Crazy Talk |
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| By: Eli Wednesday December 19, 2012 4:25 am | |
Hey, here’s a thought: How about we eliminate the cap on income subject to payroll taxes, then revisit Social Security benefits?
And if that means we have to increase those benefits or lower the retirement age to make the numbers balance out, well, I’m willing to live with that.
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66 Comments
This should be viral.
Can’t tell me those Washington whores wouldn’t understand this simple message, multiplied by millions:
NO. RAISE THE CAP.
I sure would like to hear Obama explain why benefit cuts are the first and only option we should look at.
Hope you do’t mind me copy/pasting what I wrote over at Masaccio’s post, but it pretty much sums up my thoughts on this whole ginned up robbery.
I voted for Jill Stein. I figured the only way to send a clear message to the Dems was to vote for the person who best articulated my vision for the country. Period. It sure as hell wasn’t Obama.
Sorry to say it, and I’ll understand if I’m modded, but the only thing that will change these fuckers is to put the fear of god in them, fear for their own personal safety. I’m so angry I’d like to physically drag them out of their offices and throw them into the street, then dump their desk drawers out in front of them. *Spit*. They are no more than sorry, thieving bastards, below contempt. Nancy Pelosi would be first on my list.
Eli has a post up about raising the cap. I’d like to see us organize into large groups who will fill the streets in front of the bastards’ homes over the holidays. Not let anyone in or out. Just stand there with our cans of cat food and signs in hand. Simple signs, meaning perfectly clear:
NO. RAISE THE FUCKING CAP.
Agree. Recommended.
Why are we even DISCUSSING social security & Medicare in the context of the deficit and fiscal speedbump?
Reputable economists will point out that these have almost NOTHING to do with the deficit — in addition to pointing out that this panic over the deficit is ill-founded and a mistake to deal with at this time.
Instead, we have the equivalents of “yellow cake” and “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction” in the lead up to the Iraq war: scary, scary memes, a press that foments the panic and doesn’t critically examine either the reality of the so-called “problem” or the viability of the proposed “solutions.” And look where that got us.
Same approach utilized to pass TARP: huge panic, complicit press, “gotta do something RIGHT NOW or the world will end,” horrid “solution.”
Have we learned NOTHING from this MO?
Yes. We have learned. But those bastards aren’t going to give us an inch. We are going to have to show them that we aren’t putting up with any more of this shit.
Let’s start here.
NO. RAISE THE FUCKING CAP.
It is no different than dealing with a two year-old, except that this Baby Huey holds the reins of power in its hands and will not willingly give it back.
You don’t argue with a two year-old. You don’t wheedle and compromise. You say NO. And then you tell it what you want it to do.
I can’t think of any better way to get Social Security off the table than pointing out that the most straightforward and effective solution to its distant shortfall is to raise taxes on the rich.
Eli, I missed you. It’s crazy talk, that is for sure.
Thanks bg, I missed you too. Hopefully my mojo is starting to come back. And all it took was 20 dead schoolkids and the impending sellout of Social Security…
I agree we should always be asking for what we want in addition to fighting the interim battles where necessary, but not lose focus on the demand.
Since we’re using all our words, how about CUT THE C**P – REMOVE THE CAP
:)
I like it.
Petitions, letters and emails can be ignored. We need to make it clear that we know exactly what they are trying to do. And that we we are putting our bodies on the gears. Until we are willing to do that, they will take and take and take.
Beautiful, OmAli. The resonance of your peaceful personhood makes this statement one that should be carved into one of those granite memorials beside the sustainable harvesting reflecting pool in front of the mother of all greenhouses formerly known as the US Capitol Building.
Damn it, REMOVE THE CAP AND LOWER THE AGE OF ELIGIBILITY
This cannot stand.
We could do that. The problem is the Congress that does not listen to the people because the guys from K Street are standing by their desks.
I do believe that disconnect is one of the things that Occupy Wall Street was and still is about.
Let’s start talking about how to fix the political culture before getting down in the weeds on specific policies. Because so much of the specific policies is blindingly obvious to ordinary people, and this is one of those obvious policies.
