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Trumka: Proposed Super Committee Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid Unacceptable
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today reaffirmed that the AFL-CIO opposes any cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits or to the federal contribution to Medicaid and he criticized Senate Democrats on the “Super Committee” for proposing—according to news reports—hundreds of billions of cuts.
He says that while Republicans proposed even bigger and more harmful cuts to these essential middle class benefits,
these Super Committee Democrats have put all their concessions on the table up front in the vain hope that the Republicans might reciprocate. But it doesn’t work that way. In this political climate, concessions beget more concessions—not a workable compromise.
To join in the fight to opposes cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid text DEBT to 235246.
The proposed cuts, he says, prove why people around the country “are raising their voices in protest because they’re fed up with a system that is stacked in favor of the richest one percent of Americans — at the expense of the other 99 percent of us.”
The politicians insisting that the only workable solution to their fabricated crisis involves deep cuts to middle-class benefits must not get out into Main Street America enough. If they had, they would see that the middle class has already given up too much, while Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans have done all the taking.
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President Trumka actually calls attention to the tactical failings of Senate Democrats on the “Super Committee”, and not just blame the Republicans.
Trumka blames the Democrats for not smartly negotiating with the Republicans, but giving up at the start of discussions with massive cuts, only to have the Republicans come back with even greater cuts proposals.
This Super Committee, established by President Obama to massively attack “Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid”, is only focused on how deep this fraudulent “deficit reduction” will be. No discussion is allowed on whether Obama’s deficit reduction scheme should even take place at all!
And what does President Trumka, as head of the 11 million member AFL-CIO, who rhetorically says any cuts at all are “Unacceptable”, actually going to do about this?
President Trumka, with this empty statement, is
indicating that once again the AFL-CIO will do nothing to fight back against the “Unacceptable” cuts against his beloved “Middle Class”.
While Trumka admonishes Senate Democrats about their negotiating skills, Trumka exhibits massive passivity and refusal to threaten Obama and the Democrats. Not even a hint at action, not even rhetorical threats of action!
Why doesn’t President Trumka announce that the AFL-CIO can no longer support President Obama, neither financially or providing volunteers to support Obama in the 2012 election because of these “unacceptable” cuts?
Why doesn’t President Trumka threaten the corporate corrupted Demcoratic Party by suggesting that a new political party is necessary to fight back the continual bi-partisan attacks upon all working people, trade union organized and unorganized workers, as well as “Middle Class” workers?
Why doesn’t President Trumka announce that the AFL-CIO is seriously considering breaking with the Democratic Party in 2012 to run independent pro-labor pro-working people candidates against both pro-corporate Democratic and Republican parties?
Why doesn’t President Trumka boldly re-state that the
AFL-CIO now vigorously supports the “Single-Payer” health bill, re-introduced in the Senate in May 2011 by Bernie Sanders, in which the AFL-CIO officially supported?
A few words of leadership at this critical time would have tremendous emotional and political impact in Congress and among all working people!
President Trumka again provides no leadership! Trumka does nothing himself, appears incapable of fighting back against the “unacceptable”!
Instead he asks concerned working people to use our cellphones to complain to this the gang of corrupt politicians in Congress? Recent polls indicated a public approval rating of 20% !!
Trumka is implying tjat our calls would actually make a difference? After three years of massive bi-partisan attacks upon the economic well-being of all working people, not
just “Middle Class”, does Trumka think working people are utterly stupid?
Or is Trumka trying again to remove responsibility for action from himself, and implying that if we don’t make a cellphone call, the consequences of the Super Committee will all be our fault?
This disingenuous performance by President Trumka, this failure to use powerful labor resources to fight back, are having terrible consequences to the trade union movement and is destroying millions of working people and the nation.
teabagger
Quite right! I was born in England and prefer Lipton’s Black tea.
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Amazing how you could guess that after reading my comment!
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How do you propose to save these programs? Just saying no cuts is not good enough.
Well swearto here you go again,if no cuts are not good enough then what is,your precious conservative tea party favorites would want us all to believe that social security is a ponzi scheme.
swearto,It has been said, repeated and some could say it is overstated. Many times main stream media has quoted Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Perry as saying that he believes the Social Security System and Medicare are giant ponzi schemes and unconstitutional from conception. This is not a new statement from Perry and, in fact, has been his stance for years. So where is the news?
