This is the fifth installment of Social Security Works’ weekly livestream of the Closed Door Debt Commission. The best action is around 9:15am and 11:30am, right as members of the commission are entering and leaving.

This is the fourth installment of our weekly livestream of the Closed Door Debt Commission. The best action is around 9:15am and 11:30am, right as members of the commission are entering and leaving.

With unemployment hovering around 10 percent following the worst economic collapse in 70 years you would think that members of Congress would be working day and night to get Americans back to work. You would be wrong.

This is the third weekly livestream of the Closed Door Debt Commission brought to you by SocialSecurityWorks.org. The best action is around 9:15am and 11:30am, right as members of the commission are entering and leaving.

President Obama has packed the Debt Commission (also known as the cat food commission) with members who have an overwhelming history of support for both benefit cuts and privatization of Social Security. The “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” is operating in secret over the objections of both parties. John Boehner and John Conyers [...]

John Spratt, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, was recently appointed by President Obama to the Debt Commission. You can put him down as “open to Social Security benefit cuts” and a history of support for some type of privatization dating to the Clinton administration.

Before you start hacking away at “entitlement programs” and telling little old ladies to suck it up and chow down with kitty, Dick (may I call you Dick?) how about a CBO score on the money that would be saved by a Medicare buy-in for businesses? I’m sure all those much-vaunted “small businesses” everyone is always gassing on about (you know, the “engines of economic growth”) would be delighted to see their health care costs cut 15%-30%. Think of what a good jobs creation measure it would be in a time of high unemployment.