Tweet
With people finally paying attention to the atrociousness of Alan Simpson, I thought it’d be a good time to take a quick look at his partner, Erskine Bowles. Former investment banker, chief of staff to Clinton, and neoliberal Senate candidate, he’s revealed himself to be nothing less than a budget cutting fanatic.
You probably heard that he called our debt a "cancer." You might not be aware of his other recent pubic pronouncements. And mind you, he’s the Democrat chosen by Obama to head the commission.
BOWLES: Chris, look, first of all, Al and I are 100 percent together. We’re a team. I know that sounds strange to Washington to have a Republican and a Democrat agreeing with each other, but we do. My strategy is the same as Al. Let’s make sure the American people know we have a looming crisis. To do that, we have to have a real set of numbers. That means using the actuarial numbers from Social Security and from Medicare, and using the numbers prepared by CBO that most people agree are correct, the Congressional Budget Office. And then once we have gotten real numbers out there, let’s see if we can persuade people to trust each other, come together, and really take some of these tough stands to bring down spending.
WALLACE: So you want to go after spending first before taxes?
BOWLES: Look, I think we have to go after everything. Everything has to be on the table, whether it’s revenue or spending. I personally would like to go after spending first.
Spending first? But I thought they were going to put together a package of both benefit cuts and tax increases. What’s going here?
Bowles pointed to steps taken recently by the new coalition government in Britain, which also faces an acute budgetary problem, as a guide to what the commission might use in its recommendations. That would mean about three-quarters of the deficit reduction would be accomplished through spending cuts, and the remainder with additional revenue.
Okay, so maybe spending won’t be first; it will merely be emphasized so as not to raise taxes on the wealthy.
But what’s the end game here? What’s Bowles’s shooting for?
Erskine Bowles, the Democratic co-chairman of the bipartisan White House Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, floated a long-term goal of reducing federal spending to about 21% of U.S. gross domestic product, slightly above the recent norm but significantly lower than current spending projections.
Sounds reasonable enough. Only problem is, it would "end progressive ambition" and decimate the budget.
This sounds like a bookkeeping matter. But Bowles’ goal would end progressive ambition, ratify America’s declining competitiveness and bury the American dream.
Why? For starters, federal spending under Ronald Reagan averaged 22 percent of GDP. Under Bowles’ view, therefore, the outer limits of the Democratic Party’s 21st-century aspirations would be to run government at a size smaller than did a 20th-century conservative icon.
What’s more, Reagan ran government at this size at a time when 76 million baby boomers weren’t about to hit their rocking chairs. In 1988, 32 million retirees received Social Security and 33 million were on Medicare, our two biggest domestic programs. By 2020, about 48 million elderly Americans will receive Social Security, and 62 million Americans will be on Medicare (then the numbers really soar).
As a matter of math, if you run the government at a smaller level than did Ronald Reagan while accommodating this massive increase in the number of seniors on our health and pension programs, you have to decimate the rest of the budget.
So if the Democratic co-chair of Obama’s Debt Commission were to have his way, he would decimate not just Social Security but the entire federal budget.
The Catfood Commission, Where Everything’s on the Table, including Meow Mix.
JSIT.
Just Shut it Down.
[Ed note: bumped from August 27, 2010 7:28 pm]
51 Comments
More deliberate lies, but this time by bowels. He talks about the spending for SS as a big hit on the government funds that affect the budget. The low information voters (most, apparently) will not see any big progressive pundit push back against any of this. As Bob Somerby points out time after time, the big “progressives” stare off into space. I took out my TV cable, but do ko or rachel or chris or … give any in depth analysis of the cat food commission and the comments by simpleton or bowels? I’ve never seen such highlighted on FDL. I’m not talking about them being snarky, but actually analyzing the lies.
Whoops – blew the acronym. Other typos too. Is there a way to edit diaries?
Anyway, Paul Ryan is on the commission and he seems pleased buy its direction.
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704334604575339272679764964.html
I have seen Cenk Uygur (when he is hosting the Dylan Ratigan show) point out the catfood commission’s lies on at least three occasions. And Amy Goodman on Democracy Now has had Dean Baker on, and also Laura Flanders on Grit TV. The ones you mention, I have no idea.