First off, I am sure that if it were unconstitutional, it would have been proven so a long time ago. Secondly, both Social Security and Medicare are the definition of ponzi scheme and were set up to be that way from the first payment that was collected. It was intended that current worker payments would support current seniors retirement with some excess for future payments. It was understood, from the beginning, that the fund would have to cover future payments should worker numbers decline. We, in fact, were made aware of the impending “Baby Boomer” problem decades before we found ourselves in this predicament of running out of funds. Congress continually ignored the problem until recent retirement age adjustments that increased the full retirement age from 65 to 67. Any reduction of payroll taxes into the fund only exacerbates the problem but that is what exempting some from the system does. Even diverting some payroll taxes to move workers out of the system reduces funds from the system and makes the problem worse.
Like I said, the current state of the Social Security and Medicare funds should be no surprise to anyone. We have known for decades that the birth rate in America was dropping and therefore future worker numbers would drop also putting a strain on the system. That does not mean the system is broken. With a few minor adjustments, the system can still work and still be available to every worker as they retire without bankrupting government. To punish present or future retirees for Congresses failures is wrong and unnecessary though.
First, we need Congress to stop blaming Social Security and Medicare for the budget deficits! The fund still has money. It is just in the form of IOU’s from the government for money they (Congress) took (borrowed) from the fund for other purposes. The two unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for example.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Second, we need to include as many workers as we can into the system instead of exempting them and their payroll taxes. One way to insure that all available workers are paying Social Security and Medicare taxes is to impose exorbitant fines on businesses found to have workers not paying the tax. Not only do employee taxes go unpaid but the matching amount paid by employers is not collected when employers fail to collect and pay the tax.
Three, allow the fund to “borrow” (through IOU’s) from the government an amount to supplement payments when the fund depletes IOU’s currently held by the fund from government borrowing until the “Baby Boomer” retiree’s move through the system. Eventually, as the Baby Boomers pass on the numbers will again balance out and the system will again be solvent. Part of the way we help make this happen is through “means testing”.
Four, means testing is a way of reducing the total amount of payouts now. The number of millionaires in America has exploded in the past several decades with many as multimillionaires. You might be surprised to learn that no matter how much money you have, you still can draw Social Security and Medicare. In fact, most health insurers require that you use Medicare as your primary health insurance as soon as you qualify no matter how much you earn or pay for insurance. Social Security was first instituted to prevent seniors from living in abstract poverty with no food or shelter. Medicare was supposed to provide healthcare accessibility to impoverished seniors and the disabled not to save private insurance companies money.
Five, raise the limit for payroll tax deduction to $250,000 from it’s current level. This will immediately increase the amount available to the fund and extend the life of the fund beyond it’s current expected 2035 depletion date.
I admit that I have not done the projected dollar for dollar comparison to prove my theory, however, if Congress does all these things, it should be unnecessary to reduce benefits or increase the retirement age to make the funds solvent for generations to come. One thing is for sure, if we continue to ignore the problem or continue the blame game making everything the problem without addressing the real problem, the poor and middle class will be the only ones who suffer yet again. Those that do not need these safety nets will sail on through life while the rest of America’s elderly eat cat food and live on the streets. Believe me, opponents of the system will not lose any sleep when it happens either.
Republicans in my view just want people to accept the fact politicians have spent way to much and don’t want to pay(THE PEOPLE BACK.
Brilliant solutions, unionbrat. Now if only we could get our broken/corrupted government to implement them. Sigh.
How do you keep it solvent? That is all. That is way of the left. No cuts. Come on you cannot be that stupid. You are either going to raise the retirement age or you are going to make some cuts. What will it be?
You pose the “solution” to the funding of Social Security and Medicare by “framing” the solution as corporate capitalism and Obama has presented the only two solutions.
The vast costs projected are all based on the basic notion that the ONLY solution allowable are solutions that maximizes profit to the corporations.
Thus “single-payer” (“Medicare for All”) universal health care for all is vastly superior, much less costly because it completely ELIMINATES CORPORATE PROFIT ENTIRELY!.
There is nothing wrong with Social Security funding that
could not be fixed by raising the tax cap limit, by a small amount to cover costs. As it is, I think the tax cap for Social Security taxes is about $100,000. So this tax cap would have to be raised to perhaps $125.000 (?), meaning that SS taxes would have to be paid up to that “cap”, after which no additional taxes would have to be paid.
If millions of people could be working, earning food and rent money, they could again be contributing to their
Social Security account.
But the “private” sector is unwilling to return jobs from overseas until wages are reduced to minimal levels that are
“competitive” with “third world” countries. “Private” sector business don’t want to pay anything in benefits (like health insurance, retirement, etc.) because it minimizes profit.
