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truthdig / Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 27 July 2011
"President Obama and the Senate Democratic leadership are clearly poised to cave in to those demands in the spirit of “compromise."
Debt Madness Was Always About Killing Social Security
This phony debt crisis has now passed through the looking glass into the realm where madness reigns. What should have been an uneventful moment in which lawmakers make good on the nation’s contractual obligations has instead been seized upon by Republican hypocrites as a moment to settle ideological scores that have nothing to do with the debt.
Hypocrites, because their radical free market ideology, and the resulting total deregulation of the financial markets, is what caused the debt to spiral out of control this last decade. That and the wars George W. Bush launched but didn’t have the integrity to responsibly finance. The consequence was a banking bubble and crash leading to a 50 percent run-up of the debt that has nothing to do with the “entitlements” that those same Republicans have always wanted to destroy.
Even Barack Obama has put cuts in those programs into play, warning ominously that a failure to lift the debt ceiling could cause the government to stop sending out Social Security checks. Why, when the Social Security trust fund is fully funded for the next quarter-century and is owed money by the U.S. Treasury rather than the other way around? Why would we pay foreign creditors before American seniors? The answer, offered as conventional wisdom by leaders of both parties, is that we cannot endanger our credit by failing to back our bonds, even though the Republicans have aroused the alarm of the main U.S. credit rating agencies by their brinkmanship on the debt.
What a topsy-turvy world when the same credit rating agencies that gave the thumbs up to the bankers’ toxic mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps now threaten the AAA rating of U.S. Treasury bonds. According to them, it will not be enough to merely lift the debt ceiling—what had been assumed by both Republican and Democratic presidents to be a routine act. In addition to that, as the credit agency Standard & Poor’s has insisted, more than $4 trillion has to be cut from programs that mostly benefit the victims of the banking meltdown. Otherwise the agencies will downgrade the U.S. credit rating, leading to higher interest rates that will destroy what remains of the U.S. housing market, dim the prospect for any improvement in employment and further enrich the Chinese government and other holders of U.S. debt.
President Obama and the Senate Democratic leadership are clearly poised to cave in to those demands in the spirit of “compromise,” Obama’s favorite word, but the Republicans keep upping the ante. The GOP is shameless: Speaker John Boehner has sanctimoniously responded to Obama’s plea for a bargain that gives up almost everything to the right wing by rebuffing the president on the grounds that the Republican Party is the last line of defense against big government.
Boehner dared blame Obama for “the largest spending binge in American history,” which he attributed to the health care reform, most of which has yet to be enacted, and a stimulus program that was an underfunded effort to save American jobs. Not a word from Boehner or the other Republicans about the banking collapse that resulted from their deregulatory policies, the real cause of the inflated debt.
Boehner’s slogan, “I’ve always believed, the bigger government, the smaller the people,” is downright bizarre coming from someone who supported the Bush tax cuts for the rich, the banking bailout and the highest war spending since World War II, all of which is what caused government to get this big. Was it job stimulus spending that kept GM jobs in this country that made people smaller, or the loss of their homes and jobs as a result of the policies that are at the core of the Republican program?
What is at stake is a radical Republican agenda to totally reverse the progress in economic justice that began with the great reforms of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal. Consider the direct consequence of the economic crisis that unfettered Wall Street greed has wrought, particularly in reversing the gains made by the most underprivileged sectors of the population. As The Wall Street Journal reported, based on a Pew Research Center study from 2005 to 2009, “The wealth gap between whites and each of the nation’s two largest minorities—Hispanics and blacks—has widened to unprecedented levels amid the housing crisis and the recession. … The disparities are the greatest since the government began tracking such data a quarter-century ago. …”
But there is plenty of suffering to go around as a result of the deep recession. The wealth of whites in that period declined by 16 percent, not to mention the ever-greater chasm between the top 2 percent and everyone else. That’s the same 2 percent whose tax cuts the Republicans are determined to preserve.
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ABOUT Robert Scheer
Robert Scheer, editor in chief of Truthdig, has built a reputation for strong social and political writing over his 30 years as a journalist. His columns appear in newspapers across the country, and his in-depth interviews have made headlines. He conducted the famous Playboy magazine interview in which Jimmy Carter confessed to the lust in his heart and he went on to do many interviews for the Los Angeles Times with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and many other prominent political and cultural figures.
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26 comments on "Debt Madness Was Always About Killing Social Security"
July 30, 2011 3:48pm
---- The next election wave just might be to vote everyone out and vote for anyone from any other party! ----People tried that in the last election. We ended up with a bunch of tea baggers that don't care if the nation defaults on its debts.I understand what you say but that experiment turned out badly. What we need is to find people who care about America and have them get rid of lobbyist before they are corrupted. I know. It's a nice dream.
