Peter G. Peterson wants your Social Security money
By louisehartmann
Meet Wall Street billionaire – Pete Peterson – the man trying to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as we know it. According to tax documents – between 2007 and 2011 – Peterson has given nearly a half-billion dollars to his Peter. G. Peterson Foundation to run ads and lobby Congress warning that federal safety net programs are going broke and need to be drastically cut or privatized.
And last Tuesday – Peterson hosted a “fiscal summit” with power plays like Bill Clinton, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Paul Ryan, and John Boehner on reducing the deficit by cutting Social Security and Medicare. Senator Bernie Sanders was also at the meeting – though he wasn’t invited. He was there to protest - and we should all be doing the same to stop Pete Peterson from destroying our social safety net.
Comments
#2
Maybe numnutz should be a little more socially productive and try to get 7,000,000 people back to work in the US! Then maybe some money would be going back into the fund, DUH! WS journal today mentioned some 6,000,000 jobs shed to over seas since 2000 or so. Also I wonder if this dolt paid any tax on that half billion! I know he didn't pay any social security on it, which by my calcs should be approx. $31,000,000. The rich are raping America and what can we do about it? Me? I'm one of the broke jokes working for one of the rich. Open my pie hole and i get fired! thats just the way it has become...soooooooooooo saaaaaaaaaaaaad!!
and on another note in respect to the unemplyed and trying to find a job? I've been looking for a part time job to make a little extra cash to send the kids to college. most minion jobs you apply for on line now! huh! the scary part? is the questionares that you have to answer and some of the questions they ask which should not be allowed to be asked, ie: How proud would your parents be of you today? Do you think politicians are dishonest? What % of people do you think cheat on thier tax returns?
All of which require an answer in degrees and must be answered. shit its no wonder some people have quit looking for jobs! those are pretty personl questions and have absolutelt nothing with the way a person may or may not perform in a minion job. I'm going to throw the company name out there just for kicks, Target. Go apply and check it out, seriously! something kind of spooky about it!
#3
Curiosity Question: If they managed to cancel Social Security, Medicare, and the foodstamp program tomorrow, how much of a dent would that actually put in the National Debt? I have a feeling it might cut it by 15 or 20%. Does anybody actually know what the result would be?
Rich
#4
Target!? That's disappointing. Maybe not surprising. If they ask inappropriate questions, give them appropriate answers whether they're true or not.
Or drop out of the pool and tell them why.
#5
I find it so difficult to understand why the Millionaires and Billionaires want to destroy the Middle Class? Is it a comparison of their importance that they enjoy their wealth more in proportion to the less that the Middle Class have?
To be a Republican today, one must be Rich, Cruel, or Ignorant, i.e. a low information voter, and they are not mutually exclusive. If the Republicans can confuse, the Republicans can deceive; this obviously is their agenda.
#6
Hurray for Bernie Sanders!!! And pox on Bill Clinton who I once tended to defend against his detractors. But then again, I was dumb enough to vote for Obama. Now that we know that voting Democrat won't buy us anything and the only thing that will.....is a truly massive revolution against the entrenched corrupt system....maybe we need to get on with it!!
#7
The 1% are not happy even with their untold millions. So they have to try to make everyone else unhappy to justify what they lost to get where they are. The worst thing that can happen to a 1% is to see a happy singing 99% person who tells that 1%er that they will be prayed for.
#8
Billionaires like Peterson fully realize these well run nonprofit programs are sustainable and vastly popular, they just can't stand the idea of not having access to all that loot. Every waking moment is spent thinking about how all those billions could be in their trembling and sweaty hands. If their concern about the deficit was sincere they would have been on board with the Buffett Rule. Everyone knows pre-Reagan tax rates will fix the deficit problem and end the biggest lie ever told!
By the way, for what it's worth, I think President Obama needs to go to Wisconsin and give a FDR speech real soon, Franklin and Teddy sure as hell both would have!
#9
Thom.,
Thank you for clarifying your support for Barack Obama in perticular and Democrats in general. The importance of the next Supreme court appointments is compelling. You also infer that Barack's hands are tied by a republican conspiracy to undermine his agenda. While I do believe this is true, we cannot excuse Democrats lack of conviction to their stated principals.Democracy depends on them doing the right thing regardless of the political or personal consequences. While I dispise their politics, at least the republicans are commited to their dispicable agenda.
