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Ho-hum. Another day, another set of Peterson patsies explaining yet again why Grandma must starve so that their billionaire bosses and their buddies can keep their twenty-odd homes in the Hamptons and Hobe Sound:
Writing today on the op-ed page of The Washington Post, Robert Pozen makes the casethat liberals should support changes to Social Security. Mr. Pozen is a Democrat , though not necessarily a liberal one; he is a financial executive who served on President George W. Bush’s Social Security commission and in Mitt Romney’s administration in Massachusetts. But his argument is worth considering, whether you’re liberal or conservative.
So what’s the argument that the Pozen part of the Leonhardt-Pozen Legion of Doom tag team’s presenting? It’s their old favorite, the “Social Security is less progressive than it seems” bit of twaddle. How old is it? Why, it even comes pre-debunked, that’s how old it is.
Lookiee here at what I found from last December — a CEPR piece by Dean Baker that just shreds Pozen’s mythmaking (specifically, the iteration thereof that made it into the Boston Globe) into little tiny bits of bullshit confetti:
Pozen first told readers that Social Security is not progressive even though its payback structure is highly progressive. (A low-wage earner will get a payment equal to about 90 percent of their average wage income, while a maximum wage earner [$106,800 in 2010], will get a benefit equal to less than 30 percent of their taxable wage.) He argued that the differences in life expectancy (wealthy people live longer), offset the progressivity of the payback structure.
While this is partially true, the differences in life expectancy do not fully offset the progressivity of the payback structure. Also, Social Security includes survivor and disability benefits that disproportionately benefit low and moderate-income earners.
(more over the jump!)
Baker then goes on to destroy the Pozen puffery on raising the retirement age, whether or not the Social Security Trustees plan for longer life expectancies (yes they do, contrary to Pozen-Peterson-propagated myth), and a whole bunch of other hooey that Pozen keeps regurgitating every so often in the nation’s newspapers.
Now, Leonhardt handles Social Security issues at the New York Times. It’s his job to follow this stuff. He should already know the CEPR arguments backwards and forwards by now. But does he ever dare meet Dean Baker head-on? Nope, he, like his tag-team partner Pozen, just rolls along his merry way as if Baker’s debunking never happened.
Arrrrgh. Or rather, meow and hiss.
As Media Matters’ Jamison Foser says about Robert Pozen and the very same opinion piece over which Leonhardt wets himself in public this week:
That’s what passes as a “left-leaning” viewpoint in the Washington Post‘s opinion section: A column calling for a reduction in Social Security benefits written by a former Romney administration official whose previous Social Security proposals have been embraced by George W. Bush, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute and derided as “Bush lite” by liberal
economists.
Golly gee, any more “left-leaning” and the guy’d be on FOX. Hiss.
59 Comments
If you really want to get pissed, view the latest “Citizen’s Against Government Waste’ commercial which has been being shown on/during CNN’s coverage of Libya.
It basically is an ad showing a Chinese conference about ‘failed empires’ listing the Greeks,Romans, and the U.S. saying that ‘deficits’ were the downfall of the empires and in the end, the Chinese presenter then says -because they hold U.S. debt- that the U.S. now ‘works’ for them(the Chinese).
you sure have a way with words.
thanks.
end of January, 2011, in billions of dollars
Major Foreign Holders of US Treasury Securities
China, Mainland 1154.7
Japan 885.9
United Kingdom* 278.4
.
.
.
Grand Total 4453.4
*includes Channel Islands and Isle of Man
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt
Ditto, recommended.
And your point is?
BTW: if you respond, please provide some sound economic theory that takes into consideration the true nature or money and government debt when the debt is in the national currency and when the nation controls its own currency.
If you don’t get the importance of those two points to the discussion don’t bother answering but also don’t clutter up the blog with irrelevant data.
Which means they have, oh, between a fifth and a quarter of them, or roughly the same amount as Japan over that same time period:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/231841-holders-of-u-s-treasury-securities-2004-2010
This is what happens when you go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and then do two massive tax cuts on rich people and corporations, as Bush did in the space of two years, 2001 to 2003. But you knew that, right?
Awwww! Thanks. Much appreciated.
Thanks, ma’am!
What I wanted to say was that I sure like your voice, PW. Others had already said similar. It’s just that you are so easy on eyes, while giving us the dirty details. Thanks.
Let’s increase the taxable basis beyond $107,000 or whatever it is now. That’ll make it more progressive, by cracky!
AND the Obama tax cut, that not only extended the Bush cuts, but cut the estate tax FURTHER.
I learned a valuable lesson on Soc. Sec. today while having my taxes done. I was put on disability last year. My whopping $1,019 per month is not exactly living large so I took some money from a tax deferred annuity (husband’s life insurance) to pay medical bills and help out my son who got no unemployment when it went unfunded last summer, got sick and ended up in the ER. Unbeknownst to me, I am allowed no more than $25,000. total income; if I exceed that my soc.sec. benefits are taxed at a hellishly high rate. Long story short, I owe $8,550. fed taxes and still have no fucking health insurance, no Medicare for 5 months. Livin’ large on S.S.
