Posts filed under ‘Seniors/Retirement/SS’
Romney: Please, Please, Please Pick Rubio!
If Mitt Romney picks Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his vice presidential nominee, we’re gonna have fun with this quote from Rubio today on CNN’s “State of the Nation:”
I haven’t gone through the comparison,” Rubio told CNN’s Candy Crowley. “I think that presidents serve in different times with different challenges. And so I think that George W. Bush, in my opinion, did a fantastic job as president over eight years, facing a set of circumstances during those eight years that are different from the circumstances that a President Romney would face.
Bush lied us into a war; he passed an unfunded Medicare prescription drug program (a gift to the drug and insurance companies) that could cost as much as much as $1.2 trillion; he passed the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and he let the banks crash the global economy, to name but a few of his accomplishments. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what Republicans think is a, ahem, “fantastic job.”
So, keep the video handy. If Romney does pick Rubio it’s gonna get a whole lot of airtime. If Romney doesn’t pick Rubio, we can save it and use it when Rubio runs. Heehee.
GM Trades Pensions for a Week’s Vacation
General Motors Co. is eliminating traditional pensions for all U.S. salaried employees, but the automaker is softening the blow by giving all salaried workers an extra week of vacation.
The company said that it would also announce bonuses for its approximately 26,000 U.S. salaried workers during its 2011 earnings call on Thursday. Those bonuses will be tied to GM’s global performance.
GM also said it will give pay increases to workers with critical skills this year, but said there would be no across-the-board raises.
So instead of a pension, which guarantees regular payments in a set amount from the time someone retires until they die, employees get a week’s vacation? Wow. Big of them.
Vera Wang: Tell Me This Isn’t Photoshopped
This is the dress designer Vera Wang — aged 62 — in a spread appearing in the latest issue of Bazaar magazine:
Look at her knees. Look at her chest and neck area. No way this isn’t photoshopped.
(Larger version (though not much) here.)
Iowans Applaud Rick Santorum for Saying He’ll Cut Social Security
I just watched (@ 7:52 p.m. ET) a live clip of Rick Santorum speaking to senior citizens in Iowa, telling them, when president, he will cut the deficit by $5 trillion, “including entitlements,” which means Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.
Like idiots being lead to slaughter, THEY APPLAUDED.
Ahhh!
P.S. Let’s start referring to “entitlements” as earned benefits. The money we get back for those things came out of our paychecks, dammit.
Work Until You’re 90 — It’s Fun!
The ABC Evening News w/Diane Sawyer just aired a piece about how great it is to work until you’re in your 90′s. The segment featured a 90-year-old hairdresser who’s still going strong and yes, she seemed perfectly happy.
Kudos to her but I can’t help but wonder what the point was. If I know the “liberal media” like I think I do, what I just saw was an opening salvo in a campaign designed to convince already-exhausted Americans that hey, if the corporatocracy takes away your Social Security, any pensions you might have, your health benefits, your accrued vacation time, etc., life’s a beach but you’re just too spoiled to notice how great it is. And if you don’t like it, strap your boots on, put a smile on your face and work into your 90′s, and if you complain or physically can’t do that, there’s something wrong with you, not with the system.
Photo: AP
Rick Perry Stands to Rake in the Dough via Our Tax Dollars
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against pensions or Social Security or Medicare but I do have a problem with a man who is against all those things taking them for himself. Then again, Rick Perry wants us to believe he’s a man of conviction so when he retires he’ll probably stay true to his word and refuse all these “government handouts:”
As a Texas governor and presidential candidate, Rick Perry has repeatedly turned to the marketplace for policy solutions to health care and retirement security.
But as a private citizen, Perry has generally relied on the government.
Perry is a member of what the Texas Employees Retirement System (ERS) calls “the elected class,” which provides the kind of lucrative pension benefits that have all but disappeared from the private sector.
Under its provisions, Perry, 61, could have retired at age 50 with lifetime health care paid for by the state. To the annoyance of his opponents, he is still in office — and every year he stays will benefit him in the long run.