This is not a Democratic society and Capitalism as it is practiced in America has become the cancer that is killing us. Greed and personal gain is the only model post ww2 america has ever known. I hope your guest Gar Asperovitz is correct when he suggests a new model is emerging in america and around the world. There are over 6 billion people in the world. Peace, Cooperation, equitable reward, mutual investments and mutual ownership of our work, government and communities along with open minded tolerance and sincere compassion towards others is the only way we can have a world in which we all have an opportunity to enjoy our existance. Politicians of both parties have proven conclusively that they will do whatever is most beneficial to them. The Occupy movement embodies the courage that will be necessary to evolve beyond our blind faith in Democracy & Capitalism as we know it. I got news for you America, Personal Austerity will be required! Sacrifices both personal and financial will be necessary. Get Your House in Order ( if you are fortunate enough to still have one ). It's either that or you can be a part of the 1%'s plan to governmentally , militarily & economically conquer, control , imprison or kill anyone who does not benefit them. That unambiguous level of commitment must be met with similarily commited opposition. We are about to see just how selfishly commited those who benefit from the status quo are to upholding it. So far it looks like they have no problem in disenfrancising, persecuting, beating, condeming and even killing those who threaten their comfort. Let's hope we can convince them not to fear change and embrace thier humanity.
#10
I watched The Ed Show on MSNBC tonight with an interview with E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post. And, E.J. Dionne said that if you want to know the real Mitt Romney and his Republican agenda, watch "It's A Wonderful Life". I've watched the movie a hundred times and agree... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ne13Zft9Q
#11
Well, the rethuglicans should forsee that pissing-off and rendering destitute a vast number of the voting electorate and by association, the already struggling children/family who will have to support, feed, and provide medical care for those without income, that they will NEVER win elections no matter how much money they pour into them. But I don't find that such people are very forward-looking anyway.
Maybe they think that money will buy the elections (and the Court--oh yes they already did that) anyway--it's how Bush stole 2 elections--and the electorial college could be/have been bought, I suppose.
The money-controllers already have our 401K monies. We get the underperforming stocks and they either get our money or jump in before us on a miraculous performing stock, make money, and leave us with the bottom price. Ever wonder why your 401K is struggling, even in an up market? Isn't that scam profitable enough for them???
George Reiter is correct about the stupidity of the wealthy canabalizing/destroying the middle class; their wealth is a direct result of our labor and our consumerism and our tax dollars, because WE pay more in taxes than they do and THEY enjoy the benefits of those taxes more than we do. How do they expect to continue with their lifestyle when they have rendered the greater population and the most productive workforce in the world penniless by stagnet wages and higher and higher prices and poorer and poorer benefits and little chance/hope of a well-deserved retirement--EARNED from years of service to the country and the economy,
I have said it many times: they are just asking for violent revolution. Do we want to become the next Africa? My granny ass-kicking boots are at the ready.
#12
And then the bells rang loud and deep,
"God is not dead nor doth he sleep-
the Wrong shall fail and Right prevail,
with Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men. -Tennyson
It is time for some to remember the Golden Rule, Good Will Towards Men, and things of that nature....
Lord, I wouldn't want to be credited with reducing anyone's so called "benefits." The brewers and bottlers ought to consider their losses once the addicted poor have dropped out of the market, unable to trade food stamps for cigarettes, drugs, and whiskey.
Who will buy all the leftover methadone? What about all those medicaid supported medical supply companies and their pie in the sky government contracts? They are owned by the health insurance companies.
There is no way for Washington to turn now without cutting off its own nose.
The pharmaceutical industry will likely cease making anything except what the more fortunate can afford.
#13
"God is not dead nor doth he sleep-
the Wrong shall fail and Right prevail"
The only thing wrong with this comment is that the "right" think the "Right" means them and they feel righteously justified in their beliefs and actions.
#14
That is why God is needed to settle the argument, the final authority, if you will.
#15
ISN'T THE BOTTOM LINE here that, through it's taxing authority, the United States, in effect, already owns every publicly-traded corporation licensed to do business here? So why bother laundering Social Security revenues through Wall Street 'banksters' to earn higher returns in the stock market when the government can more directly tax those corporations at what ever rate Congress and the President agree on?
#16
This is the issue and these are the people that the protesters should be specifically protesting. The exact motivation of these people is not nearly as important as the general idea that they are interested in using finances and income to harm people. That is all you have to know. It has been suggested by some that the Democrats should be putting forth a proposal to increase Social Security benefits. At least, that might limit reductions if the negotiating begins with proposesed increases, rather than reductions.
If people are harmed, they may not be able to pay their bills, so companies and business people such as doctors would also be harmed. As it is, many who receive Social Security or SSI cannot make ends meet.
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Love your emphasizing the positive, even about the Koch Brothers. I will put them on my prayer list too. (BTW, it drives the rightists nuts at rallies when I TELL them I will pray for them. But sometimes when the spirit moves me I do and then I do. I pray that they and more people will wake up.) But as for Cory Booker, there is more to him then a progressive pretty face who made one error. He is BAD on education. Please speak to Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report. Glen spoke at All Souls Church here in NYC recently re the corporate assault on public education and Cory figured in the talk. Joe Friendly (love that name!) taped it and it is at his JoeFriendly channel on YouTube -- perhaps someone in your team can review the tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdPACwRgw04&feature=plcp Glen is pretty radical but very articulate and could be a good guest.
Another reason to be positive: People are living longer so maybe we will break the 80-year cycle.
Healing hugs to Louise!
Kate Anne
New York City