Got some innovative ideas of how to “put our bodies into the gears”. Or building a sufficient political force to overwhelm the inevitable repression. All I’m seeing right now (and I am self-reflective enough that I’m falling for it too) is being distracted by side issues without tying them back to the fundamental vampire-squid tentacles of Wall Streets’s control of politics in the federal government, state governments, big city governments (Hello Rahm and Bloomie), and now increasingly local governments as well.
So my current strategy for saving Social Security looks like (1) passing Constitutional amendments to prohibit the equivalence of corporations as people and money as speech (2) passing legislation prohibiting corporate representation of other people’s interest before Congress (i.e. professional lobbying), (3) reorganizing the way the US does elections to make the process secure, uniform, and low cost with no preferences toward organized campaigns. We can’t delay fixing the process any longer. And educating the public about how the process works so that we all can watch like hawks as the legislation needed to create change makes its way through the appropriate political bodies.
Other than my #3, blocking their drives to get their and the media’s focus on us, I don’t. I am serious though in my belief that they need to be frightened in order to pay attention.
I’m leaving for an appointment now but will follow these threads later.
Got my vote, yo…
Damn the cap.
And make ALL income subject to FICA.
We can probably lower both retirement ages to about 50-55 right away, then keep going lower until everyone is in Medicare.
No More Cap ……short and so sweet.
Castrate the Magnificent Mindless ‘Merican Murder Machine which consumes over 1/2 the budget and fuel consumption, problem solved.
Justify why in peacetime we need 900 Generals….waiting ?
Glad your back, even though the price was too high .
I just want to say AGAIN, that everyone that voted for Obama OWNS this CUT in Social Security benefits. You were told it would happen, and supported him anyway.
And make no mistake, a simple change to a chained CPI IS a benefit cut.
Fucking assholes. (politicians, not those that voted for Obama)
IMO consider supporting the Ponzi-crumbling, Congressional-kabuki-obviating, grassroots-empowering #StrikeDebt folks and efforts. The “fiscal obstacle course” is a purposeful energy drainer and choreographed hostage-taking event.
i emailed you ,a bit ago…hope your well kid
ELI!!!! i have ALWAYS thought,lets see 7 years or so,that you were far too pragmatic to be taken seriously/ ELI for Congress”the voice of reason”
President Obama has already said that he want the cap raised … in 2019!
That cap is saving President Obama lots of money right now, thousands or hundreds of thousands per year.
… yes to this being done
… yes to this being done as well
… X 2
BHO,is really a sicko….he loves kids so much,that the grandparents that somtimes take care of them wont be able to AFFORD MILK and COOKIES
milk 4bux
cookies 3 to 4
he is evil
Um, I don’t think that will work because like, Pelosi, Obama and Boehner are trying to strengthen social security by cutting it, and what you are talking about wouldn’t cut it, so I’m pretty sure your idea would like, weaken social security.
But…according to senior research fellow at the Heritage, SS was not meant to pay such large benefits…Heritage: That which has been or may be inherited; any property, and esp. land, which devolves by right of inheritance and is inherently for the very rich, so, well, please get poorer so the rich may get richer.
Good point, I didn’t think of that. My bad.
Eli!
Remove the withholding cap on Social Security? What are you, one of them liberal-elite Communist type deals? Why do you hate America?
I continue beating this (hopefully not quite) dead horse, primarily because I hope that it will somehow get sent around the entire electric interweb machine and go all, sorta like, geometric…type thing.
Also, too: Yves, etal. Wicked smart…
That makes way too much sense. You must be a Communist and a Heretic.
Shoto!
It’s surreal. As far as I can tell, it’s not even that pundits or pols are publicly opposing this option – they’re simply not even acknowledging that it exists.
I guess maybe they’re finding the “We should cut Grandma’s benefits so we don’t have to raise rich people’s taxes” argument a little hard to make.
SOP
Exactly.
Even if Obama does not succeed in cutting SS this time, he will have succeeded in not only politically linking SS to the general debt but also in making it the first option on the table.