If Perry retires at the end of his current term, in 2014, he would be eligible to collect as much as $119,025 a year, according to calculations based on 30 years of elective service and optional provisions. Perry will also receive Social Security, which could swell his total public pension benefits to more than $140,000 annually.
The state pays 100 percent of the cost of state employees’ health insurance premiums, and Perry, an Air Force veteran, has had access to taxpayer-supported care since he joined the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets in 1968. He is entitled to state-financed health care for the rest of his life and will be eligible for Medicare after his current term expires.
Pretty nice huh? But again, I’m sure Perry will turn all of this down. Oh, wait. Maybe he won’t. Maybe he won’t because Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are only referred to as “handouts” or “entitlements” when the 99% are getting them. Otherwise they’re referred to as something along the lines of “earned benefits.” So hey, we shall see.
Gosh — What Are the Occupy Wall Street People So Upset About?
We constantly hear the “liberal media” wondering aloud: So, what exactly are the Occupy Wall Street protesters so upset about?
Here’s a hint:
30 Major Corporations Paid No Income Taxes In The Last Three Years, While Making $160 Billion
One of the driving forces behind the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests is the fact that corporations have not been paying their fair share in taxes. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice will no nothing to alleviate the protesters’ frustration.
CTJ looked at 280 companies, all of them members of the Fortune 500, and found that “while the federal corporate tax code ostensibly requires big corporations to pay a 35 percent corporate income tax rate, on average, the 280 corporations in our study paid only about half that amount.” And those who paid even half the statutory corporate tax rate paid far more than many of their competitors.
In fact, in the last three years, 78 corporations had at least one year where they paid no federal income tax at all, while 30 corporations paid not a dime over the entire three years. Those 30 corporations paid nothing, even though they made $160 billion in profits over that period.
And rather than closing loopholes so all corporations pay their fair share (and oh yeah, maybe closing some of the 800+ military bases we have around the world), the “Super Committee” is talking about cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And that’s. Just. Wrong.
It’s Acceptable Now for a Presidential Candidate to Tell Us to Eat Cake
I thought Jon Huntsman might be a bit saner than his fellow whacked-out GOP presidential candidates, but I guess not:
2012 GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is releasing an economic plan today that is as bad for the middle-class — and as nutty — as any proposed by his rivals. It would pay for a half-million-dollar tax break for the richest 0.1 percent of Americans with tax increases on the middle-class and new taxes on seniors, veterans, and poor families.
In an apparent attempt to eclipse all previous Republican giveaways, including the disastrous Bush tax cuts, Huntsman would drop the marginal rate paid by the richest Americans by more than a third to 23 percent –a lower rate than rich people paid during the Coolidge and Hoover Administrations or any time since. He would also eliminate all taxes on all capital gains and dividend income — the primary forms of income for the wealthiest Americans.
How is it we are at a place where millionaires can run for president and say, with a straight, unashamed face, that they’re going to raise our taxes and cut theirs? How in the world has that come to be acceptable? Oh, wait. I know. I guess we sheep have thoroughly accepted the BS (put out by corporations and the rich) that the “job creators” need lower taxes so they’ll create a whole bunch of new jobs, right? So how low do corporate taxes and taxes on the rich need to go before they start creating all those jobs? I mean, we’ve been waiting ten years already.
Oh, and see below for more on how corporations and their CEOs are suffering under the weight of our “high” tax rate.
The Big “Job Creator” Lie
As I’ve asked a million times on this blog, why, oh why, do the American people believe the big Republican lie that if we cut taxes on the “job creators,” they’ll create jobs? I mean, just look around. Where are those jobs?
The Republicans in Congress have been on a spending cut frenzy since they began their assault on workers and jobs earlier this year, and the economy has not improved or grown like it should have if the GOP’s assertions were correct. At last count, the spending cuts Republicans have proposed will cost Americans nearly 2 million jobs making the GOP the job-killing masters. It is really a twisted concept to understand, but for some unknown reason the Republicans have convinced their supporters that the jobs picture and the economy will improve by enacting spending cuts and maintaining the Bush-era tax cuts. Both spending cuts and the wealthy’s tax cuts will never ever result in job creation and it reinforces the notion that Republicans are not the least bit serious about creating jobs or growing the economy.
