A good history at Angry Bear of the roots of Obama’s quest to slash Social Security. Is it surprising that it is yet another right wing idea that has become middle of the road by virtue of ceaseless repetition on the right and no pushback from what passes as the left in the Beltway. It began with Newt’s contract on America.
There is no need to ask anymore as to the reasoning behind the policies and offers in negotiations that is Obama. It is what he wants. We are living the continual implementation of the conservative economic and thus social ideology that came in with Reagan and fully came out with Gingrich and The Contract with America.
(via Angry Bear – Financial and Economic Commentary)
We may get a temporary reprieve due to the irrational Obama hatred on the right, but we can drive a stake through the heart of this thing only by letting every Democratic office holder know that we will accept nothing less than total opposition to this attack on the middle class and poor.
On a related subject, check out Dean Baker’s recent post, in which he compares the impact of Obama’s tax increases on the rich to that of implementing chained CPI on the rest of us.
President Obama’s proposal would reduce benefits by 0.3 percent for each year after a worker retires. After ten years benefits would be cut by 3.0 percent, after twenty years 6.0 percent, and after 30 years 9.0 percent. Over a twenty year retirement, the average cut would be 3.0 percent.
This cut would be a bigger hit to the typical retiree’s income than President Obama’s tax increases at the end of 2012 were to the typical person affected. A couple earning $500,000 a year would pay an additional 4.6 percentage points on income above $450,000. This would amount to $2,300 a year (4.6 percent of $50,000). That is less than 0.5 percent of their pre-tax income and around a 0.6 percent reduction in their after-tax income.
(via Beat the Press)