? Didn’t I hear a bunch of ‘folks in the know‘ poo-poo that prognostication a while back?
I mean, how could you possibly be right about this? Enough with the hysterics, Jane. The big kids have patted us on the head and assured us that everything will be just fine. That’s good enough for me.
/fuck.the.snark.tag
Well, then, I say send the poor and elderly and the children to fight in Afghanistan. See how nicely this works out?! /s
Yes, please. I’m holding out my 6-quart Dutch oven . . . .
Opps I guess my plan added up to four years. Sorry. Friday. Late Friday. I’n not thinking straight.
Add another year for a listening tour. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I forgot to throw in the listening tour. With an interactive web site.
There you go, five years. I support this idea. Thanks to Miss Broder for making this valuable suggestion.
I made a picture of Margaritas
that sounds rather virtual, vicarious, and virtuous. but what the heck – sure, I’ll have one, thanks!
Well, then, I say send the poor
and elderlyand the children to fight in Afghanistan.pretty much mission accomplished on that one.
If we…
A) taxed wealthy by raising/removing the cap
B) said to retirees.. if you are worth over 5 million bucks… you can’t draw Social security.
How “short” would we be then?
And if we were still short, how high would we need to raise the min. wage in order to straighten out the remaining shortage?
You’re making liberal noises there, pal. Leveling the old playing field and all that. Crikey. I can’t even keep snarking about this one. You’re totally right, of course. This doesn’t have to be difficult, does it?!
At least the statistics claimed only 5.5 percent wanted the ’solution’ to the social security (non) problem to be a reduction in benefits. Ever wonder about who those respondents are? Ya know…the ones who choose a future of poverty??? Maybe they are the rich people who own 80% of everything and perhaps they think social security deprives them of one less gold bathroom doorknob or sompin’????
Folks do not realize that the social security money is their money. It belongs to the people, not to the government. It is from earned income.
Is anyone listening to or reading Broder? When the people who sign his paycheck are happy, David is happy.
Hee hee. Now pour me a margarita before someone puts it in the blender. *s*
OT – Richard Wolffe, on KO, says that he has talked to officials “high in the Obama administration”, and they’re telling Wolffe that since Cheney won’t shut up, Obama is seeing less and less of a downside to releasing *everything* on the torture issue….
geezer (Broder) + ripe = gripe
I cried because I had no ice cubes, and then I met a man who had no tequila!
Sour gripes
And if, or when, that happens the simple response should be, “cheney wanted them released.” Now, in all truthiness, he only wants the ones *he’s* specified released but be careful what you ask for, snarlface.
It’s worse than that – it’s closer to 60%. Guns v Butter: A budget graph and piechart simple enough for the tea partyers to understand
lets hope the repuglitards take broder’s advice
sounds like a winner
go to Florida with a plan to fuck with social security, and watch your political career DIE
those seniors can swing a mean walker too
good luck with that
I’m singing… I could cry, salty tears.
Warming up the grinding stone to do the pitchforks and testing the current in the third rail.
Just let them try.
The only “entitlement reform” that makes sense is: (1) rolling Medicare into a good single-payer health plan and (2) have the financial bailout guys repay their loans from TARP, FDIC, and the Federal Reserve directly into the Social Security Trust Fund.
As for entitlement cuts, we can start with the fringe benefits for those temporary workers called Members of Congress. Then the DOD entitlements that said Members of Congress queue up for every session.
I’ve already told my congressman he wants to fuck with the militia, well he’s welcome to them. All it takes is telling someone in line at the grocery store “Hey did you know Hoyer, that lunatic congressman, wants to cut Social Security?”
Word gets around.
As someone 62, I can’t point you to that which you are inquiring about *G*
Sure as spit didn’t go down too well the last time they tried forkin’ around with it, did it? AARP will show ‘em where they can stick that idea the next time they try floating that “kill SS” balloon.
please, please don’t!
Last I heard, John McCain is still cashing his Social Sec checks.
Are you serious? So, like, “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine and we do so enjoy laughing at the pathetic little people.”