Is this what we thought we were getting when we elected Mr. Hope and Change? We need to get to the root of the problem alright and we need to do that by mounting a serious primary challenge against him in 2011. Dr. Dean needs to be called out of retirement to lead the assault on the neo-liberal wrecking crew that has deeply entrenched itself in the Dimowit party leadership and is going to end up handing Congress and eventually the WH back to the Lizards if they keep this shit up!
Can the Catfood Commission before it ruins our reputation internationally with its Sovereign Default proposals! Has anyone had an opportunity to ask any other members of the commission their opinion of Simpson’s horrible language?
What about his views? Have they challenged them in their closed-door meetings?
I thought not.
That’s what I’m getting at. Those that you mention would point out these problems, but they are small potatoes compared to the ones that I mentioned. Of course, the ones I mentioned are small potatoes compared to hannity, et.al.
Nice to see you here, David. When the latest Simpson crudeness surfaced, I watched Msnbc even though it pains me. Nobody took the issue seriously. Nobody discussed the substance of his remarks except, as noted, Cenk. They had guy on from Politico who joked that”No cows had complained.” As a woman and as a cattle rancher I did complain.
There has got to be a way of joining forces with others whose “entitlements” will also be cut. A conservative Vet acquaintance looked up the Cat Food Commision when I brought it up. He thinks they are now also after his vet benefits. So I got one comrade in arms. How to get more without any big national voice? We have no ML k jr. We have no Malcolm. We have no ghandi. We do have wikileaks, naomi klieg, Jeremy scahill, matt tabby, but we have no Teamsters or UAW like in the Thirties. What to do?
My biggest problem right now is my “liberal” friends. They aren’t out of work, so all they do is rail on the crazy wing nut Repugs. They refuse to criticize the Dems. So the kabuki continues.
Social Security is not projected to contribute to the legal deficit for thirty years. The problem is that the ruling class wants to pick the pockets of the working class to the tune of 2.5 trillion dollars. They claim that:
* “The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided, so get over it.”
* “The Treasury bonds held by the Social Security Trust Fund are nothing but worthless IOUs.”
But, those bonds are backed by “the full faith and credit of the Government of the United States of America,” and per Section four of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution:
They are an asset of the working-class Americans paid for via the highly regressive FICA tax.
The point is that those bonds, were they to be redeemed, would have to be redeemed via other borrowing or via the much less regressive U.S. Income Tax, which would take a bite out of Bowles’ and Simpson’s class.
So their plan is to cut Social Security benefits to the point where those bonds will never have to be redeemed, a 2.5 trillion dollar heist of working-class assets. And worse yet, once income tax starts covering the Social Security shortfall by redeeming those bonds, someone is going to suggest that income tax keeps on doing it after the bonds run out. Imagine that! The upper-class would have to start contributing their fair share to the maintenance of the elderly “lesser people.”
Bowles and Simpson, the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of the Catfood Commission.
If you think the White House has even remotely considered redirecting Bowles’focus or removing Simpson from this commission, go to the Center for American Progress (CAP) website and try to find one article, one statement,or one policy opinion on social security.(Recall, CAP is run by John Podesta and friends, all White House insiders.)
Crickets.
The catfood commission in general and Simpson in particular have tacit support from the alleged progressive think-tank, that pretends to be an independent voice for progressives but is a mouth organ for White House policies.
The Catfood Commission is Obama’s spawn, all the way. Within a month of his inauguration he called his Catfood Summit, featuring Pete Peterson as a guest of honor. Per Jane Hamsher:
In December 2009, Senators Gregg and Conrad went ahead and proposed such a commission, but in January 2010, the Senate shot it down. So, in his State of the Union address, Obama announced that he would go ahead and appoint his beloved Catfood Commission by executive order, and he dug up Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles as just the people to chair it.
Let me repeat: The Catfood Commission and the statements of its co-chairs are spawn of Obama. It’s his pet project. There is no way in hell he is going for fire any of them.
He is going to try to ram their recommendations through the lame-duck session of Congress between December first and Christmas recess. “An historic opportunity to fix America’s deficit problem.” (But at the expense of the working class.)
Obama,and all his wall street cronies must be thrown out of office, ireally fear for the American people
YALL saw this?
