By Catherine Haig.
This is a deal breaker in my opinion. To first promise in 2008 and 2012 that he would never touch Social Security; a program that everyone has put into it’s till since they started working for a paycheck in this country; which is NOT an entitlement program. However, Social Security has been robbed since 2000 and up to 2007 by former President George W Bush, Jr. who used it in part to fund all his make believe terror wars and who helped drive up the trillions of dollars of debt we now owe as a country.
Social Security has also been purged by illegal aliens in America who are allowed to use the program even though they don’t deserve to have the right to use it. They don’t pay taxes; they are self-serving leeches on our government; on our schools, on our programs both state and federal. The last time I was a doctor’s office in a clinic I saw them with their entire families even though only one of them was ill, lining the waiting room of the ER waiting for a doctor to aid them in their illness; paying them through medicaid or social security disability that they did not deserve to have. These programs are for citizens and tax paying citizens only yet our federal government has long turned their backs and allowed these fraudulent actions to permeate the system.
Since last month when our congress and President could not compromise on any issue, a sequester has been the fate of their inactivity. To break this sequester that could go on for over a year; President Obama is proposing to lead with cutting Social Security to the millions of Americans who need it to survive and that includes our disabled soldiers and vets of all wars, the elderly, people who cannot work any more due to disease or ill health from having had broken bones on a job. The list of people to be affected by cuts to this important federal program are endless and more is the atrocity since the man who the country elected on the basis of NOT touching this very system; is now proposing we do just that!
The idea that President Obama can retreat this quickly to save his own skin is abhorrent to me as a citizen and as a person. I’m a proud American at least I used to be prior to the year 2000. Ask me now how I feel about America and I will give you a laundry list of reason’s why I am disappointing in this country. One of them is the election of Barack Hussein Obama to President over Hillary Clinton in 2008 who was more than qualified to do the job. I know her husband talked her out of being President because, really, who in their right mind wanted to follow in the slippers of Bush, Jr? Because of Bush Jr we are having the problems we are having now in Washington and in the world but really Obama owns this terrible economy now and he is doing nothing to alter or change it to a positive.
And, it matters not that he has not taken a lot of vacations like Bush Jr did but while the rest of America is stewing in unemployment hell this President said; “hey my kids are on Easter break; let’s go to the Bahama’s!” What the hell right? WRONG! THE BUCK STOPS AT HIS DESK. I’m not saying Mitt Romney was a better guy for the job. No, if Mitt were POTUS right now; we’ll all have jobs that we worked 24/7 and we’d have dorms built at the jobs so we can eat our meals there and sleep there too. Just like the Chinese whom Mitt admires so much. That’s Mitt Romney’s view of Utopia America but it’s not mine. Yeah I want to work. Yeah I want to make money but I want to be alive to use that money to better my life and not kill myself making it and be away from my family 362 days of the year and not see them…like ever!
Obama was the lesser of two evils and America voted for the lesser of two evils but make no mistake about it – Obama is evil. People ask me all the time; “don’t you think black people in America voted for him because he’s one of them?” To which I agree that even if Obama was a Republican and running under the GOP ticket and was the first black candidate to do so – the black population in America would have voted for him just because he’s black. Ask any black person why they voted for Obama; they will be truthful. They have nothing to hide. On the other hand, I have never heard a black person say anything negative about Herman Cain or the recent Conservative Twit Dr. Ben Carson, the black neurosurgeon who is a blubbering idiot for the right. He talks like a liberal gay man but professes the opposite and condemns homosexuality to pedophiles and bestiality however maybe he grew up like that. I sure didn’t and love animals and hate pedophiles.
For Obama to start harping now to use Social Security to bail himself out of this economic mess is inexcusable and show him to be a lazy President and a lazy man. In the last few months since his re election we’ve seen him speak on behalf of the Newtown, Ct families who lost loved ones in that horror; we’ve heard him denounce terrorists and blow them to kingdom com with his drone program, we’ve seen him invite a slew of black entertainers to the White House and he’s honored many black Americans as well in the five months since his 2nd term in office. All the while he has promised to raise taxes on the rich and not on the middle class.
Now he’s saying the opposite.
It is time, people, to stop paying your federal income taxes.
It is time, people, to stop being complacent and allow our Federal government to continually walk all over our rights and think it’s not going to affect us.
IT DOES AFFECT US. IT AFFECTS US DAILY. PEOPLE IN OUR SOUTHERN REGIONS ARE GOING OUT OF THEIR EVER LOVIN MINDS – THEY ARE REPRESENTATIVES FROM OUR HOUSE (congress) who are not paying attention to the Constitution of America and instead prefer to follow the CONFEDERACY?
American laws are for all Americans so what does this mean for the south? Does it mean southern states will secede from the union? I hope so all that warm air is getting to them and it’s time for the North to realize the mistake we made in allowing the south after the Civil War to remain as Americans. They have caused nothing but problems for the rest of us. It’s time they leave.
Oh, if you are a loyal Democrat and live in the south you can come up North by all means but if you prefer the climate down there better – start taking Spanish lessons; you’re going to need it when Mexico takes over and moves their border up a few states.
And THAT is my solution for the rest of us.
Thankfully both the Republicans and the Democrats are not happy with Mr. Obama’s proposal and cuts to SS. So far:
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Obama seeks deal, proposes cuts to Social Security
Seeking an elusive middle ground, President Barack Obama is proposing a 2014 budget that embraces tax increases abhorred by Republicans as well as reductions, loathed by liberals, in the growth of Social Security and other benefit programs.