The only way to solve the vast problems facing tens of millions of working people, to end wars for profit, to end global warming, is to end the capitalist control and plunder of the economy. (the top 1% forever increase their wealth and profit on a daily basis!)
Millions of “public” sector jobs, the establishment of
“single payer” health care, etc. are needed now! FDR realized that under a collapsed capitalism, public sector solutions must be used and created millions of jobs.
How to fund these needs for the people?
… End the wars for oil and profit in the Middle East! Shutdown the over 700 foreign military bases.
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Raise taxes on the highest levels of wealth and income. End tax breaks, loopholes, etc. End Privatization of the Federal Government (the CIA is over 60% outsourced to profit-making businesses!), end “privatization” of the military. etc.
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To implement the economic changes need must require a major political struggle against both corporate corrupted Democratic and Republican Parties.
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The only potential force capable of this struggle is if the organized labor movement leadership would break with the
Democratic Party and call for a new political party to represent the economic interests of all working people, trade union organized and unorganized, against the power of corporations.
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But also to do this, a voice of labor and working people must appear daily in mass media to represent daily the economic interests of working people to fight against Fox Media, pro-corporate bias of NPR and PBS.
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Conditions in this country and in the world will continue to impoverish and destroy millions, with inadequate food, health care, housing, education, etc.
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We must demand that the existing “leaders” of organized labor act now or resign!
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act now!
Whoa Jerry, there is a vast difference betwen “single-payer” and Universal Health Care and Medicare, all three are entirely separate and different from each other, and ONLY the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System as proposed in 1993 is anti-corporate! Single-payer is like Medicare… both Single Payer and Medicare patronize the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.
ONLY the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System ELMINATES the corporations, nothing else does, which is why the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care System was OUTLAWED by Congress in 1993, Congress wants to continue to be a corporate-communist prostitute to The Establishment and corporate USA !!!
swearto that is one thing i love about your intellect,the only thing you ever come up with is the sean hannity,bill o talking points.I have never seen you come up with one solution what so ever,except say you believe in god(If you do you do not practice what you preach),if you were to read the last paragraph (AND COMPREHEND WHAT I SAID) i said i had not done the figures as of yet.
I and many others at least are thinking of solutions to straighten out the mess rather than come out with comments a kindergartner could repeat from fox news.When i do come out with the figures you will see that i am not far off the mark,but at least i am thinking and not repeating like a parrot.
No. First, legislators ended General Assistance aid to our desperately poor. Then they ended AFDC for impoverished American families. Repeated cuts and freezes have already been made to Social Security Disability. Everything from schools to libraries to fire departments have been cut. Throughout this time, every penny taken out of America’s programs has gone toward covering the costs of massive annual tax cuts/hand-outs to the very rich/corporations, certainly not to “deficit reduction.” And corporations have continued to use these handouts to cover the costs of building factories and offices in foreign countries, exporting our jobs, continuing to deeply harm this country. Meanwhile, the US has been engaged in war more often than not since WWll — by choice, not necessity. 30 yrs of massive upward wealth redistribution brought us to a point where it’s questionable whether the US will last another 25 years. The extraordinary class disparities we have now can only make us ask if it matters if the US ends.
You put it right into proper perspective, DH Fabian! Right on, kudos to you !!!
Social Security Disability has already been cut and repeatedly frozen in recent years. PLEASE understand that this endangers people’s lives. I urge you to review the playbook used to end welfare; the same playbook is being used now to end Social Security.
First there were benefit cuts and freezes (welfare “reform”), then welfare itself was dismantled — one piece at a time. General Assistance was ended, then AFDC. The strategy for ending Social Security also began at the bottom, first targeting SSI recipients (the disabled with no or little work history), then moved on to pull down SSDI recipients (disabled workers), as well as working on ending survivor’s benefits. When you allow govt to take an ax to the bottom, the entire tree is going to come crashing down.
PLEASE also pay attention to the return of T. Thompson, as he intends to replace Tammy Baldwin. Thompson has an inexplicable record of getting whatever he wants. It would be helpful if people understood how Thompson has already worked hard to bring Social Security to an end, enacting a number of policies (as gov) against our disabled.
Let’s not forget that when Ronald Regan made cuts to social security, he took money out of social security to put into the national debt, which was never meant for or which didn’t help the deficit which Ronny ran higher than anyone before, of course only being beaten by George W. bolth of whom are republicans, The Republican party has hated social security and medicare since it’s inception, they will only be happy when our old and weak are begging on the streets.
