Several reliable reports point to a bipartisan Debt-Commission-‘inspired’ slashing of Social Security and Medicare and other little goodies as the people’s reward for voting either Democrat or Republican November 2. It’s funny how the plans (see the three excerpts below) gets clearer and clearer as we approach the election, the PTB being so confident when both parties loudly signal they’re prepared to do their bidding. Some reporters then decide that it doesn’t matter if the rest of us know about the next very collegial and bipartisan hell the system is going to give us.
So, of course, whether we elect Dems or Repubs Nov. 2, good stuff will be slashed, and (btw) the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will be made permanent. Y-a-w-w-n. So this election and its aftermath, like the last one, will simply be about the lesson Americans never learn: whoever pays for the elections gets what they want. And of course when it matters the ‘left’ and right TV and radio media will ditch and distract from that lesson. Like they are doing right now, even during this worst of all recessions with the President and Congress gung ho only to make it worse. BTW, I say 100 Democrats (but it will proabably turn out to be more) because only 135 of the 255 Democrats* in the House have ‘promised’ (and you know how good a Congressperson’s promise is) to vote no on Obama Debt Commission recommendations to cut Social Security or raise the ‘full benefits’ retirement age (from 67, where it is now).
And so, like any real leftist should, I now present my on-point evidence for the above:
1. Obama:
Obama likely to focus on deficit in next 2 years
Preparing for political life after a bruising election, President Barack Obama will put greater emphasis on fiscal discipline, a nod to a nation sick of spending and to a Congress poised to become more Republican, conservative and determined to stop him. …
While trying to save money, Obama will have to decide whether to bend to Republican and growing Democratic pressure to extend Bush-era tax cuts, even for the wealthy, that expire at year’s end. Obama wants to extend them for people making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000, but a broader extension is gaining favor with an increasing number of Democrats.
Moving to the fore will be a more serious focus on how to balance the federal budget and pay for the programs that keep sinking the country into debt.
In 2010, Republicans are … holding up their “Pledge to America” as a road map to fix the economy.
Balancing the budget is a major part of that pledge …
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) says … that Republicans will have to take a “serious look at Medicare and Medicaid and see what can be changed.” But Capito warns that it can’t just be the Republicans formulating this plan.
“When you talk about something as deeply personal to the American family as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, ” she says, “this is where I think hopefully we can take down the hammers and try to find a bipartisan solution.”
Even so, Capito sees balancing the budget in the first year as a “lofty goal.”
“I think you’ll see a movement toward that, but I don’t believe that achieving a balanced budget in one year is realistically achievable,” she says.
Suddenly, President Barack Obama is talking about the record $1.42 trillion US deficit (which has contributed to a $13.6 trillion national debt). In the New Year, he suggests, he is going to “get serious” and have a “tough conversation” about the deficit:
If we’re going to get serious about the deficit, then we’re going to have to look at everything: entitlements, defense spending, revenues. … And that’s going to be a tough conversation.
John Boehner, hoping to be the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, is talking about Republican eagerness to tackle the deficit:
They’re going to have to signal some kind of willingness to work with Republicans to cut spending. Cutting government spending is what the American people want, and it’s an approach neither party has tried yet.
*I realize the actual number is 136, but one of those is Eleanor Holmes-Norton, the DC rep who has no final vote on anything.