Never mind the fact that the true drivers of debt, such as that big fat elephant in the room of MIC spending, don’t even get a mention.
They’re all in on the joke; we ain’t. At least they think we’re not.
When you have long term severe unemployment what you want to do is provide entry-level jobs for young people by making easier for older people to take their retirement. Lower the eligibility age!
Been on board with eliminating the cap for years..
But this is a done deal, since Clinton is schmoozing with Ryan and Pete Peterson, and Big Dawg is yanking Obies strings..
Nothing short of a million pissed off citizens clogging up the streets of DC will stop this.
Hell, I’d Go.. except it would be finished before we could organize and get there.
Damn..
No thanks. Last time the marginal tax rate was increased, they squandered the extra cash with lower corporate and income tax rates on rich people. Increasing the cap will simply allow for more money that rich people want to steal with more tax cuts or higher defense and corporate welfare spending. Increasing the cap is not a progressive idea.
Sorry, I meant payroll tax rate increase. The Tip’N'Ronnie deal was the worst thing to happen to Social Security.
Lets see. No jobs bill. Bail out the Banksters. Gut Social Security and Medicare.
Seems Obama is right on track to continue the death of the middle class. What a dick.
I recognize that most folks are not well versed in maters involving taxation. Given the complexity of our tax regime, it is more than understandable.
For your future information, the cap is being raised annually.
Also, I would encourage you, for your own good, to ask the moderator to remove your comment at 3.
I’m good with it, thanks.
Short and concise and fun to say. Let’s start our own secession movement. The kuhl people will be with us, and the K street crowd will be, well, stuck on K Street.
Understand exactly how you are feeling. If only there had been legislation in place that no former Speaker of the House could ever have a facelift unless Social Security was left intact – well, that would have forced Pelosi to stick up for real people.
*g*
Me too; whassup with that?
I really couldn’t say…sounds pretty serious, though.
Well. As my ol’ grandpappy used to say: “Sometimes people can just kiss mah grits!” He may have been right, at least some of the time. ;o)
He must have been from the holler right yonder :)
I am not attempting to be holier than thou or silence you.
I was trying, as a person who generally likes you, to give you some prudent counsel.
Generally speaking, not to be too lawyerly, it is best to avoid the unnecessary trouble.
:~D
(nice to see you, dear one)
I’ve no doubt, truly. I meant it though, you see.
You, too, thank you. I’m sorry that I haven’t been participating. I’ve just not been in a very good place. Just biding a while, I guess….
on TPM i mentioned plastic small model guillotynes,but im a francophile….some posters wanted the real thing tee hee
I have always wanted to use ‘tee hee’ in a sentence, lol! Lord, my damnyouautocorrect just had a high old time with that.
good for us to laugh a little,its been pretty grim…..and i agree about Ms PeLOUSY,she is a piece of work,she sounds like one of the
Italian decadents,cant remember their names
ah……..the Borgias
i bet she patterns herself after Lucretia
she flys to Italy all the time…plus ce change
It truly is good to laugh. I’m heading for bed, but with a smile. Hugs to all you pupses.
Ohmmmm
sweet dreams dear one
ThD, I still haven’t come up with any innovative ideas, and I’ll never be able to pay off what I owe to the swear jar. Glad I got that off my chest before the kids and baby arrive for Christmas :).
After the first of the year I’m going to look into volunteering for the Green Party. I’m embarrassed to say that they hosted a Move To Amend Barnstorming Tour event here on the 9th, and I didn’t even know about it until after the fact. That is essential, amending corporate ‘personhood’. We aren’t going to make any progress until that is done. Did I say ‘progress’? Hell, that will just be clawing ourselves back out of the hole that John Roberts dug for us. Oops, swear jar.
Until then I’m not going to think about politics. Our new grandson will be 3 months old on the 25th, and I’m going to concentrate on playing, cooking and then more playing. Hope you and yours have a safe and happy holiday, and I’ll see you in the New Year.
Ohmmmm