This week's big story is that a faker scammed the media, trashing an innocent USDA employee's career in order to push a false right-wing narrative. But another scam's underway too, and it's targeting Social Security and other entitlement programs. As Republicans (and at least one Democrat) pushed budget-busting tax cuts, the "bipartisan" leaders of the Deficit Commission showed their true colors as extremists who peddle panic and hold "hearings" despite having their minds already made up. One of them said that the Federal debt is a "cancer," adding that you "can't tax your way out of it" - and that was the Democrat! Meanwhile the Republican complained that November's elections will be "disruptive," creating "wreckage" that will interfere with their plans.
When you think about it, Shirley Sherrod and the Social Security system have a lot more in common than their initials. Consider:
Democrats: They're like Charlie Brown. No matter how many times Lucy pulls the football away, they still think this time it's going to be different. Good grief!
Democrats from the President on down have been equally hapless (or complicit) as Social Security comes under attack. It's one of the most solvent programs we have, and it has lifted generations of disabled and older Americans out of poverty. It's financially stable for decades to come, and could be stabilized indefinitely with relatively small tweaks. But right-wingers want to use that money to pay for tax cuts for the rich and war expenditures. That means they have to "edit" the facts, Breitbart style, to fit their narrative. Here's their plan:
1. Make us forget the "lockbox." Remember how the media laughed at Al Gore when he talked about putting Social Security in a "lockbox"? Bush's comment about his opponent wanting to turn Social Security into a "Federal program" was a gaffe equivalent to saying "government should keep its hands off my Medicare" (since Social Security is a Federal program). Common decency and fairness suggest that Social Security payments, which people make throughout their careers to fund their retirements, should be kept in a separate "lockbox" and not used to fund other initiatives - like defense spending or an extension of the Bush tax cuts.
So job #1 for those who would raid Social Security is to edit out the fact that Social Security is a separately funded, self-sustaining program. Like the moral of Shirley Sherrod's story, that fact been left on the cutting room floor.
2. Convince people the money's already gone. How do you get into a "lockbox" and steal the contents when you don't have the key? Anybody who's watched old Mission Impossible episodes knows the answer: You convince the owners that it's already empty! Then you promise to get the contents back - for a reasonable percentage, of course - so that they'll open it for you themselves. Organizations like the "Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget" have been built to spread the idea that the public's Social Security money, which currently lifts more than 40% of all elderly Americans out of poverty, won't be there when they need it.
That's how we wind up with stories like USA Today's article, entitled "Poll: Faith in Social Security tanking." Of course people are scared. There's been a concerted, multi-million-dollar campaign to convince them it won't be there. Here's how overt that campaign has become: Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, is quoted as saying: "It (the public's fear and doubt about Social Security) makes it easier to make some of the changes that we are inevitably going to have to make. We could make changes and still have people collecting more in benefits than they're expecting to see."
The box is empty, folks. But if you trust us, maybe you'll get a little bit of the money you've been putting in there throughout your working life.
3. Create the impression this is not about "left" and "right." Just as Tom Vilsack was eager to show that the Administration has "zero tolerance for discrimination," Washington insiders within and outside the Administration seem eager to cut Social Security, if only to prove to their peers that they are "responsible." (What's "responsible" about raiding people's retirement money for other purposes?) The situation's made more difficult by the fact that President Obama has named two extreme thinkers, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, to head his Deficit Commission (which collaborates openly with the anti-tax billionaire who funds the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget). Bowles tried to join with Newt Gingrich to cut Social Security when he worked at the Clinton White House. And Simpson ... well, Simpson's antics and views are well-documented, as economist James Galbraith's testimony to the Commission shows.
4. Scream "deficit," but extend tax cuts even if they make deficits much worse. The USA Today/Gallup poll shows that the public's views of Social Security are far more dire than the reality, and Bowles and Simpson have been fanning the flames. "This debt is like a cancer," Democrat Bowles told the Washington Post (which, in the case of Social Security and Medicare, may make it the only "cancer" that actually improves people's health.) They followed with some odd flimflammery, as the Post reports:
The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.What about military spending, education, and all the rest? "Financed by China and other countries," says Simpson, drawing an inexplicable distinction between one set of expenditures and another.
"We can't tax out way out" of the deficit problem, says Bowles, who also told a friendly Chamber of Commerce crowd that 75% of the budget-fixing needs to be done through spending cuts and only 25% through revenues. (Makes you wonder why they hold hearings, since it seems they've already decided.) As for Simpson, he appears downright hostile to the overall democratic process: "I have no idea what's going to happen on Election Day but it's going to be disruptive . . thank heaven we have a month then to work through the wreckage."
Sen. Kent Conrad has gone so far as to defend extending the Bush tax cuts, even if it means waiving the "pay as you go" rule. "The general rule of thumb would be you'd not want to do tax changes, tax increases," said Conrad, "until the recovery is on more solid ground." That's economic nonsense, and can only be considered a "rule of thumb" if that thumb is up your ... well, unless it's somewhere where the sun don't shine.
As for the democratic process - or, as Alan Simpson calls it, "wreckage" - well, the hucksters have a problem there. Polling shows that voters want their elected representatives to defend Social Security, not cut it. And they feel very strongly about it.
Shirley Sherrod was set up to harm the Administration and push a right-wing (and racist) narrative. Social Security's being set up to slash entitlements and ease taxes for the wealthy. In both cases, Democrats are caving when they should be fighting. When will they learn that you can't appease extremists, either by believing their made-up stories or by appointing them to lead Commissions?