Worth over 20 million, collects VA and SS, while collecting a Senate check, bene’s, and Dog knows what else.
Hmmm, you have convinced me.
Remember the “60 Minutes” episode wherein Fidel Castro opened a desk drawer revealing dozens of unredeemed US Government rent checks for Guantanamo? Seems like the figure was around a grand a month. Fidel may be a better Republican than John McCain. Less of a hypocrite to be sure.
Dave is always ripe for entitlement reform. Especially in the spring when a romance is in the air and a man is liable to let his thoughts turns to love. What after all might bring a tingle to a man more than the thought of a few more old people eating dog food or a young innocent child turned away from a hospital?
Reading up a bit on origin of SS. SS web site says this:
I would submit that at least a small portion of the perception of SS’s relative expendability lies in its name. Another of those damn socialistic programs geared to bail out the people who just didn’t try hard enough.
Ya know. “Entitlement” vs. “big honking machines of war that blow off the f’ing heads of the infidels, wherever they may be.” Nolo contendre.
Yes. The “Entitlement” label needs to be kicked to the curb. SS is not entitlement. Medicaid and food stamps are not entitlement programs. Entitlement is what republicans believe in. Entitled by virtue of their wealth and good looks not to pay taxes, no paying for other peoples’ kids to go to public schools, no paying for public roads, emergency services, libraries, and etc.
Entitled also to the biggest most kick ass military and Manifest Destiny, of course. Entitled to burn fossil fuels til the ice caps melt.
Thanks for this Jane. You’re on a roll, as usual.
The theme that America is ripe for reform the Right is trying to hijack for its own extraordinarily damaging reforms that always hurt those not in Broder’s or David Brooks’ investment banker’s salary tax bracket. We don’t need the reforms the mad Broder impliedly says are “essential”. We need other reforms – bank practices, bankruptcy, consumer lending, health care – that the administration is ignoring or not yet working on. Social Security reform is one we don’t need now, and wouldn’t later if those other reforms were undertaken.
They don’t call it the third rail of American politics for nothing.
Save the banks- but not the People’s homes! Save the Health Insurance Companies, For Profit Hospitals, & The Family Frist-Screw the Uninsured! The People’s 401Ks have evaporated, and defined benefit retirement is dead!-Get rid of Social Security, and pass a law against sleeping on the street!
He doesn’t need to get out more, Just pay him the wages of of us with out care.
jo6pac
Having trashed his reputation in the name of sycophancy, Broder has no reason to STFU. The only thing he’s willing to defend anymore on principle is his paycheck.
He’s what David Brooks will be in 30 years. BTW Broder is 79 years old. That’s as old and as worthless as Arlen Specter, folks.
is “more” like it, IMO.
Hey don’t knock old age, please. Plenty of young coots out there too.
Sorry, don’t mean to diminish the contributions of seniors but Broder and Specter should have retired years ago.
Some seniors are still giving us greatness, like Clint Eastwood (78) and Bob Dylan (68).
Broder is not one of them.
The last time we got a distinguished Blue Ribbon panel, it was chaired by Alan Greenspan and we got f***ed in the checking account. What we got out of the Greenspan revisions were:
(1) Delays in enacting COLA adjustments;
(2) Social Security became taxable above a threshold income;
(3) Increases in the OASDI taxes (contributions, whatever you want to call them) were accelerated;
(4) The Social Security Trust Fund was supposed to be taken off-budget. A law was passed to do this, but it’s never happened.
St. Ronnie of Raygun sold us this bill of goods and told us that Social Security was saved for future generations. He used the money to expand the military. Gee thanks, Ronnie.
Well, I’m getting closer to collecting. My defined benefit pension plan has lost a sh**load of money in this crash. I figured that my University pension was going to be the cornerstone of my retirement. Now they’re worried about the solvency of that fund, and have substantially increased our contributions and this time it’s not being shared by the U. Suddenly, Social Security is looking more important to me. I’d figured it was going to be our ‘having fun’ money.
