So, over a half dozen Senators are meeting in secret to figure out how to further screw the American people. Why don’t they meet in public to try and figure out how to get people back to work, supporting their families and contributing revenues to keep the country going? Why aren’t they interested in closing the tax loop-holes, tax-breaks, subsidies and outright gifts that enable the super-wealthy and corporations to glide through while the rest of us take up the slack? I do hope we learn the names of these half dozen Senators so we can encourage their constituents to give them the boot rather than a boost at the ballot box next time around.

The only tax loop holes I’ve heard about an interest in closing is the mortgage interest deduction. I’d be OK if that were only imposed on second or third homes, but christ on a cracker, if working stiffs lose that, how many more will be forced out of their homes?

Why the willful blindness on actual solutions: lift the payroll tax cap, increase the tax on unearned income (the so-called death tax), collect the corporate taxes at the current – or frankly any appreciable rate, start rebuilding falling down roads, bridges, libraries, hospitals, schools, and the like.

In answer to my question – they just bloody don’t care. Not a fucking one of them.

Obama is campaigning on lowering the payroll tax. Rick Perry is running on abolishing Social Security.

I guess the Republicans were right all along. You can’t trust the politicians with your retirement savings.

I guess 75 years was a good run, time to end it and let people save for themselves … at least then the politicians wouldn’t be able to steal it from us when we need it most.

Okay, so the argument for the mandate was that you need to get the youngest and healthiest people in the pool to keep the costs down. It’s a mostly bs argument where private insurance is concerned but actually true with Medicare. Taking 65 and 66 year olds out of the system is taking the youngest and healthiest people out of it. And this strengthens the program how? The explanation about hospitals and providers wanting to wring as much out of that age group as they can makes sense. The savings to the government are going to be passed directly on to middle and working class Americans, who will have to drain their savings (if they have any) to pay much higher out of pocket costs than if they got to go on Medicare.

“jobz” is dogwhistle for cutting SSMM.

Welcome to FDL. We’re always glad to see newbies.

My mom & dad were married in 1932. They had 3 kids (I’m youngest) who they sent to college. Well not my fave brother, the oldest, who went into the swimming pool construction biz at age 18 (1962) and died at 73 still active in the family biz he created.

Anyhow, back to the main point. Neither of my parents earned over $20,000-something in their lives. Put away penny by penny. Made worst investments you can think: muni bonds in era of high inflation when their tax rate did not warrant such stupidity. Total suckers of brokers.

Died worth $800,000 in early 90s. Continued to save more than they spent after retirement as their benies & SS was more than enough for their parsimonious standard of living.

I’m not saying that if my parents could do it everyone can. I HATE that argument. My parents had special gifts that few possess.

More like that my parents’ Horatio Alger stories (both came from extremely poor, large families) are stuff that the U.S. myths are made of. And what the PTB use to lie to us about how we should run our lives.

I’ve seen it up front & personal. I wish that ordinary people were as well endowed as my family is lucky to be. Real world just isn’t like that.

Of course. The new strategy is to take what Americans really really want and tie it to more wealth transfer.

As usual where Obama is one of the lead negotiators, the deal is worse than it need be.

BTW, I like former insurance exec Eskow’s notes on the problems of raising the Medicare age, link.

My point is that my parents were extraordinary and most peeps are ordinary.

Reminds me of the joke about incoming MIT frosh. At orientation, a show of hands revealed that 90% (or make up your own #) expected to be above average in their class.

More relevant, PTB are demanding that all teachers be above average.

That is a dog whistle for “we are going to fire you bc you are are teaching that radical U.S. history about how U.S. PTB manipulate U.S. myth and trying to make future voters to think for themselves.

Can’t have that.

So any excuse to fire teachers in the interests of current ruling class is good enough. Especially creating resentment bet female teachers who are vastly underpaid for the heroic jobs they do and female WalMart workers who can’t afford to shop where they work.

Gahhhhh. I get very upset when I rant about this.

“…at least then the politicians wouldn’t be able to steal it from us …”

But the bankers would and make no mistake, that is the goal.