July 29, 2011 4:27pm
Dept madness is about killing social security is the most stupid comment I have ever heard. All I read here is another lying scare tatic with ,as usual,no positive input to the situation.
July 28, 2011 8:32am
Richard Townsend
Clearly you have not read the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the writings of our founders who foresaw and intended the long term effects of what they had done to make sure it did not remain that way. As any student of history and human behavior knows the changes the document was intended create, and to some degree has made, would take a long time as the people of the day would not have been willing to accept such radical changes at that time but what they intended for our future.
July 28, 2011 7:43am
Here's a question for all of us to contemplate: What do we have to do to build the kinds of leaders who care more about this country and its people than politics and power? Are the basic problems in how we raise our children, in inappropriate parenting? In our educational systems? How can we raise the coming generations so that the results are different, and leaders are in touch and listen to the people? I'd like to hear some positives, some better ideas for the future; otherwise, this will only continue...
July 28, 2011 7:20am
The Federal Reserve has been around for 98 years now and this system of politics has survived basically unchanged from the signing of the Constitution. Frustrated Americans must remember that the founding fathers were well-to-do land owners that created a government where only their ilk could participate in government. Non land owners, women, and non-white ethnicities need not apply unless it was to join the military, and they were often given no choice in that matter. It goes without saying that this country has always been owned and operated by the wealthy elite and international banking interests. The current system continues to work quite well for the people in power with no real fear of any change coming from the rabble that continue to harbor the belief that this political system gives them a voice. Meaningful change will only occur after the current system is obliterated. After all, throughout recorded history there is no record of an Authoritarian Oligarchy leaving on their own !
July 28, 2011 2:02am
The media doesn't expose this connection because they are ultimately controlled by the government. They go hand in hand. The media is the medium through which the government keeps the population in the dark. Alway remember, an uneducated, uninformed, and ignorant population will never ask any questions, nor ever pose a threat to the government crime syndicate. The media cares about one thing and one thing only and that is exploitation of the worst possible subject matter for the sake of keeping high ratings and lining their own pockets. They are self serving, ego driven monkeys that will read ANYTHING that's put in front of them (via teleprompter), regardless of how damaging it may be to society as a whole. Unfortunately, the government knows that most Americans are really ignorant/uneducated about what's going on in government, where the tax dollars are going, etc., etc.. Let's face it, more people in the U.S. know more about Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Charlie Sheen, or Oprah than they do about how the country is run. So sad, but true. Most Americans are so busy running and working three different jobs just to try and cover the bills that they rely on the news media for their education. Unfortunately, most news coverage is sensationalized, largely biased, and, for the most part, not to be trusted. Meanwhile, the wolves are running free in the henhouse...
July 28, 2011 12:18am
Whether the thieves are on the left side of the table or the right side, they are all eating the same turkey - and we are it!
Only land value tax can make life less expensive for the masses (the higher the tax, the cheaper the price). When nobody pays land rent to anyone except government, a level playing field will exist. In other words everyone will be"rich" and only those who would choose to, could be subjugated. Many people very much want the status quo to remain.
July 27, 2011 8:44pm
Can you please explain to me why no one in the media ever mentions the obvious connection between the Grover Norquist pledge not to raise taxes, signed by most Republicans, and the flow of corporate money into their re-elelction campaigns? Isn't it obvious that those corporate funds will dry up for any Republican who breaks the pledge and be immediately diverted to his or her opponent in the next primary campaign?
July 27, 2011 6:05pm
Until the Middle Class revolts, and removes a few estates in Palm Beach, Greenwich or Beverly Hills, the rich and the Rs will continue on this path of destruction of this country. Until they are physically "slapped down" and, like bullies - which they are - and are kicked hard to the point where they go to their corner to lick their wounds NOTHING will change. I say this as a member of an old - and in some instances with a few cousins - rich family. And I worked at Tiffany's, Saks, Gump's etc and know only too well that there is only SO MUCH that one can buy. But greed is really the greatest sin, as well as a psychosis. I have no doubt if the Koch Bros had EVERY dollar in the world, they would not be happy. Mr. Scheer's article is so accurate, but depressing at the same time.
July 27, 2011 6:12pm
I agree with you ... I tried to email this to friends and I couldn't ... can someone help me with this?
July 27, 2011 5:03pm
THE REASON IS POWER! THAT IS WHAT THEY WANT AND HAVE BEEN PLOTTING ON DOING FOR YEARS.
July 27, 2011 5:59pm
Let's give Peace a Chance... why do these people who have power want Power? Because without it they would be hopeless... they would not know how to co-exist in a world that they had no control over... hmmmm I have no response to that...
July 27, 2011 9:56pm
There is no Peace and they want none.
Because they are sociopaths or psychopaths. There is no Reasoning.