_______________________________________________________________
Richard (RJ) Eskow, a consultant and writer (and former insurance/finance executive), is a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America's Future. Richard also blogs at A Night Light.
He can be reached at "rjeskow@ourfuture.org."
Website: Eskow and Associates
Follow Richard (RJ) Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow
Andy Borowitz: USDA Offers Sherrod Authority Over Farmville
With Facebook now claiming over half a billion members worldwide, Ms. Sherrod's new job will mean that she is responsible for approximately 2.3 trillion imaginary sheep.
Sophia A. Nelson: Is Shirley Sherrod the Rosa Parks of Our Time?
The "teachable moment" of Shirley Sherrod is that she, like Rosa Parks has used her quiet strength and grace on national television to win over a nation.
Andy Ostroy: What the Shirley Sherrod Saga Says About America
What happened to Shirley Sherrod is an embarrassing reminder of the racial dysfunction in America today and how politics continues to play a critical role in this ugliness.
Sally Kohn: Secret Emails Between Breitbart and Beck Revealed
I found these emails on a secret thumb drive that was given to me around the same time that Laura Ingraham apparently got secret copies of the Obama Diaries. The emails below are as verifiable as Ms. Ingraham's book.
Shirley Sherrod, ex-USDA worker: White House forced me to resign ...
Vilsack, White House apologize to former USDA official - CNN.com
Shirley Sherrod, Ousted USDA Official, Defended by Farmer She ...
Squeeze benefits/raise taxes - keeps Social Security alive (barely) yet 40% of retirees live on little more than there meagre SS check. This is living? Why not try real reform? It is spelled out in great detail in the website www.entitlementdilemma.com. The approach counteracts the weaknesses of the Bush approach, particularly the tendency of citizens to mismanage 401K type accounts; the politically untenable possibility of a market 'correction' just when many are retiring; and especially the enormous legacy, or transfer costs of near $4 trillion that almost defies funding. The proposal also guarantees that the retiree who opts for the new program will never receive less than the social security amount paid non participants, yet supports the possibility of receiving much more.
We can sit around grumbling about minor issues or really get educated and get involved. Read the website.
Today's politically driven propaganda is initiated by slimeballs like breitboob, but it is encouraged, stoked, and sold by the usual cast of suspects at fox, limpburger, etc...The result is an angry, misinformed segment of our society that is motivated by fact-free opinion and warped ideology, though they will never agree...because their rational reasoning capabilities have been usurped, as surely as the true believers of Jim Jones were deceived, so it is today.
Virtually the entire media is culpable in this lapse of journalistic integrity, but Fox stands alone in their unashamed perversion of facts, and their politically driven ambition to destroy this administration. There are laws against the overthrow of a legally elected government...the crime is sedition.
Short of that, there is still a remedy: Put an end to journalistic terrorism by resurrecting the Fairness Doctrine! I want my country back...and you should too!!!”
In 2009 SS paid out approximately $50 Billion Dollars to ~ 50 million recipients, this doesn't include Medicare payments. We spent $56 Billion to fund ongoing military adventures before the end of February of this year ($28 Billion a month). This $50 Billion is essentially a direct infusion into the local economy as most SS recipients are like most Americans who are now living paycheck to paycheck. FDR wanted to insure that elderly Americans didn't spend their final years living in abject poverty and most Americans of that era also wanted to insure that they were not economic burdens on their children as was the case before SS.
But isn't that what he is suggesting? Using the Payroll Tax instead of the Income Tax to pay down the deficit? This is just Taxing working people twice - once for their retirement and then again for the general fund expenditures that the Income Tax - is supposed to pay.
If the administration backs this shell game I will think it is time to move Hillary to the VP slot and impeach Obama.
lff
Politicians have ZERO business running an economy anywhere. It's not about the level of sophistication of the economy (e.g. USA's Vs most of Africa's), but the nature of skill and thinking behind the running. Proper expertise must be employed, and especially from individuals who're apolitical in their thinking. When it comes to welfare or social improvement programs, humans are the same and so there can't be rights or lefts, reds or otherwise.
Interfering with social security is directly marring the country's future. That money is not meant for temporal spending like defense, but on safeguarding the economic futures of the unborn. This game being played by America's political divide is only akin to suicide bombing. It might appeal to the here and now (visions of future glory), but how about the actual reality - bodies and related collateral damage?
Shame on politicians of any ilk, anywhere in this world who subscribe to this kind of political chicanery.
It is the old GOP shell game. Lump the Payroll Tax together with the Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, etc. and call them all "Revenue". Then you can use money people pay for retirement - Payroll Tax - to cut taxes from the other sources - to pay for things like Defense which just lines the pockets of the rich contractors anyway.
lff.
I am a right wing conservative......you can call me an extremist...since I am also a Christian.
You can paint me with the same brush you paint Sharron Angle..........but this is my comment on Sherrod. See!! We can make intelligent statements too and we have honest opinions after all.
Jouralism is dying and many of the Americans have figured out why. Liberal newspapers across the fruited plain are dying for good reason. I'll leave it to you to figure out why.
1. Breitbart only released the portion of the video that was available
2. The White House asked for the resignation around 5pm on July 19
3. Fox News airs the video for the first time at 8:49pm July 19 on Bill O'Reilly
4. On July 20 at 5pm Glenn Beck airs the video and COMES TO THE DEFENSE OF SHERROD, saying that the rest of the video should be viewed before taking any action because the context could change everything
The timeline is irrefutable. The White House had already canned Sherrod before the video ever aired on Fox and then, the following day, Fox actually took her side.
You may not like it but the facts are not debateable. Don't believe me, look it up for yourself.