Now, I’m not sure that I’m going to have any kind of retirement plan. I guess I may find out just how continuous my continuous contract is.
And all the people who have just recently retired hoping their Point.401Ks were going to cover their asses are sure going to be happy when they hear that there is a move afoot to cut their social security checks too. Yep. That is going to go over very very well.
Permanent. Republican. Minority.
Social Security cuts won’t happen in this economy. It would be political suicide. Baby boomers are the big demographic bulge, and they (we) are beginning to retire at a moment when their (our) homes have lost value, 401(K)s have been emptied and interest on their (our) savings is only 0.05%.
Let’s say you are 65, have high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis. You’re willing to work but you were laid off from your last job because your employer was downsizing and shipping your job overseas and with unemployment as high as it is you can’t find another job. In fact, the last employer to whom you sent your resume e-mailed you to let you know that you would not receive a personal response because there were over 500 applicants for the job, part-time job, I might add.
Old people vote — regularly. And no president wants old people out demonstrating against cuts in Social Security benefits. That would be really bad publicity, the kind that shortens political careers. What’s more, the generation that is now beginning to retire and receive Social Security, is the generation that fought for civil rights and against the Viet Nam War. They (we) know how protest.
I’m a senior. Trust me, it’s not just poor seniors who rely on Social Security to get them through the month. Thanks to the economic crisis, middle class seniors are relying on Social Security to pay the rent and buy groceries. They (we) aren’t complaining, but they (we) aren’t spending money either, and they (we) will scream bloody murder if their (our) benefits are cut.
So don’t touch Social Security benefits — not if you want your candidate to get elected. They are rock bottom low as it is, and touching them will be political suicide.
Broder is a Republican, and his comments on cutting Social Security show just how out of touch with reality the Republicans are at the moment. Don’t they have grandmothers?
The thing that is never said by those assailing SS is that the government uses SS money to hide deficits and the less withdrawn from SS the more over spending they can hide in the budget . The last fix was in the early 80’s made by RR and AG to hide a tax cut deficit . When the smoke cleared after that fix the eligibility age had gone up which reduces the number of people withdrawing . The other thing seldom said is that Wall Street wants to get their hands on the SS money and the GOP is the political arm of Wall Street so that is where all the noise is coming from . All of the WS inventions like 401K’s , IRA’s , and MUTUAL FUNDS were invented by WS to funnel the retirement money in to WS and as we have found out the hard way that retirement savings are as safe with WS as they are in a casino and look at the power it has given WS . Had the retirement savings been put in US Treasury accounts our government would not be such debt and nobody would have lost one penny . We bailed our country out during WWII and we can do it again the same way .
The ting is, all the government agencies who’ve wound up underfunded relative to the splendor of the Pentagon’s ballooning budget over the past clot of election cycles and fiscal years under the Bush Junta, are now vying for business with the Pentagon in order to get a piece of their very large slice of the budgetary pie. They’re coming up with reasons why they can contribute to the security of the realm and ancillary type tasks. When the Pentagon finally drains away the budgets of the major entitlement programs, silver-haired little old pepperpots deployed in theatres of some Democracy Cause™ in farflung areas of the world will indeed become a more familiar sight.
Broder’s the one who’s ripe. In fact, I’d say Broder’s over-ripe.
Allow me to revise and extend my remarks.
Perhaps “The Ripe One” would be an appropriate sobriquet for Mr. Broder? (a la, of Krugman, “The Shrill One”?)
Is it just me, or does it seem that none of the people calling for cuts in SocSec benefits will ever depend on those benefits as a principal source of retirement income?
I’m forever amazed at how resentful rich people like David Broder are of the middle class and the poor for having what little money they do. Broder, and so many rich people in America, are so disdainful toward anyone who hasn’t achieved their level of wealth and success. Yet, I seldom see middle class or poor people harboring equal amounts of resentment and disdain for the rich.
What’s up with that?
Really what I wonder is what caused Broder and so many other rich people to become so bitter. I imagine David and his rich friends look at middle class and poor people and realize they aren’t bitter and so he hates them for it.