If the Republicans had their way and slashed education, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and all programs that Americans depend on, there will still be bills to pay for the bloated defense budget, oil subsidies, and the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. The savings from severely cutting those programs will still not add revenue, and when those programs are slashed, the millions of jobs lost will result in lost tax revenue that puts the economy in a worse position than it is now. The only difference is there will be millions more Americans living in poverty with no safety nets to sustain them, but of course, that is part of the Republican’s plans over the long term. When President Obama suggested keeping the payroll tax holiday to stimulate spending that does create jobs, Republicans balked because they need the revenue to maintain the military, oil subsidies, and tax cuts for the wealthy. Increasing the payroll tax will not affect the wealthy or the corporations they own so Republicans are happy to see it increase.
[...]
The spending cuts Republicans have proposed are for one purpose and one purpose only; to maintain the wealthy’s entitlements and the defense budget. They have nothing whatsoever to do with creating jobs or helping the economy much less setting America on a stronger financial footing.
Wake-up America.
Would You Want Your Social Security Money to be Invested in This Stock Market?
This would be our tweet of the day:
GOP Already Hitting Obama On His Willingness to Put Medicare on the Table
Check out this screenshot from GOP.com. (See the original version here.)
I swear, Obama is laying the groundwork for his own defeat.
If Your Social Security Check Doesn’t Arrive…
Here’s an ad produced by a coalition of labor unions — AFSCME, SEIU, the NEA and Americans United For Change — that hits Republicans hard (and Eric Cantor specifically) for their failure to come to an agreement on the debt ceiling.
It’s good. And I’m glad to see that Democrats/Progressives are are hitting the air waves. Maybe this ad will give some perspective to Karl Rove’s PAC of lies.
(Via.)
Fox Bases Pro-GOP Headline on the Word of “One Senate Republican Aide”
This is the headline at FoxNation.com right now (5:19 p.m. ET):
Wow. Sounds like everybody — EVERYBODY! — wants congress to reduce spending, right?
Not exactly. When propaganda is the name of the game, all it takes to put up a screaming headline like that is the word of one single measly GOP aide who just might (ya think? have a dog in this fight:
Telephone calls and emails flooded into the Capitol Tuesday, overwhelming the phone system and slowing computer servers after President Barack Obama urged voters Monday night to support the Democrats’ debt-ceiling plan.
An internal email sent around to U.S. House offices said “House Telephone Circuits Near Capacity” and told users, “Due to the high volume of external calls, House telephone circuits serving 202-225-XXXX phone numbers are near capacity resulting in outside callers occasionally getting busy signals.”
One Senate Republican aide credited some of the increased phone traffic to Mr. Obama’s speech but added that the callers to Republican offices aren’t backing the president’s approach. “The majority of calls that our offices have received have all been calls to reduce spending,” the aide said.
So, if all you saw was the headline, and you didn’t click on the title and read the actual article — carefully — you’d think yes, that EVERYONE wants congress to reduce spending.
Americans to D.C. — Don’t Cut Entitlements!
Here’s yet another indication D.C. isn’t listening to We the People:
What if pollsters asked Americans which concerns them more: The prospect of tax hikes on people like them, or the possibility of cuts to Medicare and Social Security?
Well, a new National Journal poll released today has done just that. And by a sizable margin, a plurality is more concerned about cuts to entitlements than about paying more taxes. It’s yet another sign that the public is on the Dems’ side in this fight.
Here’s the key finding, from the internals of the poll, which were sent my way by National Journal:
In the debate over proposals to increase the federal debt ceiling, which of the folllowing possible outcomes concern you most?
A default on the federal debt that could raise interest rates for things like mortgages and consumer loans: 17
An agreement that raises taxes on people like you: 17
An agreement that authorizes too much federal spending in the next few years: 19
An agreement that cuts too much from government programs like Medicare and Social Security: 39
Hike our taxes before you cut our “entitlements.” GOT THAT WASHINGTON?!
