pig man takes and takes but never gives back.

I guess "reform" means to re-form the U.S. into a third-world banana republic.

a minute. They think he is only talking about Dems and minorities.
So, it looks like his idea of "reform" will be to take the money and hand it to corporations. Boiled down, that's what he is proposing, I think.

I am sure their "Christ" would ratfuck the "least among us" in order to solve the problem.

We need to remind those fony fucks of this fact every time they bring this shit up.

And we need to confront these assholes who think that it is.

We paid into it our entire working careers.

unfortunately the GOP has managed to co-opt and demonize the word "entitlement" and confuse low-information voters by playing upon their angers, jealousies, and insecurities, e.g., they've been convinced that nobody is "entitled" to anything, damn it!

In their minds they conflate "entitlements" with welfare, and the cliche of "those lazy people who think they are "entitled" and would rather suck the public tit than get a job."

That's pretty much the problem, and it's a huge obstacle. Rush Limbaugh has played a huge role in proffering this deception. And Democrats have failed to counter it.

That's how I see it.

Sort out the difference between denotation and connotation, between meanings one word can have in two different contexts.

only when Republicans say we have to cut entitlements and suffer from amnesia, or worse, rationalize my ass off, when Democrats do the same.




http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026485072#post2

Someone pointed out I'd omitted cuts to SNAP, for which I apologize with all my heart.

That's why I was so outraged when Obama proposed cuts to the CPI, slippery slope and all that and when he formed the cat food commission to cut Medicare and Social Security in trade off for supposed tax increases to the rich and closing loopholes. Yes, there are many here on this board that turn a blind eye to bad things this president does/proposes and pretend it never happened.

I see posts on DU by adults out of work for a long time begging for enough money not to get evicted.

yuck. Meanwhile, Mormon Utah has decided that the least expensive way to handle homelessness is to provide housing.

(Which has long been known. We don't do it because we'd rather punish helpless people for being out of work or for being not quite "with it" enough to hold down a job, yet don't fit the rigid standard of disability).

They are better than any Repug candidate, however. We'll see what happens in the primaries and go from there. Hillary was always seen as being left of Bill, so let's see the policy perscriptions.

come from?

BTW, I compared Bubba and Obama to brooklynite's amazement about Christie and his constituents. I said nothing about Hillary.

The pundits were knocking Hillary for being a wild eyed leftist who would influence Bill in the wrong way. She shed the leftist cloak when in the Senate, choosing to move to the center. Based on her announcement alone, it looks like she's moving back leftward.

try to convert politicians in those countries to Third Way.

I was around and I don't know an issue on which she took a position to her husband's left while he was running or while he was in office.

When he was running, she got flack from the right for wanting to be called "Hillary Rodham," so it went to Hillary Rodham Clinton. She got flack from a number of sources for disparaging comments she made about Tammy Wynette and women who stay home and bake cookies. She got flack from a number of sources for "standing by her man," despite Genifer Flowers. She got flack for being on the board of WalMart.

Bill did not disagree with her on any of those stands, nor did she disagree with him on any issue that I am aware of.

My husband, on the other hand remembers visuals like no one I've ever met.

I've always said, between us we can recreate any party we've every been to.

I've never seen such overt, FLAGRANT mean-ness from any politician like I have from him. Usually it's a lot more slithery. His is just flat-out in-yer-face.

for our public servants? What about all those millionaires in the US Senate? Do they really "need" the salary we pay them? Isn't that a larger waste of taxpayer dollars than a few bucks to someone who needs a hip replaced?

It keeps people in the workforce that shouldn't be there and prevents new workers from getting jobs.

they had a chance to retire because of the shorter life expectancy then.

Maybe that's why they spent all the "trust fund" money on whatever they damned well pleased?

Does unreported income count for SS payments ?

In a sort of "the best defense is an offense" way.

If he can throw a few hunks of red meat to the far-right base and keep them mad as hell at....whatever....it's nice icing on the cake.

to get anywhere near the WH - even the people of NJ have seen through his gutting of their state -

but CC go for it...I have popcorn....and I am a good sharer......

As soon as you do means testing, that turns it into a welfare program, which it was never intended to be. These crooks want to turn it into one so they can dismantle it.

in retirement actually save?

Trojan horse.

The first $826 of the AIME is credited at 90%, which means if your AIME is $826, you get 90% of your AIME in retirement. An AIME between $826 and $4,980 is credited at 32%. Between $4,980 and the FICA maximum you get credited 15%.

So the more you average, the less insurance your FICA dollars buy.

SS is not welfare!

Last edited Tue Apr 14, 2015, 04:19 PM - Edit history (2)

At first read anyway (the first article I read elsewhere was focused on the part about cutting benefits for high income earners and didn't mention the other stuff like raising the retirement age.)