By JIM KUHNHENN and ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
Obama proposed much the same without success to House Speaker John Boehner in December. The response Friday was dismissive from Republicans and hostile from liberals, labor and advocates for the elderly.
But the proposal aims to tackle worrisome deficits that are adding to the national debt and placing a long-term burden on the nation, prompting praise from independent deficit hawks. Obama’s budget also proposes new spending for public works projects, pre-school education and for job and benefit assistance for veterans.
“It’s not the president’s ideal approach to our budget challenges, but it is a serious compromise proposition that demonstrates that he wants to get things done,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
The budget, which Obama will release Wednesday to cover the budget year beginning Oct. 1, proposes spending cuts and revenue increases that would result in $1.8 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years. That figure would replace $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are poised to take effect over the next 10 years if Congress and the president don’t come up with an alternative, thus delivering a net increase in deficit reduction of $600 billion.
Counting reductions and higher taxes that Congress and Obama have approved since 2011, the 2014 budget would contribute to $4.3 trillion in total deficit reduction by 2023.
The budget wouldn’t affect the $85 billion in cuts that kicked in last month for this budget year.
A key feature of Obama’s plan is a revised inflation adjustment called “chained CPI.” This new formula would effectively curb annual increases in a broad swath of government programs but would have its biggest impact on Social Security. By encompassing Obama’s offer to Boehner, R-Ohio, the plan would also include reductions in Medicare spending, much of it by targeting payments to health care providers and drug companies. The Medicare proposal also would require wealthier recipients to pay higher premiums or co-pays.
Obama’s budget proposal also calls for additional tax revenue, primarily by placing a 28 percent cap on deductions and other tax exclusions. That plan would affect wealthy taxpayers as would a new administration proposal to place limits on tax-preferred retirement accounts for millionaires and billionaires.
Obama made the same offer to Boehner in December when he and the speaker were negotiating ways of avoiding a steep, so-called fiscal cliff of combined across-the-board spending cuts and sweeping tax increases caused by the expiration of Bush-era tax rates. Boehner rejected that plan and ultimately Congress approved tax increases that were half of what Obama had sought.
“If you look at where the president’s final offer and Boehner were … they were extremely close to each other,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “We do think that it’s a very good sign that the president has included real entitlement reforms in the budget.”
Boehner, in a statement Friday, said House Republicans made clear to Obama last month that he should not make savings in entitlement programs that both sides agree on, contingent on more tax increases.
“If the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there’s no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes,” Boehner said. “That’s no way to lead and move the country forward.”
The inflation adjustment would reduce federal spending on government programs over 10 years by about $130 billion, according to White House estimates. Because it also affects how tax brackets are adjusted, it would also generate about $100 billion in higher taxes and hit even middle income taxpayers.
Once the change is fully phased in, Social Security benefits for a typical middle-income 65-year-old would be about $136 less a year, according to an analysis of Social Security data. At age 75, annual benefits under the new index would be $560 less. At 85, the cut would be $984 a year.
The concept behind the chained CPI is that consumers substitute lower-priced alternatives for goods whose costs spike. So, for example, if the price of oranges goes too high for some consumers, they could buy alternatives like apples or strawberries if their prices were more affordable. This flexibility isn’t considered in the current system of gauging inflation, a calculation that determines how much benefits grow each year. Taking it into account means such benefits won’t grow by as much.
Advocates for the elderly say seniors pay a higher portion of their income for health care, where costs rise more quickly than inflation.
The White House has said the cost-of-living adjustments would include protections for “vulnerable” recipients.
“The president should drop these misguided cuts in benefits and focus instead on building support in Congress for investing in jobs,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.
AARP’s legislative policy director said Obama’s budget proposal, while not a surprise, was a disappointment.
“The message seems to be that the president wants a deal and is willing to even sacrifice such important benefits as Social Security as part of that deal,” said David Certner. The seniors lobby argues that Social Security doesn’t belong in the budget talks because it isn’t contributing to the deficit and is separately financed with its own dedicated taxes.
Citing the effect on veterans, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said he was “terribly disappointed” in the Obama plan and would “do everything in my power to block” it.
While Obama has proposed the slower cost of living adjustment plan during fiscal negotiations with Republican leaders, placing it in the budget would put the administration’s official imprint on the plan and mark a full shift from Obama’s stand in 2008, when he campaigned against Republican Party nominee John McCain.
In a Sept. 6, 2008, speech to AARP, Obama said: “John McCain’s campaign has suggested that the best answer for the growing pressures on Social Security might be to cut cost-of-living adjustments or raise the retirement age. Let me be clear: I will not do either.”
Obama also proposes $305 billion in cuts to Medicare over a decade, including $156 billion through lower Medicare payments to drug companies and higher premiums or co-pays from wealthy recipients. That’s to the right of the conservative budget of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which barely touches Medicare in the coming 10 years, cutting just $129 billion from the program. The huge Medicare savings from Ryan’s proposal, which transforms the system into a program in which the government subsidizes health insurance purchases on the private market, wouldn’t accrue until the following decade.
Obama’s budget comes after the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-run Senate passed separate and markedly different budget proposals. House Republicans achieved long-term deficit reductions by targeting safety net programs; Democrats instead protected those programs and called for $1 trillion in tax increases.
But Obama has been making a concerted effort to win Republican support, especially in the Senate. He has even scheduled a dinner with Republican lawmakers on the evening that his budget is released next week.
As described by the administration officials, the budget proposal would also end a loophole that permits people to obtain unemployment insurance and disability benefits at the same time.
Obama’s proposal, however, includes calls for increased spending. It proposes $50 billion for public works projects. It also would make preschool available to more children by increasing the tax on tobacco.
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Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.