Michael Hirsh: How Wall Street Rolled Obama
Barack Obama, Barack Obama Wall Street, Obama Wall Street, Obama Wall Street Reform, Politics News 109
views5,071 Get Politics Alerts
Email Comments 5,071 Newsweek:
Barack Obama was “incredulous” at what he was hearing, said one of his top economic advisers. The president had spent his first year in office overseeing the biggest government bailout of the financial industry in American history. Together with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, he had kept Wall Street afloat on a trillion-dollar tide of taxpayer money. But the banks were barely lending, and the economy was still mired in high unemployment. And now, in December 2009, the holiday news had started to filter out of the canyons of lower Manhattan: Wall Street’s year-end bonuses would actually be larger in 2009 than they had been in 2007, the year prior to the catastrophe. “Wait, let me get this straight,” Obama said at a White House meeting that December. “These guys are reserving record bonuses because they’re profitable, and they’re profitable only because we rescued them.” It was as if nothing had changed. Even after a Depression-size crash, the banks were not altering their behavior. The president was being perceived, more and more, as a man on the wrong side of an incendiary issue.
“The Treasury bonds held by the Social Security Trust Fund are nothing but worthless IOUs.”
Its staggering isnt it? un-fucking-believeable! that they are trying to lay the groundwork to default on the U.S. Federal bonds in the trust fund. Its like writing a check to someone, then stopping payment and then telling everyone it was a “worthless IOU”. Those bonds have to be paid for with tax revenue that was anticipated before the bush crime syndicate cut billions out for the wealthy. Now all they have to do is allow those cuts to expire, but that was never part of the scheme. kleptocracy. Its MIND BLOWING that this planned theft is being carried out in plain sight and NONE of the chattering class or the political class appears willing to lift a finger to stop it. The so called “liberal” democratic party is dead, finished, washed up, OVER.
The biggest challenge to getting to that 21% of GDP number will be Medicare, not Social Security. Which is why we needed, you know, like REAL healthcare reform. Instead we got a bill that guaranteed profits for the insurance industry and continued rising costs. I do agree with some of the spending cutters, in that we can’t sustain our healthcare spending. Maybe one day we’ll get healthcare reform???
I don’t even know what to hope for anymore.
Maybe, if the fall’s election are as bad as they look, the Democrats will be in disarray and unable to pass anything during the lame duck session.
sadly, sadly looks like Obama rolled Hirsh with “one of his top economic advisers” incredulous, my ass. anyone even loosely following David Dayen’s HAMP dispatches knows damn good and well what’s up btw Wall Street and this White House, “rolling” never enters in to it, this is Hyman Roth’s idea of a relationship – “we have now what we have always needed, real partnership with the government”
floated a long-term goal of reducing federal spending to about 21% of U.S. gross domestic product,-
NONSENSE
Reagan’s 22% or 23% can cover the older population, but you need to add at least 8% if we are to cover a flow through of payroll taxes to a single payor that covers everyone for basic care.
So 30% is the minimum needed (25% covers the joke of a health reform that Obama got passed). Meanwhile the tax level is so damn low post the Bush tax cuts it is a joke to talk about “spending first” (In 2008 the federal government collected $2.5 trillion, an amount equal to 17.7 percent of GDP. Federal revenue has been as high as 20.9 percent of GDP recently – with excise taxes dropping from 3% of GDP in 1950 to only 0.5% of GDP now).
and thank you David Mizner – was completely unaware of the WaPo piece. looks like I’m gonna shed a few more FB friends this week X~o
Yeah, if you’re ever going to have single payer, which is what we should’ve had by now, that alone is going to eat about 15%-20%. So yeah, IMO the number spent by government could be as high as 40% of GDP. Of course, that will never happen in this country.
Nothing gets fixed until Bernanke’s reign of terror is over.
Actually, I think the President was being seen as someone who was becoming more and more irrelevant.
His opinion can be safely ignored. When, after all, has Obama actually ever fought for anything since taking his oath of office? If he’s really piqued he might give a speech, but it’s unlikely that the words will be backed up by any real action. And the Congressional Dems will be sure to stay mum, if they know what’s good for their campaign coffers.
Obamarahma and his lackeys are a dream come true for the MOTU, a Trojan Horse who still is receiving the benefit of the doubt by the MSM as the second coming of FDR all the while pushing regressive policies knuckle-draggers like Bush and Grover Norquist could never pull off. I don’t think we yet realize how bad this will turn out.