The enormously cruel and evil policies of the bush administration had caused me to believe that I had lost my sense of awe at the depths of political depravity.

Obama has revived it.

The more I read S. 365 (the Debt ceiling/Triggers Deal) and the more the narrative develops, I think the WH is actually after the triggers.

Here’s why –

** They can campaign on their stated BS already – Congress is broken, blah blah.

** Also, they get MORE than the $1.5 trillion in cuts and say “See, we’re still on the right path anyway! JOBS!”

** Medicare will get auto-cut 2% p/year for 10 years, so there’s 20% on that piece of the safety net

** Social Security doesn’t get touched – for the specific moment. So they claim victory there.

Of course, other shenanigans can, prolly will, develop. It’s just nauseating.

I think you are on to something fundamental. One way to resist the corruption that surrounds us, particularly the advanced psychological efforts involved in persuading us that our “wants” are “needs,” is to reduce consumption radically. I understand that some who post here are struggling for sustenance. But most of us could cut back. That’s not painless. In the short run it will increase unemployment. But it’s the one thing that gets their attention.

Note that Bernacki has already complained that a significant part of the problem is lack of consumer confidence. I don’t know what’s wrong with you people. The minute I heard that O planned to extend my 2% payroll tax cuts in return for cuts in my future social security and Medicare payments I started planning to trade my 10 yr. old Toyota for a shiny new Lexus. Suggestions on model and features welcome. I’m new at this.

What happens to all that money I put into Medicare and SS, President Osterity? Is it all going to Lord Bloodstain of Golden Sacks?

Sad thing is there is no where to run. The criminal capitalists are impoverishing the whole world. Maybe I should move to Iceland.

The fact that Pete Peterson endorsed the American Jobs Act, and that he did so with a focus on an element not actually in the American Jobs Act, is pretty revealing.

Revealing its nakid didn’t he sponser a bunch of town halls in rich areas places you would his ideas to have support but even there he had problems finding grass roots support?

Boycotts and strikes are only thing that ever worked against PTB, and even then, rarely.

I’ve typed for years that if U.S.ians refused to buy, even for a week, it would scare the bezeeus out of PTB. I just don’t know how to make it happen.

Y’know if they’re going to screw us in our old age, at least they could make assisted suicide legal.

Funny nobody in Washington is saying tax the rich more end both wars cut defense spending to twice what China spends. Funny nobody in Washington is worried about what the majority of voters want and instead is all kinds of scared of the Tea Baggers…a group that now polls lower than Muslims.

This is all an imaginary shock doctrine claim SS is in crisis refuse to talk about or even mention on the MSM our ideas like tax the rich more end both wars cut defense spending to twice what China spends.
Then after the election expect SS to be Privatized.

John Tierney of the New York Times loves Chile’s Privatized SS and says

After comparing our relative payments to our pension systems (since salaries are higher in America, I had contributed more), we extrapolated what would have happened if I’d put my money into Pablo’s mutual fund instead of the Social Security trust fund. We came up with three projections for my old age, each one offering a pension that, like Social Security’s, would be indexed to compensate for inflation:

(1) Retire in 10 years, at age 62, with an annual pension of $55,000. That would be more than triple the $18,000 I can expect from Social Security at that age.

(2) Retire at age 65 with an annual pension of $70,000. That would be almost triple the $25,000 pension promised by Social Security starting a year later, at age 66.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/opinion/26tierney.html

The right wing media push to Privatize SS has already begun.

“Chile’s economy is based on the export of minerals, which account for about half of the total value of exports. Copper is the nation’s most valuable resource, and Chile is the world’s largest producer”

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0857288.html

http://my.firedoglake.com/thingscomeundone/2011/09/10/privatize-ss-now-just-look-at-chile/

Sharron Angle, Herman Cain etc are pushing America follow Chile but unlike Chile the value of half our exports has not increased. We don’t have a 10% tax on half our exports and Herman I am sure does not want to Nationalize half our exports like Chile has done to its copper.
Never mind that only 5 years ago the MSM was reporting Chile’s SS system was a disaster because Copper Prices and the stock market were lower.