Short version: SS tax is regressive; benefits are progressive.
Notice PW ignored your comment.
The SS payout is progressive, but not in the way the article states, nor as extreme. SS has a minimum floor. So you have to use the low average pay in as the low side not the actual minimum allowed by law to get a clearer picture. The “lower average” wage earner gets back about 48%, and the top wage earner gets back about 30%. This was done to allow for a minimum standard of living.
Add the 780 Billion cash for TARP and the 3 trillion it will cost the tax payers to eat the toxic assets.
Isn’t social security more like an insurance policy? My first husband died when he was forty. My children and I got payments until my youngest was eighteen. Then I was eligible for widows benefits at the age of sixty, which I took. In my case the amount we received far exceeds what my husband put in.
My biggest complaint is that for every dollar I make per annum over $14,000 I get 50 cents taken from my social security check the next year. But if I make passive income social security is not taxed.
At what point is it acceptable to begin thinking of 2nd Amendment remedies against those that would have working and middle class Americans reduced to serfdom?
***Mod Note: Please be warned, alluding to violence is a slippery slope.***
Never. General strike, yes, passive resistance of course, violence? Not for me.
When you are prepared to be favorably compared to Sharron Angle.
Just what the plutocrats want to hear. Do you honestly think an actual “general strike” would be a mannered tea party? The plutocrats would willingly gun down strikers without a moments hesitation. They have far too much to lose and after all it would be done in the name of “domestic tranquility.”
x2
You haven’t been paying attention to WI and the Midwest Governor’s plight.
Another step to vastly reduce the likelihood of strikes. http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/23/buried-provision-food-stamps/
What is your solution?
That will never make it through the Senate.
It’s like water torture. The more they drip drip drip drip at it, the more likely it will eventually come to pass.
Yup, WaPo is pretty shameless about it.
I wonder how many of these guys we’d put out of a job if regulations required that media reports contain some basis in reality.
Check it– the latest Juice Media report (Mar. 22, 2011) opens with Hillary Clinton saying, “We are in an information war and we are losing that information war.”
I’m aware of the situation but I’m not sure they are going to have the time to implement some of the wingnuttiest ideas. Though I should emphasize that while it may not make it through the Senate this time, it will certainly be brought up over and over. They play a game of attrition these people and they are experts at it.
Pretty amazing how long the world is willing to kowtow to the existing power.
I’m more frightened now than I was during the Bush years. Our country will be unrecognizable in a few years. Things are changing very quickly, from Union rights to the right to choose. Frightening.
Off topic…a while ago I said that, from my personal viewpoint, the employment situation was improving. Well, that has changed. Some of those jobs that family members got were in teaching and there are now threats of layoffs.
Start with a general strike but be willing to escalate if necessary. The Founding Fathers at some point in time must have recognized the necessity for action above and beyond accepted norms.
***Mod Note: Please be warned, alluding to violence is a slippery slope.***
Yeah, you could get the UN launching air strikes to defend you
These people in power suffer from “embarras de richesses”…sort of the let them eat cake…I mean catfood stupidity, and we all know how that worked out.
They’ve been working at it for decades.
The only reason they’ve accelerated in the last year is bc of CU. Want to kill unions once & for all before 2012.
*Centuries* apparently for dawG’s sake!
“I’m more frightened now than I was during the Bush years. Our country will be unrecognizable in a few years. Things are changing very quickly, from Union rights to the right to choose. Frightening.”
No kidding. Since Obama has taken office, what was once considered the extreme right flank has now been redefined as being moderate or left.
There is much more objective reason to be frightened now. The PTB are much closer to victory than they were during W and are now going in for the kill.
Bluetoe2, it sounds to me like you’re starting off in an “escalation” mode. I think I’d rather shut the economy down first than set out to commit violence. As Gandhi once said, (and I have to paraphrase here), “They need my cooperation. If they beat me they will break my bones. If they kill me they will have my dead body but they will not have my cooperation”. My philosophy has always been “don’t start any shit, (violence), with me and there won’t be any”. If somebody starts something then I’ll have to make a decision then. I never set out looking for a, (physical), scrap
OT– “Portuguese Government Rejects Austerity Plan, Government Collapses” (by Tyler Durden on 03/23/2011 16:00 -0400)
…hey, let’s just listen to Boehner and the failed GOP, and go back to cut taxes / cut govt that we tried for the 3 decades of the Reagan/Bush era. In fact, let’s get ANOTHER big tax cut to the wealthiest as we did in 1981 and 2001.
I mean, that worked SO well to deliver Trickle Down prosperity. Almost nobody is unemployed now. And the banks and oil drillers and health insurers, heck – they POLICED THEMSELVES!!! Get government out of the WAY by golly!