July 27, 2011 4:14pm
I just don't get it... maybe I am naive... why would the rich want to take the little bit of money that the rest of us use to buy things from them and take it away? Do they want an uprising of people who can't afford to pay their mortgage (rent)? Not be able to pay their electric etc... bills? Not be able to buy groceries? (Have you noticed the prices for necessities at the grocery store lately?) Needed medicine? I don't get it??? I recently lost a job and I went to the local work force place and the first thing she said was... unemployment wants you to know that we told you this is available for you... and if you didn't show up you could lose your $200 + a week in benefits... yeah $200 + a week.. (when we read about spurned mistresses wanting $20,000 plus a month ... do we call them "job creators"?).. but then she showed us how she could help us (which was nice and very helpful) .... and then she explained that their are so many people out there still on extended benefits that can't find a job, so in other words "don't get your hopes up"... so why are the wealthy called "job creators" and defended by the Karl Rove's and Fox "Not so News" organizations? They create jobs for the illegal aliens (not that I have nothing against people making money, it's just that the "job creators" want to hire people who will work for the lowest wages and there is a whole family involved doing the same thing contributing towards the household.... I am going on a tangent here but 'us baby boomers were raised in a one parent or two parent wage earner household" and the people in other countries that get paid pennies on the dollar! There is no more United States of America... please won't someone tell me what the USA is now? I thought I was the Middle Class... now as Rodney Dangerfield would say... "I have no class at all!"
July 27, 2011 10:07pm
A Banana Republic more so that Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua or El Salvador ever were.
We have had 4 Elections stolen 1994, 2000, 2004 and 2010, in conjunction with a judicial coup d'etat, which have transferred the majority of the wealth and assets of this Country to the top .5%. Banana Republic.
July 27, 2011 4:08pm
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/dec/17/what-is-living-and-... Judt address these issues brilliantly in an essay.
July 27, 2011 4:04pm
Do not be deceived by the 'choice' being offered. REJECT BOTH! Abolish the Federal Reserve (TRUTH-IT.net), click on money & banking then follow the short articles accompanied by short videos to experience a crash course in the history of banking in this country since before the Am. Revolution up to the present time. No matter what CENTURY, no matter what CONTINENT - the banker names are the same - the very same small group of European bankers who got Congress to dupe themselves into passage of the Federal Reserve Act (which has zero to do with the federal gov) and is privately owned by this small group of globally interlocked banking empires. Abolish the Federal Reserve; Congress was stupid enough to pass it in the first place (which allowed them to create depressions and recessions at will) so force them to prove they are not STILL STUPID, by repealing, rescinding or abolishing the Federal Reserve in its entirety and tomorrow, we would be 1000% better off. This was not taught in high school, nor in colleges for obvious reasons! They like us thinking America, its prez, Congress and the military are the most powerful - all are brought to their knees by the Federal Reserve. This 2008 feigned financial fiasco was just a repeat of the 1929 (so-called) stock market crash where the bankers created a run on the banks themselves to create the depression, and now, with that "boner-brained" Boehner declaring all we have is THEIR EITHER/OR SCENARIO is worthy of the contempt it deserves. Hold out America - there is POWER IN KNOWLEDGE. GET SOME - at the above mentioned web site! Do your homework and then get F-U-R-I-O-U-S. The next step is the Amero (as the dollar is intentionally KILLED), with our nation being divided up into 10 regions (state boundaries will disappear). WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
July 27, 2011 1:35pm
People need to prevent these scoundrels from continually misdirecting our attention from one critical FACT: Social Security ISN'T an "entitlement", nor is it a give-away. It is a compulsory savings account that these thieves -- democrats AND republicans have embezzled, plain and simple, for their own political purposes. We need to keep this fact in the forefront. These people shouldn't be running for re-election, they should be applying for parole!
http://www.republicratjunta.com
July 27, 2011 10:09pm
Don't leave out MediCare, which is also paid for by FICA, except for that troublesome Part D Prescription Medicine coverage of W's
July 27, 2011 1:23pm
President Obama has to grow a pair and be able to tell Boehner that if he doesn't agree to tax increases, then Obama will raise the limit himself. The threat alone might get Boehner off the edge.
July 27, 2011 4:08pm
Yes you are right! Stop compromising Obama! I wrote this "somewhere else yesterday"!?
July 27, 2011 1:08pm
As Paul Krugman argues in Conscience of a Liberal.
Entitlement Reform needs to start with the powerful.
July 27, 2011 1:01pm
Eloquently written without the malice most Americans are expressing now. Certainly many of us, The People, are very-well aware of these tactics, called Politics. The next election wave just might be to vote everyone out and vote for anyone from any other party!Thank you!
July 28, 2011 7:26am
We can only Hope, but the odds are not in our favor. Only one FDR in over 230 years is not encouraging !
July 27, 2011 12:52pm
Yes, yes,,,we all know that and now we know for sure that Obama has feet of clay. But where is there to turn?