But anyway, back to means testing and eliminating benefits for those earning more than $200,000 -- some may think that is wonderfully progressive, would reduce inequality, is equivalent to taxing the wealthy, and that's what I thought at first.

Then I realized that this is an old strategy of the CONservatives -- turn S.S. and Medicare FROM an earned benefit everyone pays into and everyone gets benefits from -- TO something more akin to a welfare program -- something only those below a certain income get (and they will keep lowering those income thresholds over time). And once those programs become associated in the public mind as welfare programs (rather than an earned benefit everyone pays into and everyone gets benefits from), it becomes easier to demonize and slash them.

(Leaving aside reduced benefits for those between $80,000 to $200,000 -- $80,000 isn't "the wealthy" for say a married couple filing jointly, if that's what the thresholds apply to, the article doesn't say for sure).

As an aside, there is already plenty enough means-testing of Social Security in that an individual pays income taxes on 50% of SS benefits if he/she has a "modified" adjusted gross income (MAGI) between 25 K$ and 34 K$, and 85% of SS benefits for MAGI amounts above $34,000. Those were pretty good incomes back in 1982 or whenever that law was written, but are pretty bare-bones now (they are NOT indexed for inflation).

The married filing jointly MAGI thresholds are 32 K$ and 44 K$ -- 50% of SS benefits are taxable when MAGI is between 32 K$ and 44 K$, and 85% are taxable when MAGI is above 44 K$.

===== ON EDIT ======

I forgot -- the benefit level is means tested too -- it's a progressive formula for determining benefits (lower incomes get a higher benefit rate per dollar of income) -- see Major Nikon's #28.

Major correction -- its not a 50% and 85% tax on SS benefits (like my earlier version said, DERP), but rather 50% and 85% of SS benefits become taxable at one's ordinary income tax rate.

Did Chris just hit the third rail?

is for the Federal Government to stop dipping their hands into it.

He will never get the nomination. Too much baggage. He needs a train of elephants to carry it around.

Rather than income?

Because you are not serious, Captain Bridgegate.

Fuck off, you minor league Jersey Shore character.

Mr Obese is just one clown in the circus of clowns. We are going to hear lots of insulting ideas to starve the middle class and poor into the streets. We will never hear any ideas of asking the wealthy to put out one more penny of their record earnings. Never!

We need to blow the bull horn loud and often on how their goal is to widen the wealth gap further in this country. NO ideas on how to help anyone, or to help our aging and crumbling infrastructure. Thugs. Blind, selfish, heartless, greedy thugs.

Expose them, often and clear!

This Clown needs to put on his big red nose and red suspenders with orange shoes and pink and red baggy pants and just strut out with his means test, flying in a state trooper helicopter.

This right wing hypocrite with everyone standing / sitting in attendance who have children and grand children and instead of being "fair" by lifting the cap on earned income so that everyone pays there "fair" share he wants to punish human beings for paying into there social safety net programs.

He wants everyone making less than $200,000 to subsidize everyone making more than $200,000 (where did you get this libertarian number from the powerball drawing or did he get it from the unpaid taxes he did not pay, someone got to subsidize this out right issue of someone wanting the infrastructure but not paying for the roads, schools, ect......).

Then to top it all off, on his right wing mantra of class warfare if you are one of the unlucky ones born after 1960 screw you ("so what pal&quot , you were not lucky enough to be born before that year----he just one class act isn't he, he just doesn't care who he discriminates against with this bigotry from high------so that he can bankrupt the program and then sit back and blame the social program as a failure under his right wing plan to give it the MEANS TEST for his wall street cronies to come along and rob.

My suggestion to this bankrupt hypocrite:
your state is 49th in job growth, you have pensioners paying management fees to your cronies which is against the law.
you have human beings still waiting for relief from your worthless government on distribution of my tax dollars to human beings hurt by Sandy
you have a 3.9 billion dollars deficit because of the tax breaks you gave to the millionaires and billionaires in the state.
And you have retirees sitting in on this dog and pony show who are just suckers and if they are just making enough social security to live off from, so then if they don't want it distribute it to the homeless, they sure do need it -------or are they are really that stupid.
These retirees are the suckers and they want to be like the millionaires and billionaires friends of Chris Christie---its not happening.
And finally just "shut up and sit down, I mean really, just "shut up and sit down

If you have a lower income than $80,000 per year, you get nothing. Between $80,000 and $200,000 it graduates up. If you have an income of $200,000 per year or higher you get full Social Security benefits.

Republicans will not vote for it the way he explained it.

His donors know that he can't get the nomination, but his candidacy is a useful tool for spreading the RW gospel.

a welfare program.

I am sure Mr. Christie will think of that at some point.

Do your koch masters will you creep!

Just goes to show you that it doesn't make a difference which party wins in 2016...they all the same.

Not that I ever thought he had a chance of getting in the White House, but he's deep-sixing whatever might be left of his political career.

Moron. Loud-mouthed moron at that.