Fox is Still Talking About the “Ground Zero Mosque?”
I just turned to Fox, which I should never do because anything more than a second or two over there tends to generate the need for a post.
Anyway, what I saw was BillO talking to some guy about the “Ground Zero Mosque.”
Is he kidding? They’re still talking about that three-year-old manufactured controversy?
Oh. I forgot. The Repubs are in trouble over the debt ceiling so they need to distract us. They want us to look ← instead of →.
Remember the 2010 Election and “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?”
Remember how waaaaaay back in November — nine months ago folks — when Republicans were screaming about jobs, jobs, jobs? That was their #1 priority and WHY THE HELL WASN’T PRESIDENT OBAMA CREATING THEM?
This would be Republicans today:
Gingrich claims ‘there is no Supreme Court’ in the U.S. Constitution
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made the surprising and completely false assertion this week that the Constitution doesn’t mention the Supreme Court.
“There is no Supreme Court in the American Constitution,” Gingrich told an audience in Pella, Iowa. “There’s the court which is the Supreme of the judicial branch, but it’s not supreme over the legislative and executive branch. We now have this entire national elite that wants us to believe that any five lawyers are a Constitutional convention. That is profoundly un-American and profoundly wrong.”
Lookie over there. No. Over there. No. There. Don’t look to us to create jobs. Forget we said that. It’s about the Constitution. No it isn’t. It’s about the gays. The immigrants. Planned Parenthood. Acorn.
Geezus.
Congress Should Get Their Retirement Funds When We Get Them
So, if Washington is going to entertain the idea of raising the age when us peons are eligible for retirement benefits, let’s include congress in that deal. So says Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
Senator Sherrod Brown has an idea. If we are going to talk about raising people’s eligibility age for retirement benefits, then members of Congress should not have access to their own retirement benefits any earlier than the rest of us.
Brown is introducing a proposal today in Congress that would enshrine this into law: It would amend the Federal retirement system to make the Social Security retirement age the point at which current and future members of Congress get access to their own Federal retirement benefits.
You might dismiss this proposal as merely designed to send a message, and indeed the proposal that may not even come up for a vote. But Brown is hoping that the very fact that it’s a long shot will force some members of Congress — and the President — to rethink the notion that it’s acceptable to raise the retirement age on hard working Americans.
“The people who cavalierly say we can raise the retirement age probably don’t know people who work in a diner or in construction or in manufacturing or in retail and had their knees go out in their 40s or 50s,” Brown told me in an interview. “People who are doing physical work always have back problems and joint problems.”
I say bravo and I say ah yeah. Duh. Congress critters have a lotta gall proposing that we can’t get our retirement benefits until we’re 67 when they get theirs immediately…even if they retire at age 40.
Let’s start chipping away at the caste system around here for God’s sake.
Obama — Are You Negotiating My Family Into Homelessness?
President Obama met with “congressional leaders” tonight to discuss the debt limit. The meeting reportedly lasted 75 minutes and “they” say he’s going to hold a press conference tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. ET to talk about what happened.
Obama — my husband retired on July 3. You say Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are on the table. We are freaking out about how you might be negotiating us into homelessness (in a “bipartisan,” hopey, changey, yes-we-can! way, of course).
Hold a press conference tonight. What are you doing to our future?
The stress is almost unbearable.
Oh to Be a Defense Contractor
It’s pretty damn infuriating to read this:
The House overwhelmingly passed a $649 billion defense spending bill yesterday that boosts the Pentagon budget by $17 billion and covers the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The strong bipartisan vote was 336 to 87 and reflected lawmakers’ intent to ensure national security, preserve defense jobs across the nation, and avoid deep cuts while the country is at war.
While House Republican leaders slashed billions from all other government agencies, the Defense Department is the only one that will see a double-digit increase in its budget beginning Oct. 1.