The only reason the money elite would have to care about the future of American workers would be if they planned their future to be America-centered. But, they don’t, because they have long since decided that their future lies in Asia. So, the only purpose America serves in their view is as an opportunity to suck the last drops of juice out before they move on to more promising markets. Everything they are doing makes perfect sense when viewed from that perspective. We better wake up soon, and realize that our only hope is to scare them into leaving here ahead of schedule, while we still have enough capital and spirit to rebuild from within.

They tried this outsourcing before Britain, France etc they all ended up losing their empires.

Tierney is playing fast and loose with the facts. With the social security benefits he expects, he’s near the top of the income cap. (His income probably exceeds the amount taxed by social security.) Social security has a progressive payout feature by design. It pays out more on the lower portion of earned income. The higher your income, the smaller the portion of income social security replaces.

The issue isn’t whether Tierney gets a better return on his investment in a mutual fund. Its whether people with lower wages do better. Social security wins hands down. It’s a fact. Anyone who says otherwise is uninformed or a liar.

Ever wonder what would happen if we made THEM wonder where to run to?

Yeah, they’re all in a cuttin’ mood after robbing us blind. The trend continues unabated.
And the American people, capitalists to the bone, who think those greenbacks and gold are really actuality WORTH something are going over the cliffs like lemmings.

Here’s vintage Perry:
Is Rick Perry’s Budget Feeding Texas Wildfires?

Local Fire Departments Suffer $23 Million in Cuts
In a summer of record drought and heat, did climate-change-denier Rick Perry’s budget imperil public safety with millions in cuts to volunteer fire department coffers?

In case you haven’t heard, that is.
Our government/corporate symbiote has become a hyperparasite on the people of the world and the Earth.
I think these “people’s” souls just shrink into coal-like substances when they die…maybe become spiritual black holes

The book Origins of Totalitarianism shows the rise of Racist Nazi type Parties all through Europe as a reaction to Outsourcing jobs to the colonies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Totalitarianism

eCahn, I know and respect your credentials. Please read my Comment #23 above, and opine on whether you think my take has merit. Thanks in advance.

I have a hard time deciding whether Obama can be compared to Nero or Caligula.

So the actual working classes pay for the rich’s retirement…in THAT respect, it IS a Ponzi scheme.

Social security wins hands down. It’s a fact. Anyone who says otherwise is uninformed or a liar.

They are pushing Chile as a reason we should Privatize SS. I dug into the facts in my diary and No Chile can’t and won’t be replicated here.
Its good to disprove their uniformed lies.

I think the difference is that now they have developing middle classes in the Asian economies, which means they can both produce and sell into those virtually unlimited markets, unlike the empires you reference. I think that is a key difference.

If O behaved like Caligula Michelle would wring his neck.

PTB are demanding that all teachers be above average

Someone needs to take them aside and explain to them, slowly and in simple words, that that’s not possible.

They’re afraid of how many people would be willing to take that route. (Having a couple-three thousand people kill themselves on the Capitol steps, or in front of the WH fences, would get media attention … in ways they don’t want.)

I just received my letter from my Congressman, Peter Roskam.

He thanks me for contacting him about the debt issue debate. He explains about the deal, and the super committee and how great it is. He goes on to explain our rating downgrade by S&P. then…

Despite the progress made by the budget Control Act, we still face structural problems in the finances of entitlement programs such as Medicare. The House has passed a buget for Fiscal year 2012 called “A Path To Prosperity”, which will save this vital program and ensure its solvency. Under this plan those 55 and above will receive the exact same Medicare benefits as today. When those under 55 become eligible for Medicare, they will be able to count on a reformed Medicare modeled on the same type of health care benefits federal employees and Members of Congress receive, where they can choose from a list of insurance plans to best fit their needs. The Path to Prosperity would restore fiscal sanity by systematically paying off out nation’s debt without raising taxes.

Well… isn’t that just dandy.

Then he goes on to disingenuously conflate small business with mega corporations that pay almost no taxes with somehow being similar to small business that pay taxes at the individual tax rate (I assume he is speaking to “S” corps or something) so that’s why taxing the “wealthy” is not as simple as it seems. Lying Republican Fuckhead.

