Imagine if Social Security were put on trial. We've all seen enough movies to know how it would begin: jury selection.
Now imagine a room filled with potential jurors. There is a talkative one who stands out. He's calling senior citizens "greedy geezers," and those with lower incomes, "lesser people." He says too many Social Security beneficiaries drive their luxury cars to the restaurant to get their seniors discount. He tells a policy advocate for older women to "call when you get real work."
And there is more. Our prospective juror says he thinks Americans are too dependent upon Social Security. He calls it a "milk cow with 310 million tits."
But this isn't some Law and Order re-run. The trial is the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and the "juror" is Alan Simpson, the panel's co-chair.
There isn't a judge in the land that would let Alan Simpson stay on this jury. And we shouldn't let him stay on the commission.
The Alliance for Retired Americans is calling upon President Obama to replace Simpson with someone who can, like a juror, weigh the evidence without bias.
The millions of Americans who count on Social Security to make ends meet deserve a fair trial.
Barbara J. Easterling is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or call 1-800-333-7212
Follow Barbara J. Easterling on Twitter: www.twitter.com/activeretirees
Dean Baker: Dana Milbank Pays Homage to Alan Simpson's Sexism and Ignorance
Throw this SOB out of DC!!!
Every high school student knows the FICA taxes go straight to the General Fund. The primary challenge is not even necessarily to privatise as it is to convert SS to a true retirement fund that has investment diversification and protection from being used for general fund spending.
People accuse me of giving them hell.. I just tell them the truth and they think it's hell..
Harry Trumann
New Data: Top 1% Pay Greater Dollar Amount in Income Taxes to Federal Government than Bottom 90%. Data also show incomes growing across all percentile groups.
For more information, contact the press office at 202-464-6200.
Washington, DC, October 4, 2007 - New data released by the IRS today offers interesting insights into the distributional spread of the federal income tax burden, new analysis by the Tax Foundation shows.
The table above shows that the top-earning 25 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $62,068) earned 67.5 percent of nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86 percent). The top 1 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $364,657) earned approximately 21.2 percent of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.4 percent of all federal income taxes. That means the top 1 percent of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal individual income taxes as the bottom 95 percent of tax returns.
I think taxing the top 1% at 70% or more will be just about perfect.
Thanks for posting this.
Man, the Republicans have gone wacko (not just my term, but many reputable political analysts have used this same classification) and the Dems have gone cracko (you heard it here first). Folks, we and our children are really, really screwed. I'm already switching to Chinese quisine ...
Obama has yet to remove one of his appointees, no matter how loud the uproar, except Sherrod, who was not only just Black, but a woman.
Maybe if Summers and Geithner were women we'd see them asked to leave, as well. They've already shown they haven't got "what it takes" to face Wall Street anyway.
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/09/01/help-us-sound-the-alarm-about-the-catfood-commission/
We certainly can't wait on any politician to step up for us.
Uh huh. he asked Congress to create the commission and they refused. This commission is owned by barack obama and only barack obama.