There isn’t one industialized nation that doesn’t take care of it’s old and weak, of course there are always people who will take advantage of the system.
The point is we need social security, and we don’t need to be putting that money into that great ponzi scheme called the stock market. already the stock market is over valued because of all of the 401K’s which are vested in the markets, that’s one of the main reasons the market is so volitale.
This needs to be historically researched, because I am only aware of three U.S. “Presidents” taking money out of Social Security and putting it into the Treasury general fund: yes, Reagan, and Johnson, and Bush Jr. But is there anything else WE DO NOT KNOW about misuse of Social Security funding ?????
In order to reduce the deficit there must be some take from all areas of federal government activity. If entitlements are to go untouched there will be nothing left for younger generations and all other activities funded by the government will cease to exist. Currently Social Security and Medicare use 8.5% of nonentitlement revenues (federal revenues dedicated to all other programs besides the two). By 2020, the deficits will grow to almost 25%. This means that within 9 years, in order to pay projected benefits to retirees and the disabled, the federal government will have to stop doing about one out of every five things it does today. If the government would like to prevent that from happening it will have to raise taxes by about 20%, significantly cut benefits or make beneficiaries pay for substantially more of their benefits.
No.1 comment ,America is broken.We have pseudo healthcare, failing education,terrible gap between the have,s and have nots.
No. 2. s.s. is financially solid for the next 20 plus years.Only problem ,Bush consistantly raided it to finance the liars war.Left I.O.U,s.(wish my creditors would accept them.Fat chance!!!)
No3 The members of the Super committee(so called)are ALL members of the 1%.and currently have lobbyists money falling on them like autumn leaves,Do not wait for any fairness to the working,middle class, seniors and the sick.This vote is mega rigged!
It is time for all ordinary Americans , not just union members to make known in no uncertain terms that we will not support or vote for anyone who proposes or agrees to cuts to Social Security or Medicare. We all have known where the Republicans stand for many years. But it is the Democrats who have campaigned to strengthen and protect Social Security and Medicare. It is time for them to stand up and prove their words , or face the music.
I know that people here will say if we don’t vote for the Democrats we are going to lose. It doesn’t matter which way we go , we lose. I think the only way to get people who will represent us , is to stop supporting the people who don’t support us. Maybe then some real Americans who will support ordinary Americans will get elected . I have never been so disappointed as I have been since we won the great victory in 2008 , that is seeming to insure we are going to lose all we have gained in the last eighty years.
I for one am sick and tired of being worried and upset about what is happening.
We just don’t seem to be holding anyone responsible..
lily on The government’s $2.5 trillion debt to Social Security is the real reason that so many politicians want to cut benefits. They are trying to find a way to avoid having to repay the looted money…. Given the fact that much of the surplus revenue from the 1983 payroll tax hike ended up in the pockets of the super rich in the form of income tax cuts, I propose a special tax on this group of taxpayers to recoup the missing Social Security money. The government used revenue from the Social Security payroll tax hike to fund tax cuts for the rich because that was where the money was. I think the government should recover the ‘embezzled’ money by taxing the rich
Carly EngageAmerica, in addition to the accurate answers to your posting by Lily, Free Guy, and Union Brat, let me just add that we are not talking about the weird idea of using public trust funding accounts to put into Treasury government funding with interest, that is not it at all.
We are talking about the three times that U.S. “Presidents” have obtained Congressional agreement for transferring Social Security Trust Fund money into the Treasury General Fund where there is no interest earned on the funds! To put it clearly, Reagan, Johnson and “boy George” Bush robbed the Social Security Trust Fund to balance their war-time budgets by simple TRANSFERS of money, not by investing into Treasury notes and bonds, most of which are actually tax-exempt to the upper 9 % of our society who have the money to exploit those financial instruments.
Aweartogod you again prove you have no solutions. Social Security is one of the most important programs in America, and should be preserved and strengthened at any cost . We are talking about real lives of loyal Americans. If you raise the retirement age , where are you going to get all these jobs for all these senior citizens who companies do not want now, and for all the young people who are going to need jobs. Look around , we don’t have those jobs now, and probably never will. You don’t seem to realize that people on Social Security spend money to live. They have to buy things that other people make , or grow ,or build..
