Want to know the latest on the pro-austerity campaign to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits behind the public’s back?
Join our Firedoglake Membership webinar Wednesday, August 29th at 8pm Eastern on “Catfood 3.0 and the Ongoing Fight to Protect Social Security” with special guests Nancy Altman, Eric Kingson and Alex Lawson of Social Security Works.
The deficit scolds have set up a seemingly never-ending system of triggers and deadlines to force ‘solutions’ to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid budgets that would reduce benefits and do irrevocable harm to these critical programs. From the debt ceiling debacle to the upcoming fiscal cliff, our country has been led into a vicious cycle of fear mongering and misinformation on the deficit that only becomes more entrenched with time.
Now that secret committee meetings have failed twice to impose unpopular austerity programs on the public, corporate heavyweights and their friends on Capitol Hill are forming groups like Fix the Debt, raising millions of dollars to lobby Congress into passing harmful reforms that throw society’s most vulnerable under the bus in the name of so-called ‘fiscal responsibility.’
By making our voices heard once more in opposition to benefit cuts, we can continue to fight back attempts to destroy some of the most successful programs in our country’s history.
Nancy, Eric and Alex will take us through the forces waging the war on benefits and give us their thoughts on what we can do to stop this and future, inevitable assaults on these programs.
If you’re already a Firedoglake Member, you can register here or check your email in the coming days for an invitation.
If you’re not a Firedoglake Member, click here to join for as little as $45/year and we’ll send you an invitation to the webinar.



15 Comments

I don’t forget so easily.
“HOPE AND CHANGE” OBAMA gave his base (PROFESSIONAL LEFT) the middle index fingir for the past 3 years.
His friends are the CORPORATE CEO’S AND BANKSTER WHORES, who run this country.
Two years of 2% PAYROLL TAX CUTS, WHICH ROBS SOCIAL SECURITY. WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE STREETS.
WE NEED A REAL CHANGE THIRD PARTY. DEMS/REPUGS ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR CRIMINALS.
NO BANKSTERS ARE IN JAIL UNDER OBAMA AND NO OPPOSITION PARTY OR MEDIA TO CALL HIM OUT. EVERY THIEF IN JAIL SHOULD BE PAROLED. OH I FORGOT THE PRISONS ARE NOW PRIVATIZED$$$.
Social Security is like virginity.
Once lost it ain’t coming this way again soon.
Last night, the PBS Newshour had a piece on the fiscal cliff.
It presented a wide range of opinions from a diverse group of experts,
ranging all the way from Maya MaGuineas to Alice Rivlin.
Well, actually, Gwen Ifill only talked with those two,
because why would she want to talk with anybody else?
The bloodlust to go after “entitlements” was palpable.
You have been warned:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/cbo_08-22.html
RootsAction has made it clear that Obama and Biden are implying completely different fates for SS. See http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6464
And I believe the 2% PAYROLL TAX CUTS were paid to the SS Trust Fund out of the General Fund.
Oct 08 candidate Obama; no cuts to SS needed just lift payroll tax limit to those making 250k Jan 09 President Obama releases his “Grand Bargain” where he is willing to cut SS….enough said!
send me the invite Brian I will be there! I will be 60 in Feb and counting on SS/Medicare
Stoller has a great post:
Obama’s Second Term Agenda: Cutting Social Security, Medicare, and/or Medicaid
I linked it up today in my post on the debates. A must-read.
You have my full agreement.
It’s not just Cat-Food they want to shove down our throats,
They also want to shove Coat-Hangers up ……
The R’s are now the Cat-Food & Coat-Hangar Party.
Here’s a new piece on SS and how to save it!
The truth hurts. I can’t see around the depressing reality that these people cannot be stopped.
Even darker days ahead.
metamars–
Will be posting a diary on this topic next week.
You ask: “So, which is it — flat guarantee of “no changes” or proud “willingness to accept cuts”?”
ANSWER: “”A national politician would do well to strongly identify themselves with Social Security, not just with rhetoric, but to be very clear that they understand the pain people are experiencing today, that they stand behind this program and they will protect the citizenry and they will not cut benefits,” said Eric Kingson, a Syracuse University professor who co-founded Social Social Security Works. “I hope to hear that from the White House. I have not heard that yet.”
and,
Last week, Vice President Joe Biden made a more sweeping guarantee during a campaign swing in southern Virginia, telling a customer at a diner that Social Security will not be changed.
“I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security,” Biden told the customer, according to a White House pool report. “I flat guarantee you.”
A Biden adviser said later the vice president was merely reassuring the woman that her benefits would not be changed. The adviser spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.
[CBS Money Watch, article entitled: Dems Slam Ryan Over Social Security Privatization, August 19, 2012]
Blue
There’s no conflict in those two statements. Changes to SS are NOT needed…and yet the “Democrats” are still willing to accept cuts.
Isn’t that so mature and responsible and bi-partisany of them? Obama and his fellow “Democrats” care so much about embracing the New Feudalism, they’re willing to gut Social Security for no reason whatsoever! HOPE you can find some spare CHANGE, suckers!
(What a fucking evil worm. Hail, the Obama!)
I, for one, am going to give Obama a lot of credit for promising cuts to “entitlements’ before he even took office, only two months after his election. (Guess he forgot to campaign on that during the primaries.)
I will also give him all the credit he deserves for abandoning the public option and insulting those who were trying to fight for it.
I plan to give him credit for those things and so much more on November 6, when I will vote for Dr. Jill Stein with as much enthusiasm as I had when I voted for Obama 4 years ago.
Hey, I just realized, that will make it two historic Presidential votes in a row!