And then this:
Defense contractors have lobbyists who lobby our elected officials, who are supposed to be working for us. Guess who gets the dough.
If Obama Agrees to Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid…
William Rivers Pitts is spot-on when it comes to how I will feel if Obama so much as touches Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid during the, ahem, “bipartisan budget negotiations:”
There is no deal on paper as of yet, and the whole world is watching. Many people I spoke to on this were blunt: if the Democrats consent to any deal that damages or denudes Social Security and Medicare, then that’s it, hats over the windmill, and turn out the lights when you leave. Obama and his people can hope and change their way across the campaign trail until they are blue in the face. They will not be getting the votes of these people. This administration has made it clear on more than one occasion that they do not think too highly of their own base, and by acting like Republicans, perhaps they believe they will earn the votes of enough independents to offset the damage.
Maybe they will, and maybe they won’t, but that is not the point.
This is a matter of honor, plain and simple. An ocean of blood, sweat and tears has been spent bringing these all-important programs to life, and even more has been spent protecting and defending them. If this president consents to throw all that over in an act of political triangulation, he will be marked in my book for all time as a failure, a betrayer, and a disgrace.
In my book, and in many other books besides.
And there’s this from Joe Conason over at Truthout:
But the restored courage demonstrated by Democratic senators in support of his plan will not accomplish much if the president is determined to capitulate on fundamental principles. Should he prove to be so foolish, then he will find himself another step closer to the end of his presidency.
And though I believe every citizen has not only a right, but a responsibility to vote, I am feeling so deceived by Obama — he is unrecognizable from candidate Obama — I am seriously considering not voting for president in November, 2012.
Obama: Touch Social Security and I’m Done With You
So Obama wants to “strengthen” Social Security by cutting it.
Obama: If you so much as touch Social Security I’m done with you. I don’t vote Republican.
Elizabeth Turner, USPS — More in the Coming Days
Let me put it this way: There was a time when you got a “gold” watch for 30+ years of busting-your-ass service.
You won’t believe what they do now.
More to come.
Ain’t America Great?
What. An. Unbelievable. Story:
Man Robs Bank so He Can go to Jail and Get Health Care
Often, crimes are borne of desperation. However, most robberies aren’t motivated by a desperate need for health care.
James Richard Verone, of Georgia, attempted to steal one dollar from a bank so that he would be arrested, taken to jail and — most importantly — provided with health care, the Gaston Gazette reported.
Verone worked for Coca-Cola for 17 years, but lost that job three years ago. Now 59 years old, Verone can’t handle the physical demands of the part-time jobs, like working in a convenience store, that he has successfully been hired for. Hence, he has no health care.
“The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept,” he told the Gazette. “I kind of hit a brick wall with everything.”
He had no criminal record prior to the planned robbery June 9, either. On that day, he walked into a bank, handed the teller a note demanding a dollar, then sat and waited calmly for the police to arrive and arrest him.
My God. This is what we have come to.
“Pro-Life” Republicans
Republicans are “pro-life?” How about pro-life in-utero. After that, you’re on your own:
The first of five abortion-restricting bills passed by the state Legislature was signed into law yesterday by [Florida's Republican] Gov. Rick Scott. House Bill 97 removes coverage for abortions in health care insurance exchanges created by federal health care reform. The law provides exceptions for cases of rape, incest and a threat to the woman’s life.
And then there’s this:
Last week Gov. Rick Scott signed the state’s budget, which proposed reductions to health services for women and children. He also vetoed millions more in health service projects set aside specifically for women and children. Programs that aim to lower infant mortality and increase women’s health in the state have seen a major setback since Scott took office.
Leave Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Alone!
Quickie: Wanna halve the budget? Don’t cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security or the EPA:
American Lung Association
(Via.)
Instead, do nothing. Nothing: “Just let the Bush tax cuts expire in 2012, as they’re currently scheduled to do.”
Damn if they aren’t going to make cuts that affect middle and working class people instead.
