Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#1
Posted: 12/18/12 at 9:14am
In spite of winning reelection and having bi-partisan public support, it looks like Obama is ready to sell out the middle class faster than you can say "public option".
Reportedly his latest offer extends the Bush tax cuts on everyone except those making over 400,000 a year. It makes up for lost revenue by increasing taxes on the middle class and slashing social security benefits for the elderly.
Obama Hits Social Security In Fiscal Cliff Offer Friendlier To The Wealthy
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#2
Posted: 12/18/12 at 9:16am
And this after promising Harry Reid that Social Security was off the table. So much for the delusion that Obama was going to get all tough with the Republicans. Instead he's pandering to them all over again. This doesn't bode well for him actually doing anything substantial on gun-related issues.
Business as usual in DC.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#2
Posted: 12/18/12 at 9:19amActually, I see this as a positive step. Our current tax brackets are archaic. Having $250k as the bottom of the highest bracket does not reflect reality. Yes, Obama won reelection, but he's still dealing with a very conservative House, and he still has immigration, and now gun control on his agenda. If he and Boehner come up with a compromise that both their bases are dissatisfied with, it may be a good deal.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#3
Posted: 12/18/12 at 9:20am
Using the chained CPI isn't good for anyone.
"The Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank, has said the chained CPI calculation would lead to a cut in benefits for an average worker retiring at age 65 of $650 a year by age 75, and $1,130 a year at age 85."
The Chained CPI
Updated On: 12/18/12 at 09:20 AM
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#4
Posted: 12/18/12 at 4:08pm
News Flash
Social Security is going broke. While politically it is easy to support reducing withholding taxes it is hurting SS in the long run. Increasing the amount subject to witholding should be a good way to shore up SS. Another way is to gradually increase the age. I had to wait an extra year so doing this slowly over time will not be that painful.
We used to have 20 or so people paying for every 1 collecting. Now it is down to 3 or even 2 as people are living longer.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#5
Posted: 12/18/12 at 4:23pm
Another news flash
We are woefully undertaxed. I know, I know, no one wants to hear that, but we are. In the last ten years we've waged two major wars and added a trillion-or-so dollar unfunded Medicare prescription benefit, while cutting taxes at the same time. Having fallen into such a deep recession, it would have been a bad time to raise the rates back to where they need to be, but as the recovery gains momentum, we can only wait so long.
Also, Medicare and Social Security need to be reexamined. We living longer, so the assumptions made decades ago are longer valid, and changes need to be made. The obvious choice is to raise the age for eligibility.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#6
Posted: 12/18/12 at 4:36pmOne final newsflash...the middle class are also under-taxed. I fully believe my taxes should go up. After the SH*Tshow of the last decade+, everyone needs to pony up.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#7
Posted: 12/18/12 at 4:45pm
Well, I wouldn't mind being taxed a little more if I felt that the the SH*Tshow of the last decade+ was even remotely the fault of the middle or lower classes. The economy wasn't trashed and the country wasn't brought to the brink of ruin by people making minimum wage, that's for damn sure.
Paraphrasing Bill Hicks: "I wouldn't mind tightening my belt if I could tighten it around the necks of the idiots who got us into this mess."
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#8
Posted: 12/18/12 at 4:56pm
This isn't about fault, and the financial crisis wasn't caused by the deficit as much as it was caused by lack of regulation. And the blame for lack of regulation goes back twenty years, and both parties share the blame.
And all of us benfitted from the low tax rates.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#9
Posted: 12/18/12 at 5:06pm
Though I understand that emotion, Roscoe, at some point we have to face the fact that SH*T was done in our name that needs to be addressed (I'd also include putting our F*CKing war criminals up for trial at the Hague on that list...but I doubt that's going to happen).
This has been an age of absolute childish, awful behavior. And I won't exempt myself from that. $17K in credit card debt is not in any way being responsible (though I'm now out from under it). And if being adult means we all need to sacrifice, then fine. I'm willing to be an adult.
The current elderly, the poor and the disabled should be spared this kind of belt-tightening. But the Boomers? Who really created this Goddamn mess? F*CK their Social Security and Medicare right in the ass. Means test the hell out of those MotherF*CKers. As the great actress Helen Slater once stated, 'Fair is fair!'
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#10
Posted: 12/18/12 at 5:15pmYou know, there really is a panacea (kind of) out there, but no one will even discuss it: capitate Medicare. There are docs out there milking Medicare for every penny they can, and providing relatively little care. Many of the elderly go to the doc for reasons that are only tangentially related to their health, but the docs hit us up for every visit. If the docs were getting a monthly check for each person under their care, it would dramatically change the delivery of care, and significantly drive costs down. But no one in either party wants to take on AARP. No one wants to tell a senior that they HAVE TO go to their particular primary care doc, even though many of them wouldn't trust anyone other doc.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#11
Posted: 12/18/12 at 5:22pmMy father's other famiLEE were middle class and we were kept out of sight, hidden from view at his funeral.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#12
Posted: 12/18/12 at 6:02pm
I prefer to believe he's just doing a ninja on Boner.
Put taxes at merely Clintonian levels and Social Security is fine for 30 years.
Obama's latest fiscal cliff offer screws the middle class, elderly.#13
Posted: 12/18/12 at 6:42pm
From my perspective, I can live without Social Security - but no Medicare, I cannot plan for that.
Further means test SS, just provide access to affordable health care when folks retire.
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