I must not have been clear.

Social security has a fairly complicated formula. To simplify if you earned $20,000 inflation adjusted dollars a year for 35 years, social security would replace a higher percentage of your income than if you earned $106,000, approximately the current cap on social security taxes, for 35 years. Since social security taxes income under the cap at a fixed percentage of income, the person earning $20,000 gets a much better return on the taxes paid in than the person earning $106,000.

Remember, this is a New Deal program. It was designed to help working people. So far it still does.

Those won’t last forever, either. I suspect they’re more fragile as places to drain for profits, because they’re newer.

Forever? I think 50-100 years will be more than long enought to justify the strategy. Growth is always faster in developed markets than in mature ones, and corps need to report growth every quarter. Point is, it’s hard to make easy money in this fully-exploited market simply because all niches have been fully developed. I think that’s pretty basic.

We keep thinking the Elites foresaw all of this? Did they?

Goldman Sachs, the International Bankers, etc. did not choose the right tool to destroy the USA. “OBAMA”

The elites made a HUGE MISTAKE by picking a Black Guy to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, the elite group that came up with this idea should commit suicide.

Obama generates extreme HATE from the Left and the Right

What we all must understand
The Egypt Street
The Greece Street is like a pop warner football team
The USA street is going to be like the NFL

Once the tools that keep the USA stable and civilize fall, and they are falling, we USA citizens have better hold on for the ride of our life times.

The ARAB street could be managed, and brought back under control, we better hope the USA street can be brought back under some form of control.

Some group of elites came up with the idea of pouring OBAMA ie GAS on to a wild fire.

What scares me, is the fact that the USA media and elites will not be prepared when the HELL comes, because it is coming.

the USA elites always thought, that every culture on Earth wanted to be like the USA? not

the ASIAN market will never be like the USA market
the European market will never be like the USA market

these other markets don’t consume like USA citizens, they just don’t
and they never will

the fact is? a lot of nations on the EARTH don’t want to be like the USA.

The other HUGE fact? is the Earth can not support another NATION like the USA.

like some scientist have said the USA is one MOTHER NATURE blow up from major disaster.

USA infrastruture is a complete JOKE

Stop the presses, the USA is only a World Leader in toys of WAR.

USA train technology is ancient compared to Europe and Asia
“the rest of world has a MASS TRANSIT system, we are more like Horse and Buggy”
USA internet technology is a complete joke
USA Health Care system is a complete joke
The USA power grid is falling a part

Just look at USA past Presidents? and compare them to other World Leaders
OBAMA is treated like clown on the World Stage
Bush was treated like Buffoon

Could Rick Perry ever become the president of Britain, France, Germany? No would Rick Perry and Sarah Palin ever be taken seriously any where else in the Modern World? No

the elites Killed JFK, and thought it would be wise to have Morons elected as USA President? another HUGE mistake by our so call Elites.

All USA multi national corporation leadership must smoke a lot of crack cocaine, no other culture on the Planet Earth is going to agree to Corporate Rule, not going to happen!

the only place Corporate Rule will work? is the USA
Why? the USA has one GOVT. Structure on the MENU, Europe and Asia have a long list of different Govt Structures to view and pick from.

What keeps the USA masses Stable? Answer the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, americans only know what their GOVT. tells them, that is it! USA citizens don’t have a World View, most USA citizens have Neighborhood view at best.

Like I said above, the group of ELITES who thought OBAMA was the best guy to kill Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade, needs to commit suicide, because they just KILLED themselves, and rest of us.

How does the OBAMA experiment End? Very, Very, Very, BADLY!!!

There has to be plenty of dirt on Peter G. Peterson? He ‘hates’ social security and medicare I got that, but let’s make him as popular as the Kochs. If that’s possible? Anyone tried, trying?

I meant that the looters have become increasingly greedy, and they’ll strip the assets faster as they move into newer ‘markets’.

