Health Care Reform, Revived Economy Best Rx for Social Security, Medicare
Brace yourselves. With today’s release of the Social Security and Medicare trustees’ annual reports showing the nation’s sinking economy has had an impact on the Social Security Trust Fund, doomsayers will be crying for drastic medicine that’s not needed.
The trustees 2009 report on Medicare paints a compelling case for comprehensive health care reform to rein in the skyrocketing health care costs that are driving Medicare closer to the financial brink and weighing down the entire economy.
A closer look at the Social Security 2009 report shows the program continues to run large surpluses and remains capable of paying scheduled benefits in full for the next three decades. The trustees reaffirm that the Social Security system is sound and faces no immediate danger, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Educating Timothy Geithner: The Congressional Review Panel on Capitol Hill
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The American people worry about how their $590 billion in taxpayer money is being spent in the big bank bailout—and, on Capitol Hill today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was told why. In his first appearance before the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), which has spent nearly six months reviewing the expenditures of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), COP chairwoman Elizabeth Warren told Geithner:
People are angry that even if they have paid their bills on time consistently and never missed a payment, their TARP-assisted banks are unilaterally raising their interest rates or slashing their credit lines….People are angry when they read headlines of record foreclosures because even if they aren’t personally facing trouble with their mortgages, they see their own property worth less and their communities declining as a result of the foreclosures all around them.
I appreciate your repeatedly stated commitment to transparency and accountability…but more remains to be done. People need to understand why you are making the choices you are making.
Functioning Banks, Fair Deal for Taxpayer Dollars Should Be Treasury Goal
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Yesterday, as the U.S. Senate was debating the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the Obama administration’s first major initiative to aid the economy—Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was outlining the White House’s battle plan to put the nation’s banks and financial institutions back on course.
While many of the details remain to be worked out, the financial rescue package aims at several major goals:
- Help banks cleanse their holdings of “toxic” assets to get private lending up and running again.
- Prop up banks’ capital position to generate a higher level of lending.
- Boost consumer and business lending to get credit flowing again.
- Stop preventable foreclosures and make housing more affordable by lowering interest rates.
- Monitor and make public financial institutions’ use of government-provided public funds and ensure that taxpayer money isn’t wasted.