Obama is an empty friggin suit. His only passion it seems is to please his pals on Wall st. and Fox News. Beyond that he seems to hate the people who voted for him.
If you are waiting to see something substantial by the TV progressives….you won’t find it.The Corporate media put people in the host chairs who progressives can identify with…..but this is just to pacify progressives,calm the waters….er mislead in some instances.
Erskine Bowles is a democrat says who?
this is the problem progressives have, people calling themselves democrats don’t make them democrats
We Progressive must define the difference between FDR, JFK, LBJ, democrats and Clinton, Obama Democrooks
FDR, JFk, LBJ, democrats are the largest part of the current democratic base.
“Clinton, Obama, Democrooks are developed and maintained by the media own by rich republicans” Erskine Bowles is a Democrat? base on what?
FDR, JFK, LBJ, democrats would have supported and fought for the public option
“Clinton, Obama democrooks hate the idea of the public option, they must make their masters richer” Obama also killed Drug Importation
FDR, JFK, LBJ, would have fought for unions and teachers
“Clinton, Obama democrooks hate unions and teachers, for example, Clinton, Obama support democrooks like Blanche Lincoln” would a real democrat ever supported the idea of NAFAT? No
FDR, JFK, LBJ, would have pass a health care bill Ted Kennedy would have love!
“Clinton, Obama, democrooks passes a Bill written by Bob Dole a republican”Who thinks Ted Kennedy would have loved the Obama Health Care Scam
FDR, JFK, LBJ, would have put people on their economic team that could get us out of this new depression!
“Clinton, Obama democrooks put people on their economic team that cause the current depression” Obama bails out Wall Street without on limits the amount of money they could received. He game main street nothing.
FDR, JFK, LBJ, would never let the NSA spy on americans
“Clinton, Obama democrooks like Bush are all for letting the military of USA spy on americans”
FDR, JFk, LBJ, would have put people like Elizabeth Warren all over the Govt.
“Clinton, Obama democrooks are putting for Corporate Executives all over the Govt.” Would FDR, JFK, LBJ, tolerate a moron like Alan Simpson? No
FDR, JFK, LBJ, would have fought for the people of the Gulf of Mexico, they would have taken BP to the woodshed!
“Clinton, Obama democrooks help companies like BP cover up disasters”
Fact: the people of the Gulf now think Bush done a better job with Katrina, than Obama is doing with BP! who thought Bush would do something better than Obama? this says it all! Bush manages crisis better than OBAMA? how much more proof does one need?
FDR, JFK, LBJ, would have embrace the base of democratic party, they would have loved FDL!
“Clinton, Obama, democrooks hate the base of democratic party, and love people like Alan Simpson, Blanche Lincoln”
FDR, JFK, LBJ, democrats would never think about cutting social security!
“Clinton, Obama democrooks can’t wait to destroy social security, medicare, medicade” Welcome to the Art of the Trojan Horse, “DESTROY from within!”
We progressives must stop thinking that, FDR, JFK, LBJ, democrats run the current Democratic Party, the party of FDR, JFK, LBJ, has been hijacked by some democrooks name Clinton, Obama!
Let’s remember the math: People making over $100,000 per year pay less than the rest of us. If the rich had to pay in equally with the rest of us, there would be no problem. During his election campaign, Candidate Obama said he wants the rich (including himself) to pay the same percentage toward Social Security tax as the rest of us – Beginning In 2019!
So, right now, a person making $10,000 per year pays 10,000 times as high a percentage of income as a person making $10 Billion per year!
Regressive taxation is the problem with Social Security – the Commission is a sham!
Personally I’d first like to go after Erskine Bowles. Did this pampered and privileged patrician jag off say anything about the DOD budget being on the table? I didn’t think so.
The range of what is acceptable dialogue in the corporate media is very, very narrow. From centrist to far right. That’s the limit.
Yeah, really stupid and they had a really stupid “pundit” say that KOS told everyone to CELEBRATE small victories because THIS is OUR guy. PUKE
I feel very strongly that I am about to be royally screwed ….again… by my government and I don’t have a thing to say about it…that the King will listen to anyway.
Next up: loss of net neutrality.If I’d only left the country back in 1980 when the thought occurred to me
I agree. Bring Dr. Dean into the mix. I’ll never vote the guy in the White House ever again. I would vote for the Devil hinself rather then vote for Obama again.