Sure, that’s correct, but then maybe there will be other planets accessible. Doesn’t matter for us. We’ll be left neck-deep in shit while the developing markets will be where the action is for the next generation or two, at least. I’m just trying to get people to see beyond this week’s news to the bigger picture as to what I believe to be the next phase of corporate strategic thinking, because understanding that has very deep implications for us non-corporations here in America. If one does not think they are planning to leave us behind, one would have to conclude that they are irrational or insane, as jedimsnbcbrnco19 apparently does at #41, above, but I don’t think they are crazy.

Funny nobody in Washington is worried about what the majority of voters want and instead is all kinds of scared of the Tea Baggers…a group that now polls lower than Muslims

.

The media needs something to focus on that can substitute for reality and still seem plausible to eh majority of the ignorant sheeple. The latest ass of the week can only go so far. The MOTU’s provide this and hence stay behind the curtains, raping us of all we have, including our futures.

This article is what I like about FDL;’s kids, that Dayen kid, that Walker, and that Hamsher woman . . .

They give us so many details and inside info it becomes easy to see the clear and big picture.

We’re fucked.

LeSigh.

Bless all y’all for all ya do . . . till the final gasp, I’ll go down reading and be well informed at the least.

There’s SOME solace in that thought.

;-)

The obvious intent at hand, that any one as well informed as you are should know by now, is to privatize the planet, end of story.

What the 2% think they are gonna do with a dead planet at some point, is beyond me, but I don’t think they really care, they just want to privatize it all and make it into their own personal sanctuary for how ever long that might last.

Given the history of the families who own and have owned the wealth for so long, I’m amazed they’d be willing to bring down their own, species wise and species wide, cuz that’s where we is headed.

Go Figger.

Elridge Cleaver was on Countdown last night saying he supports upping the Medicare retirment age as well as means testing…they are ALL on Peterson’s payroll and they can ALL GO To Hell..they meet in secret beacuse they don’t have the balls to face the American people. Here we are ten years away from 9/11 and our own govt is ready to destroy the country…American men and women have died for the rich in this country and for what?

As for moving to another country, Wall st has its grip on the world…they are evil people unleashed on us by Bill Clinton, George W Bush and now Obama

Boycotts and strikes are only thing that ever worked against PTB, and even then, rarely.

Revolutions do the job fairly well, also. Nothing like the chance of loosing one’s head to temper their greedier impulses. Just ask those former motu’s Britain, Russia, France, etc.!

What the 2% think they are gonna do with a dead planet at some point, is beyond me, but I don’t think they really care, they just want to privatize it all and make it into their own personal sanctuary for how ever long that might last.

Exactly, I think those alive today are not caring much for the future beyond their deaths. Deaths that are no doubt sooner than later on the agenda.

Some of my roots go back to Roumania. I think approvingly of the Roumanian example.

That would be bodies impaled on pikes, still living, I take it, ala Vlad the Impaler? Interesting.

realitychecker, you misidentify the poster at 41. Intentional or just confused?

Might want to check your reality a lil better next time, eh. :)

LOL. Not sure if the roots go THAT far back, I only know about back to my grandparents on my mother’s side. Myself, I wear dentures, so neck-sucking is out without a straw. But you can Google the last photo of Ceaucescu (sic?) to get my drift.

I’m always trying to improve my reality-checking, but in this case, ’twas not my error. There WAS a major rant at that location from that writer when I submitted my comment, but it has since been disappeared, for reasons unknown to me, as it did not appear violative of any guideliness but just really angry. Certainly no offense was ever intended toward you, and I hope you’ve taken none. ;-)

I worked as a mod at a discussion site and we had some folks who had multiple identities. When a particularly favored member was suspended at one point the decision was made higher up the food chain to just let the person continue posting as the other identity. I shudder still thinking on all the silliness of discussion site politicking. Ack, ok, thanks for the correction.

jedi’s post being disappeared is not a good sign.

No, (s)he’s one of the angrier voices, but one I usually find myself in emotional accord with. The post in question did not appear violative to me, although I disagreed with some of the factual premises and conclusions in it. Perhaps it was a self-deletion upon reflection, one could hope so, because the leash here does not seem to be so short as it used to be. BTW, yours is another voice I generally find myself in emotional accord with. ;-)