Once again the foes of Social Security are making big noises about "entitlement reform" and the alleged dire consequences of failing to gut Social Security either through benefit cuts or privatization. The Petersen Institute is launching a major TV ad campaign about how horrid it will be if we don't emaciate Social Security (they call it reform, but it's the same idea). They and the Blue Dogs in Congress are calling a "Fiscal Responsibility Roundtable" that Obama has agreed to attend.
Fiscal Responsibility? Where were they during the Bush Administration? When did they oppose the wasteful Iraq War? When did they oppose the massive waste, abuse and fraud in the Pentagon? Apparently that spending was OK, but spending money on poor, old and sick people - that's irresponsible, dontcha know.
The last thing we need Mr. President is to cut benefits to those most vulnerable in this time of economic hardship, but that's just what these people want you to do. In fact, if you really wanted to stimulate the economy you should try increasing benefits. The retirement of the baby boom generation will cause Social Security to use some of its massive trust fund to pay benefits for a few years. The problem is that the government has already spent that money and they don't want to honor their fiduciary obligations to the American people by paying it back. Tough luck!
I'm quite sure that the extra millions that Social Security will need in about 30 years to pay full benefits could be saved from the Pentagon alone, but failing that, simply eliminating the salary cap and making every worker pay the same percentage of income would solve the problem and then some.
Every few years the same people (mostly the banking industry and Wall Street - the greedy bastards who got us into this economic meltdown in the first place) start whining about "entitlement reform". You need to wake up, Mr. President! This is a ruse and we need you to put these people in their place once and for all and tell them there will be no reduction in Social Security benefits on your watch.
So now President Obama has put Larry Summers and his proteges in charge of the auto industry bailout. Given their background and track record, we can be sure that their primary objective will be to "rescue" the shareholders and bondholders of the auto companies, not the employees, and certainly not the retirees.
It is common knowledge that the US auto industry is spending billions every year for health insurance for workers and retirees - insurance they were guaranteed by contract. The Wall Street/Summers solution to their problem will be to let them go into bankruptcy and cancel those contracts so that the investors are "free" from the burden of living up to their contractual obligations.
This problem could be solved another way - another way that would benefit all Americans and all American business and provide a huge stimulus to the economy: enact single-payer health care. If the United States, like all other Western democracies, had free health care for all, the auto companies might still be in the black. But we can count on Summers (under President Obama's direction we must assume) to screw the workers and retirees so that the investors can be "rescued".
The economic woes of the US auto industry are due primarily to their poor management. It was management that continued to build cars that people didn't want. It was management that stopped innovating and improving their automobiles in order to save money. It is management and the shareholders they represented who made the mistakes and it is they who should pay. They took risks, they mismanaged those risks, and they lost money. That's how the market is supposed to work. Instead, Obama and Summers will bail out those shareholders and bondholders and probably most of the executives at the expense of the workers. You can count on it.
Wake up, Mr. President! You said you would give us hope and real change, but you have employed the people who gave us the economy we need to change from and who have made a career of dashing the hopes of ordinary Americans. You need to change course immediately before they make things much worse.
Mr. President,
You are getting very bad advice on the economy from someone who is not a friend of working families. He has a long history of support for the very policies that got us into this mess, a long history of opposition to all the likely solutions to the economic meltdown, and a reputation that lacks integrity to put it mildly.
You need good advice. May I suggest Joseph Steiglitz, Nouriel Roubini, James Galbraith and Dean Baker? These are economists who predicted the current crisis, opposed the speculation and de-regulation that caused it, and who offer solutions that are oriented toward working Americans, not protection of Wall Street tycoons.
You got a stimulus bill passed, and that's great. It would have been a lot better had you not listened to Summers and his ideas about tax cuts. Tax cuts have not proven nearly as effective as infrastructure investment in speeding recovery. Then Summer's protege Geithner got his way on the TARP II package and was laughed off the stage and the stock market took a nose dive. Why? Because he has no idea how to solve this problem or has ruled out any ideas that would hurt his Wall Street buddies. He needs to go also.
This administration will stand or fall based on its handling of the economy. If serious reform of the system, and serious infrastructure investment are not enacted in the next year or so, there may not be another opportunity. You need advisors who will consider nationalizing the banks and seizing their worthless assets. You need advisors who will tell you that enacting single-payer health care and increasing Social Security benefits are superb ideas to rescue the economy, freeing billions for investment and jobs. You need advisors who will promote strong re-regulation of the banks and financial markets, including breaking up all the banks that are "too big to fail", mandating reasonable caps on interest rates and an end to inflated late fees. You need people who are willing to make sure that Wall Street never again takes this nation to the brink of ruin by rampant speculation and fraud.
Wake up, Mr. President! You don't have much time.
