Strengthen Social Security

A Huffington Post commenter responding to my recent piece on the Washington Post's recent Social Security article by saying that I "claimed 'inaccuracies, falsehoods, and downright lies' but delivered problems of tone, and emphasis." more »

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What do they call the night before Halloween? Oh, yeah. Hell night. That makes tonight just right for grabbing a fistful of mashmallows and candy corn before sitting down to read this article.

It'll make your blood run cold, and afterwards you'll probably agree: It's time to stop letting this propaganda outlet keep dressing up as a newspaper.

A History of Mendacity more »

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If you've ever questioned whether the so-called "Super Committee" represents a breakdown in the democratic process, yesterday's proposal from the group's Democratic members should put your doubts to rest. The system's seriously broken when unelected super-legislators from both parties keep trying to top each other in proposing inhumane and unpopular programs. more »

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Bad economics makes strange bedfellows. Thanks to our nation's misguided obsession with budget cuts, disabled children and the stock market face a common threat: an undemocratically-selected "Super Committee" which was formed during a national jobs emergency in order to ... reduce deficits instead.

The Super Committee: It's like Congress, except they don't let all the democratically-elected riffraff in. Think of it as our nation's "Platinum Legislature," a members-only private club where you have to know somebody important to get past the velvet rope. And it's like Fight Club, too: The first rule of Super Committee is that you don't talk about Super Committee.

There's compelling evidence that the cuts the Committee is considering will deal a harsh blow to the stock market. But before we see it, there's someone you really ought to meet. more »

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This is it. This is the opportunity that Barack Obama has been waiting for. He finally has the chance to push for policies that are popular with Republicans and independents as well as with Democrats. This is his "post-partisan" moment.

But there's a catch: These policies have been stigmatized among the policy elites. The only people who like them are voters.

So the Big Chance comes with a Big Choice: the President can win the bipartisan support of the electorate. Or he can win the support of insiders from both parties, backed by billionaires and corporate think tanks, who use the "bipartisan" label to push the right-wing ideology of austerity economics. But he can't do both.

There's no "third way." And the choice he makes now may well determine his political future.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., today introduced a bill that, if passed by Congress and signed by the president, would insure Social Security's solvency for the next 75 years—without having to cut a single person's benefit.

Sanders' solution is simple: gradually eliminate the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax, starting with people earning more than a quarter-million a year. more »

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Yesterday some prominent people signed a letter urging the so-called "Super Committee" to "go big" on cuts to the Federal budget. Many of these people would describe themselves as "moderate" and "centrist." Some would call themselves liberal. I've met a few of them casually, both Republicans and Democrats, and they seemed like very nice people.

They're nothing like the audience members at the Republican Presidential debate who shouted "yes!" when asked if society should let a young man die because he didn't buy health insurance. They're courteous and civilized, and were undoubtedly appalled by the shouts from the crowd.

That sort of thing isn't done in the salons or think tanks of Washington. You wouldn't catch anyone who signed that letter behaving that way.

But are they really all that different? more »

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Back in my corporate days I sat in a boardroom with one of the most powerful and fearsome CEOs in the country. He had called in the executives that designed his employee benefits program and asked them to propose changes to the corporation's retirement and health programs.  But he scowled and shook his head as they presented one set of options after another.  Finally I asked the question the others were afraid to ask:  What do you want to accomplish by changing your employees' benefits?

"I want to give them less," he said, "and make them think it's more."

The Human Resources executives in the room turned pale.  As brilliant as this CEO was, he didn't know what they had learned from experience:  

When you give people less, they always know it.  

Less is Less

I thought of that meeting when I listened to the President's remarks on Social Security in Iowa.  A woman with lung cancer asked the President to speak about Social Security, and he began by employing a lot of the rhetoric he's been reluctant to use so far, and by making a lot of the arguments he's refused to make since he was elected.  

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This article was co-written with Nancy J. Altman, co-chair of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign.

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This isn't the first time the White House has floated the idea of Social Security cuts as part of a 'grand bargain' with Republicans, and it's not the first time there's been a groundswell of opposition. But that opposition has never crystallized so quickly into something deeper and more threatening to the President's political fortunes.

Liberal pundits are turning against him and Democrats on the Hill are taking the fight directly to him. With a new poll confirming that Social Security cuts would alienate the other side's base and independents, this "grand bargain" doesn't look like much of a bargain anymore.

Sen. Bernie Sanders already laid the responsibility for unpopular cuts squarely at the President's feet on a phone call with reporters today: " We thought Social Security was off the table," said Sanders, "but by reopening this issue the White House is not only going to take on these changes, but will open the door to whatever else Republicans want."

In other words: If something bad happens to Social Security, you own it, Mr. President.

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