Employee Pension Plans Simplified
Forbes magazine — yeah, the one owned by billionaire trust fund kid Steve Forbes — says Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing to Public Employee Pensions:
Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for Tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans. Accepting Gov. Walker’ s assertions as fact, and failing to check, creates the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not. Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’ s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
How can this be possible?
Simple. The pension plan is the direct result of deferred compensation- money that employees would have been paid as cash salary but choose, instead, to have placed in the state operated pension fund where the money can be professionally invested (at a lower cost of management) for the future.
Shorter? Employees contribute to their pension plan and they get those contributions back when they retire. End of story.
Why is this so hard?
Anti-Health Care GOP Rep. Leonard Lance Receives State-Funded Health Care Coverage
All you can do is shake your head and wonder why these guys keep lying. (Well, actually, we know why they lie. Because the media doesn’t usually follow up on anything they say. But in this case it did.)
Okay, this one is funny. As you know, Dems and lefty groups have been loudly insisting that House Republicans in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act should forego the “government run” insurance they enjoy as members of Congress.
One of those GOPers is Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey, a fiscal hawk who opposes the health reform law out of opposition to big government. He is in the crosshairs of an ad by Blue America PAC accusing him of enjoying taxpayer-funded insurance.
After that ad started running, Lance’s office protested that he is not enrolled in the plan enjoyed by members of Congress, and successfully got the ad pulled. But in response, New Jersey’s Courier-Post did some digging and found that as a retired state government official, he and his family do enjoy taxpayer-funded health care on the state level:
Lance opposes the health care reform package on cost concerns — he’s a deficit hawk — and on small-government principles.
But it turns out he receives medical care for practically nothing, thanks to the taxpayers of New Jersey. Lance receives family health coverage that is free except for co-pays, the state Department of Treasury confirmed Friday. The former state senator, assemblyman and Kean administration official qualified for retirement in 2006, his 25th year of service. He retired in January 2009, when he moved on to Washington, and enrolled in the state’s free health plan for retirees.
The family plan Lance is enrolled in is the most expensive of the 10 options available. His coverage costs $1,906.42 per month, or $22,877.04 per year.
Banana Republic, Here We Come
Predictions from Paul Krugman.
As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, the incoming House majority plans to make changes in the “pay-as-you-go” rules — rules that are supposed to enforce responsible budgeting — that effectively implement Mr. Kyl’s principle. Spending increases will have to be offset, but revenue losses from tax cuts won’t. Oh, and revenue increases, even if they come from the elimination of tax loopholes, won’t count either: any spending increase must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere; it can’t be paid for with additional taxes.
So if taxes don’t matter, does the incoming majority have a realistic plan to cut spending? Of course not. Republicans say that they want to cut $100 billion in spending, which is itself small change in a $3.6 trillion federal budget. But they also say that defense, Medicare and Social Security — all the big-ticket items — are off the table. So they’re talking about a 20 percent cut in what’s left, which includes things like running the judicial system and operating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they have offered no specifics about where the cuts will fall.
How will this all end? I have seen the future, and it’s on Long Island, where I grew up.
Nassau County — the part of Long Island that directly abuts New York City — is one of the wealthiest counties in America and has an unemployment rate well below the national average. So it should be weathering the economic storm better than most places.
But a year ago, in one of the first major Tea Party victories, the county elected a new executive who railed against budget deficits and promised both to cut taxes and to balance the budget. The tax cuts happened; the promised spending cuts didn’t. And now the county is in fiscal crisis.
Now the federal government has a lot more flexibility than a county government: it needn’t, and shouldn’t, balance its budget each year. The deficits of the past two years have actually been a good thing, helping to support the economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
But Nassau County shows how easily responsible government can collapse in this country, now that one of our major parties believes in budget magic. All it takes is disgruntled voters who don’t know what’s at stake — and we have plenty of those. Banana republic, here we come.
Colorado Springs, Colorado is another great example of what Republicans do to government when they have their way. More here, here, here, and here. But, hypocrisy abounds, of course, and their disdain for “big government” only goes so far: Colorado Springs ranks 25th out of 100 large urban areas with a high rate of government employees.