These people are pure evil, I’m sure their families can see it in them.
Repulsive, every one of them, Obama included.
don’t think we’ll be hearing anything about Drug Reimportation either
None of the numbers really add up. Our unemployment situation will never allow the dollars and cents to make their litmus tests. The NeoCons have planned it all nicely. With no taxes coming in for either FICA, FUTA, or anyother normal routine the entire system will be ripe for cutting.
I am with you, people who leave the US for Europe are called “escape artists”, there are many websites with testimony by those who leave about how much better it is. But it feels cowardly to abandon one’s home country.
Once upon a time, people left their home countries in Europe to come to the US for freedom and opportunity. We may migrate back for the same reasons. No cowardice in that !
You mean go down with the ship? It’s too late for me. My house is worthless so I can’t sell it migrate and who would have a disabled artist anyway?
PS: I’m a coward
He’s young, he’ll outlast me.
I still think it’s going to be worse and worse people in government like Pat Robertson as head of the Dept of Enforcement of Religion for instance. Beck is too maundering, but if someone gave him public speaking lessons….yesterday was pathetic.
And what the fuck is, “I personally would like to..”???
This little shit is not a Mandarin, he’s a fucking bureaucrat. Your personal view is of no importance, ass.
“And mind you, he’s the Democrat chosen by Obama to head the commission.”
You say Democrat like you’re surprised by right-wing views from a party full of right-wingers….
Germany might be a good bet for you, I think art is more employable than my field, political science. I must admit I think about it all the time. One of my friends has been working in Japan and is trying to convince me Asia is the place to find work.
I don’t believe Obama will “Can the Cat Food Commission”; I think it’s his baby and his homage to St. Ronnie.
Perhaps a double dip recession will be Obama’s Lewinsky
Of course he won’t. Congress killed it twice, and Obama simply went ahead and created it by executive order. This has been on his agenda since before he was elected.
David -
Thanks for laying the groundwork on the next step. Alan Simpson is a symptom – not the problem.
Hands Off Social Security
The current health care costs are 17% of GDP and projected to grow to 21% after HCR – which is indeed only a tiny fraction of a percent below where it was projected to go without health care reform.
But what I was referring to as single payer was a basic care system that cost about 8% to 10% of GDP if one included Medicare in its cost – putting the total federal tax at under 30% of GDP. The interesting thing is that at least 5% and perhaps 7.5% of GDP cost that is in the current system melts away to nothing once we have a basic care system with a national budget and price setting authority over provider prices for that basic care. We’d need to absorb all medical education debt outstanding and provide schooling for free so as to make the numbers work for new doctors, but that is not a big deal.
The current excise tax take of 0.5% of GDP could rise back to the 1950′s 3% of GDP level – a small universal tariff – perhaps a 5% VAT structured like the Vermont sales tax – excluding clothes, food, etc so as to be progressive – and the FIT rise would be minimal.
The official US median income for families (2007) is $50,233. These people pay the highest percentage of their incomes for Social Security. People who make double that pay less. If people in the high-income/low-tax bracket paid equal percentage to the rest of us, no one would be pushing for cuts in SocSec payments, because that would provide us with enough to keep paying SocSec recipients the disgracefully low amounts they now get.
There’s your spending problem, Bowles: You’re not collecting the money from the people who rightfully owe it, and you’re not spending that extra cash on the people who deserve it.
But the right thing to do is to charge the richer income earners progressively higher rates, because they can afford it, and because that makes the system work.
But, of course, the big spending problem that Bowles and Obama are ignoring is the spending on the wars, which is padding the pockets of those who bankrolled the Obama campaign, and many profiteers withing the Obama Administration, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates & Mideast “Peace” Envoy George Mitchell.
Technically speaking, they don’t want to “default.” Rather, they want to make sure that those bonds are not redeemed by making sure that Social Security never runs a deficit, which amounts to the same thing, namely that Bush “borrowed” working-class FICA taxes to fund tax cuts for the wealthy, and now the wealthy and their politicians don’t want to pay up. “We already stole that money. So, get over it.”
“Everything on the table” sounds like the working stiff, too. After he’s (she’s) had a heart attack paying high taxes to support the rich.
“Get the patient on the table—stat!” Ooops, your health insurance company just phoned to let you know you’re not covered anymore . . .
Welcome to America.