Democratic Leaders Agree Social Security Is Next To Go

March 27, 2010 (LPAC) — The politically motivated release of a report by the "non-partisan Congressional Budget Office" is allowing the Obamacare minions to take aim openly at cutting Social Security next.

It has been clear since President Obama created the "independent budget commission," that its directors, former Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, had Social Security cuts in their sights. Now Obama, manic over his Obamacare fascist "momentum," has confirmed to press questions that Social Security is "on the table" for cuts and so-called reform; and House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has gone further. Hoyer told The Hill that he hopes the commission and Congress can "reform" Social Security before the end of this year; and that he has two proposals for doing that.

Hoyer's proposals (no doubt reflecting Obama/Peter Orszag intentions and those of the Pelosi Democratic House leadership) are to raise the age of retirement again [to 68?], and to lower benefits by pegging benefits inversely to income — the lower your income, the more your benefits are raised. This is a procedure FDR specifically and emphatically rejected as "welfare, not Social Security". Republican leader Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announced that he agrees with Hoyer on both proposals, and said, "I have a lot of respect for Steny. I think he's serious about this." Ryan also wants to privatize Social Security, Pinochet-style.

The "trigger" for beginning this push to cut Social Security, was the CBO's issuance of a report that the Social Security Trust Fund would suffer a revenue deficit this year. The CBO, Orszag's former agency, has no business issuing such reports — they are the statutory responsibility of the Social Security Administration Trustees — and has not done so before. Moreover, Social Security may run a (very small) deficit this year for the same reason everything else is running (very large) deficits — financial crash, economic collapse, mass unemployment. Anyone who calls this an "accelerating trend" is either a fool, or, like the Obama Administration, refuses to create large-scale public infrastructure employment to restore the wage-base of the economy.

OBAMA WATCH. 

http://www.larouchepac.com/obamawatch