Tweet
Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles cannot take “no” for an answer.
After two years and two failed attempts to gin up public support for their horrific austerity agenda known as the Simpson-Bowles plan (aka the Catfood Commission plan here and elsewhere), the deficit scolds are coming out of the woodwork to form an astroturf supergroup called Fix the Debt.
Their goal? Fix the Debt aims to raise around $100 million in the next few months (with the help of their 1% sugardaddies like Honeywell CEO David Cote and wealthy benefit cut crusader Pete Peterson) to collect 10 million petition signatures in support of pushing a legislative version of the Catfood Commission plan through Congress.
With the so-called “fiscal cliff” looming in the not-so-distant future, the announcement of Fix the Debt’s formation signals the beginning of a campaign to provide whatever political cover necessary to shove unpopular policies down the throats of the American public.
Click here to call your member of Congress to oppose Fix the Debt.
FDL has been fighting Simpson-Bowles for over 2 years now and we have no intention of stopping now. We will be following Fix the Debt closely and keep our activists at the ready to push back on any attempt to force an austerity agenda through Congress.
17 Comments
which, at 30¢ per teat, is actually quite economical.
We should all be very, very afraid of the lame duck session, whoever wins the election.
Keep up your great work on this issue.
lol
I wish we could make these idiots go away. What they are doing with the approval of the President is utterly unnecessary. We need to understand finally that our debt and the deficit are not a problem, never was and likely never will be. We are being driven by fear. The fear is we will go bankrupt.Just think about that for a few seconds. How in heavens name can the federal government that can create as much money as raindrops and can buy anything denominated in dollars go bust? It simply cannot. It is a matter of logic. You can go bust, so can the state of Indiana, so can Greece but the US government cannot. It is not even remotely like a household and almost never needs to “tighten its belt.”
We need our own website.
WE WON’T PAY.
It is going to be hard to beat these bastards. If Occupy took up the issue maybe that would help. In any case getting the message out so that people understand it is going to be hard. The debt hawks are way ahead since most people think that government needs to tighten its belt just like households. Obama sold that one.
please give Simpson an ENEMA his turds have invaded his brain compartment
ya know…shit for brains
People keep referring to the Simpson-Bowels (h/t oldnslow) committee’s recommendation, as if there ever was one. They couldn’t even get those few people to concur. Austerity in a recession is madness. Off with their heads! (Figuratively speaking, of course.)
As I pointed out elsewhere:
That removes all deficit-based excuses for cutting benefits.
But then they raise the dire prospect of “the fiscal cliff.” Per the Wikipedia:
In other words, this cliff involves the lowest deficits in recent history and, following a six-month contraction of 1.3%, a growth of 2.3% in the next six months and “over the long-run” relatively higher growth supported by lower deficits and debt. That’s not a cliff; it’s merely a pot hole that could be filed in with money borrowed at effectively negative interest rates.
I willl call first thing in the morning…don’t these god damn bastards ever stop?
No, because Simpson-Bowles is not the end game for these creeps. And they’re going to get everything they want and more.
MAYA MACGUINEAS C-SPAN INTERVIEW
http://www.c-span.org/Events/Washington-Journal-for-Monday-July-23/10737432532-2/
This is an interview with Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and New America Foundation, Fiscal Policy Program Director, with C-Span host, Libby Casey on July 23, 2012.
As this discussion clearly demonstrates, MacGuineas is a corporatist tool of the highest order. She is spearheading the 50 to 100 million dollar plus social media campaign, along with a 10-million-signature petition drive, to gain passage of Bowles-Simpson in the upcoming lame duck congressional session.
Please watch this interview, in order to have a full understanding of the lies, distortions and exaggerations that we are up against.
Blue
Pardon. Highly recommended.
Blue
Good tip; thanks Blue – will check it out
when every repuke gives up his SS and Medicare,that means you John McNasty
we can discuss a CATFOOD option
till then
μπορεί να τρώνε μαλακία και πεθαίνουν (Greek)
Let the Bush-Obama Tax Cuts For The Rich expire, and the deficit problem is basically solved. That’s better than giving up Social Security and Medicare.
Exactly! But they have a problem for every other solution than gutting entitlements. Their retort to letting the bush tax cuts expire is the “fiscal cliff,” which is also bullshit, as I discuss here.
Just called the offices of my rep and two senators (all Republicans), and received the usual polite assurances that my concerns would be passed along to them. At least one of the people who answer the phones always sounds a little astonished to be speaking with someone who favors “defense” budget cuts and opposes any cuts to Social Security and Medicare…