Abe Lincoln would have said;
“You can fool some of the people, ALL of the time”… ;^)
– Balkingpoints / www
Amen. We should have gotten them right at the time of the 2000 election and after 9/11, but anyone who tried to look at it was quickly demonized as a CT, and it all became taboo….by design. JMHO
“This is what happens when you go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and then do two massive tax cuts on rich people and corporations, as Bush did in the space of two years, 2001 to 2003. But you knew that, right?”
In other words what Obama is doing now plus Obama has added Libya and cutting the Social Security payroll tax.
Would that be the same Lincoln who launched a devastatingly destructive civil war?
Boring.
It is what it is. Keep reading my post until you understand it.
All of you who think that non-violence will work in the face of violent response by TPTB, consider that while Gandhi succeeded, many a West Virginia or Harlan County coal strike failed in the face of machine gun fire by the Army and/or hired company goons. Non-violence didn’t seem to be working in the efforts to topple Gadhaffi, and many other brutal regimes have gone only at the point of a gun. I’m just not sure where America’s future lies along the non-violent to violent continuum.
Also, Palestinians have used nonviolent protests several times since 1967, and lost every time.
Palestinians also lose when they use violence.
Some problems have no solutions.
WaPo is a Fox lite -
indeed more so than WSJ on most days.
Social Security lies – even in an op-ed – are still lies.
Our mainstream media has no credibility.
But a lie said often enough is today’s basic marketing/advertising/public relations – a Freud buddy into psychology developed the concept for President Wilson in response to his request for aid in selling World War One. Its called “demand creation” these days.
And it works – how we counter this must be with media – and the only media still not controlled by the rich and corporate is the internet. But I do not know how to get the number of eyes on an internet piece to counter the 20 million that watch “network news” each night – or to counter the millions reading right wing newspapers or hearing right wing radio. The rich and corporate may be so strong these days that they do the divide and makes sub-groups jealous and fight each other game only out of habit – and not need.
The top 400 families now get the same income as the bottom 60% each year – Reagan really did give us “freedom”.\\s
The only internet sites that might resist the PTB are small by definition, and thus can have little macro influence. Once those sites get big enough (think Huffpo/aol) they are taken over & coopted by PTB.
Sorry you’re going through all that. It sucks. Thanks to conservatives, every govnt social program is best by limitless arcane rules to make sure the undeserving get as little help as possible from govnt. You have to wade through them to defend yourself, and you’ll still probably slip up somewhere. oldhippiedean
Attn: Republicans and fake Democrats. Social Security has not contributed a penny to the federal deficit. It has a $2.6 trillion surplus and isn’t part of the general budget in any case and has nothing to do with deficits.
“Beset” not “best”
@PW
Are you addressing me?
I am talking about a moment in time, the end of January 2011, not a period of time. 1154.7/4453.4 = 25.92%, or between 1/4 and 1/3.
I was talking about the distribution of debt among foreign holders, not the origins of the debt.
China only holds 9.5% of total US debt. By far, the biggest single holders of US debt are US individuals and institutions.
The “scary China” meme just serves as another blatant falsehood to screw lesser debt holders such as the social security trust fund.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/whom-does-the-us-government-really-owe-money-2010.png
Wow, I’m really sorry for you.
Are you sure the withdrawals from an annuity are taxable if used for medical bills? Last year, I was unemployed and cashed in an IRA to pay Cobra premiums. Found out that the funds weren’t taxable because they were used for medical expenses.
Not saying our situations are/were the same, but maybe you should look into it.
Dammit, you should’ve invested in the stock market to get that easy passive income rather than wasting your earnings on food, clothes, and housing.
You’re absolutely right on that. With Bush, you could at least hold out hope that he was some wacky aberation. At least Obama has made it crystal clear that Bushdom is now bipartisan and the way forward.
Scary, scary.
Though I now teach and don’t practice, I’m an attorney. Back in mid-70′s law school days, if anyone left or right had said that the president had the authority to imprison without trial, to torture, etc., he/she would have been hooted out of class by left and rightwingers alike. I no longer recognize our legal landscape at all. And it goes without saying that our economic landscape is in the same shape.
The ratio of public debt to GDP is about 63% in U.S., way down the list. Germany, which provides free healthcare, education, 80% Social Sedcurity, is higher than us, and Japan is 170% of GDP.
We are being fooled by liars, or more accurately, lairds, living in their castles, hateful and afraid one penny of their hundreds of millions will be spent on anyone below their mighty station.
The Conrads and Greggs of this world hold low titles and honors gained in nighttime tousles at the prep school they attended with the likes of Petey Orzag and the sons of CEOs. Thrown from the family nest, perhaps they seek revenge on parents by revenge today on the elderly symbols of their seeming neglect. Silver spoons can leave a sour taste.