White House Budget to Include Social Security Cuts
This is something we’ve never seen from a Democratic president: An official White House budget that includes cuts to both Social Security and Medicare.
White House officials say the budget the president will unveil next week will include proposed cuts to Medicare (by increasing premiums for wealthier retirees) and Social Security (by reducing annual cost of living increases).
The proposals themselves are not new — they were part of the ill-fated offer the president made [last year] — but they are now part of the official White House budget. And that is a significant change that will open the president up to criticism from liberals and put pressure on Republicans to offer a response.
These proposed cuts will infuriate liberals, but in the budget plan — as in the offer made last year to Boehner — the cuts will be paired with $580 billion in tax increases. Without the tax increases, there would be no cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
The writer seems to be suggesting that the tax increases will at least help assuage the liberals’ pain. How nice for them. One might ask however whether the tax increases will do much to assuage the pain us oldsters will be feeling from the Medicare and Social Security cuts.
As usual with Barack ‘Catfood’ Obama, those who couldn’t see it coming have only themselves to blame. He’s been quite upfront about this, and everything else.
“As usual with Barack ‘Catfood’ Obama, those who couldn’t see this coming have only themselves to blame. He’s been quite upfront about this, and everything else.”
Like I said back in 2009 when the whole (so called) health care reform mess was unfolding – Obama is the best republican the democrats ever elected.
Talk about your manchurian candidates!
“He’s been quite upfront about this, and everything else. ”
That’s the thing. From day one the guy never even bothered to pretend he was anything but the corporate hack he is. His worshipers read whatever they wanted into his stated plans and actions, and still do, though at least some of them are starting to wake up. These people are invariably described as being “disappointed” as if they expected something better after his first term. Listen up for your cat food recipes, Martha Stewart fans.
But. But. He promised! http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/your-moment-of-zen.html
What Diggers doesn’t account for is that he has kept his promise from 2008 until now. An eternity in politics.
The question: is did renew his promise in 2012?
Who knows? I have heard his voice or read his speeches since 2008 when he delivered his testicles to AIPAC right after (I think) Sen. Clinton (I blush for Smith even today) withdrew from the race.
er, I have NOT heard his voice. etc….
Perhaps I misremember events of 2008. Sen. Clinton may have delivered her own testicles (figuratively) to AIPAC and then waited to see what Obama would offer in his turn before she withdrew from the contest.
God bless the tea baggers, is all I’m saying. They won’t stand for a penny being cut from Medicare or SS. And they’ll scare the shit out of any pol who even murmurs it (see Specter, Arlen; town hall 2009) The pwogs will of course blog about Medi and SS, scaring no one and fatalisticaly accepting defeat, but it’s the baggers who will go to the ramparts. A wonderful paradox: the tea baggers are our militant social democrats.
I wrote this some time ago: http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2010/12/16/the-obtuseness-of-the-left-establishment/
In 2012, these same fools just reworded their talks and essay. Same dumb shit, as ridiculous now as it was then.
MJS – Jeez, you don’t believe he’ll ‘save the world, re-energize the economy, eliminate child malnutrition and overall poverty within the last month of his presidency?
I tend to believe he’s simply stupid yet proved sufficiently glib to make the cut some years ago — Once upon a time I’m not sure who noted ”a ruling class unfit to rule”, which certainly seems to fit, partic. with Obie holding the whip.