The whole problem with you and other people like you who are calling for cuts ,and raising the age is that you have enjoyed lower taxes for years , because the government was using S.S. funds , instead of raising taxes to pay what they were spending money for. Now , they and people like you absolutely don’t want to replace the S.S. funds. They all want a free ride on the backs of the people who now , and who will depend on S.S.
What they should do , is raise the S.S. withholding tax , and increase the tax cut off wages. and put all the funds back that they have used over the years. Another thing I would do , is remove disability from S. S. and find another way to fund it. . It was not really ever set up to cover that.
The President has twice recently lowered the S.S. withholding tax. If you have a shortage in an account , you do not cut the funds going into it. That will not help to keep it solvent.
It is no different than my checking account. I cannot keep writing checks and paying bills , if I don’t deposit the funds first.
cutting benefits and raising retirement age , will not help anything. It will just make things much worse with greater and greater problems to be solved.
I guess we could raise the age to 90 , and most people would be dead , before they ever drew a cent, and not for very long
Social Security was a ponzi scheme from its start. It would have been better to have a individual account. My proposal would work better then they have now. You do not even have to invest in the stock market. You could take money out of your check and buy a ten or 30 yr treasury bond . The government makes out and so do you by its ability to print money. You can leave your money to your spouse or children when you die. The way it is now you do leave anything to anybody. Wake up america the fund is going broke and having a private account is the only way to go.
swearto what proposal you have never given one,the only thing you give are fox news talking points.
not leave anything to anybody.
Social Security was NEVER a Ponzi Scheme, it was rationally set up to be a self-sufficient coverage of retiring and disabled natizens from the working class.
As usual, Swearto-WHO, you do not know what you are talking about and are a human tape recorder just blaring out the propaganda of The Establishment who wants most of we USAians to be groveling down in the gutter as peasant slaves.
You need to stop being entirely dishonest, Swearto-WHO.
Yes cuts to social security and medicare are unacceptable – so are endless imperial wars, denying children medical care because they are uninsured, torture and the death penalty, the highest incarceration rate in the world, unchecked pollution by powerful corporations, forcing undocumented immigrants into virtual slavery, laying off teachers at a time when almost half of all kids don’t finish high school, and refusing to prosecute the corporate criminals running America’s banks, insurance companies, energy cartels, etc. The problem is that noone in the government gives a damn about what Labor is willing to ‘accept’, because they assume that all we do is whine in the corner while the establishment media ignores us. They rely on that being all we are capable of, and, so far, they are right.
Social Security was not , and is not a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is something that a crook like Bernie Madoff does to bilk people from their money. The only bilking being done with Social Security is the government using the money for other things, and not wanting to pay it back.
There is no way any ordinary working person , could ever save enough money to live on for very many years. I saved as much as I possibly could during my working years. I did not take expensive vacations or buy new cars every several years , or live extravagantly. If not for Social Security , I would have run out of money a long time ago.
Social Security is an insurance plan. It is not an investment plan. It is an insurance plan to provide some income for a person for as long as they live. It has always worked and millions of Americans have benefited , and are benefiting from social Security.
Sweartogod does not seem to know how things were , and how Social Security came about. People could not save enough money then to support them for life , and they can’t now. If they could , we wouldn’t have the majority of Americans depending on Social security for a good portion of their money to live on in their senior years. I cannot understand why anyone , would be so greedy and hardhearted as to deny Americans to have some support in their senior years.
I cannot conceive how my own mother would have lived her senior years. She had no other income , than Social Security. I know many other people in the same circumstances.
The deficit commission should be talking about the things that caused the deficit. Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Why is it included in the so called negotiations?
Don’t you people understand that social security has nothing at all to do with the national budget? Social security is a fund that has it very own source of funding completely separate from the general budget. Don’t mix apples and oranges and don’t let the republicans fool you into a conversation based on bullshit. We need deep cuts to the budget and here is where they should come from:
congressional salaries and benefits
the bloated defense budget
ending corporate welfare
ending tax cuts for wealth mongers
ending the CIA black budget
ending secret government programs
ending TSA and NSA and homeland security
ending the wars in the middle east
If that doesn’t balance the budget how about we shift the cost of war to the defense industries? If Americans must suffer the cost of war then why not all Americans? Make a law against profiting from war!
Brothers and sisters the truth is we are going to have to kick the criminal class out of government and that means we will have to fight! They started this war and with jerks like sweartogod and other collaborators they have us on the ropes. Our leadership is not getting us anywhere so take to the streets and show the 1% how utterly stupid they have become.
I say we take all campaign contributions and all funding for lobbying and apply that to the deficit!