Progressive Opinion

huffingtonpost.com — Two fresh dangers in the looming Social Security battleground confront blacks and Hispanics. The GOP presidential candidates posed one when they again called for partially privatizing Social Security in recent stump speeches and statements. The idea is nothing but a rehash of the idea floated by George W. Bush in 2005. The idea mercifully went nowhere, Bush dropped it. The other danger is the soaring poverty numbers. Social Security stands squarely in the middle of the two dangers. The recent census report found that the number of Americans in poverty has hit a near all time high. A disproportionate number of those are blacks and Hispanics. This is where privatizing or any tweak, reduction, or downsize of Social Security would virtually guarantee that the economic pain to blacks and Hispanics would be unimaginable.

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huffingtonpost.com — Ever since Texas Governor Rick Perry attacked Social Security as a Ponzi scheme as an opening gambit in his presidential campaign we have been treated to a spirited debate in the media on the truth of this proposition. Those of us who consider this to be ill-informed nonsense that has the effect of misleading the public about the state of Social Security's finances were told to lighten up. After all, what is wrong with debating the topic? In this spirit of free and open debate, perhaps our attention should be devoted to the question of whether the Washington Post is a criminal enterprise. While it is ostensibly a newspaper that purports to give the public an objective take on key events in the country and the world, it has been involved in several actions that raise serious questions about this status.

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jaredbernsteinblog.com — I’d like to impose a new fiscal measure.  Whenever you say either “America is Greece!” re our fiscal debt — or anything like that — or “Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme!” you have to send $10 to the US Treasury. Today’s bond markets have the yield on the 10-year Greek bond at 23.54 and on the U.S. ten-year note at 1.95.  So enough about that…OK? Social Security is pay-as-you-go.  Ponzi’s scheme was not, as it depended on continuous doubling the ratio of contributors to investors. Maybe some people don’t want to accept the fact that we’re all in this together, but…we are.  So unless you want to be sending a crisp Alexander Hamilton into the Treasury, don’t be talkin’ any of this stuff anymore…capeesh!!??

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baselinescenario.com — On the theory that the best defense is a good offense, Rick Perry has been insisting to anyone who will listen that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. I think it’s important to be clear about why Rick Perry thinks it is—or, rather, why his political advisers think he can get away with it. A Ponzi scheme, classically, is one where you promise high returns to investors but you have no way of actually generating those returns; instead, you plan to pay off old investors by getting new money from new investors. Social Security is obviously not a Ponzi scheme for at least two basic reasons. First, there’s no fraud involved. Second, a Ponzi scheme cannot go on forever. At some point you out of new investors and it will collapse. So why do people ever think it’s a Ponzi scheme? It’s the combination of two factors, each of which is relatively innocuous on its own.

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progressive.org — While national politicians argue about cuts to Social Security and Medicare down the road, cash-strapped state governments are cutting vital services for elderly Americans today. Those suffering most are often those with the least. The human misery that these cuts inflict doesn’t fall equally. One of the dirty little secrets of our supposedly “post-racial” society is that elderly African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latinos are far less likely than whites to have the resources needed for a reasonably secure retirement. So the communities that have the least and have suffered the most during the economic downturn are being hit again by cuts to vital programs for their elderly and frail. It’s a truism that the test of a society is how it cares for its most vulnerable. America is failing that test.

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truth-out.org — On his tour of the Midwest last week, President Obama again indicated his interest in cutting Social Security. He repeated a proposal that his administration first put forward in the debt ceiling negotiations: he wants to cut the annual cost of living adjustment by 0.3 percentage points. This cut may sound small, but it adds up over time. A person in their 70s who had been getting benefits for ten years would see a reduction of 3 percent. By the time they were in their 80s, the cut would be 6 percent. And if they lived into their 90s, their benefit would be more than 9 percent lower as a result of President Obama's proposal. But apparently President Obama feels that these people need to make greater sacrifices. The determination to cut Social Security is especially strange given the finances of the program.

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huffingtonpost.com — This week's deal to raise the debt ceiling should remove any doubt about the power corporate interests have over our government. The deal, hammered out by the president and Republican congressional leaders, places the burden of reducing our long-term budget problems squarely on average Americans, while the wealthiest individuals and corporations are given a free pass. But the deal poses a larger threat. A provision in the agreement creates an appointed "Super Committee" in Congress that could circumvent normal rules and slash cherished programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. In short, unless congressional leaders appoint progressives willing to stand up to moneyed interests, the Super Committee will be nothing less than a chopping block for Social Security.

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huffingtonpost.com — The debate we have just witnessed has shown Washington, D.C. not just to be broken, but corrupt. The American people are disgusted watching politicians play political chicken with the nation's economy and future. In such a bitter and unprincipled atmosphere, whoever has the political clout to enforce their self-interest and retain their privileges wins the battles. But there are two casualties in such political warfare: the common good and the most vulnerable. So how will vulnerable people fair under this deal?

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thenation.com — Most of the endless rehashing of the debt deal has correctly focused on the fact that corporate interests and Tea Party politics have prevailed again, at the expense of the middle class, children in poverty, students and the elderly. But in understanding the long-term impact of this drawn-out debate, too little attention has been paid to the blow it has dealt to the foundational principles of our democracy. When all is said and done, the process that created the deal may end up being as destructive as the deal’s effects. While the country watched helplessly, each new turn and every talking head in the seemingly endless saga demonstrated that ordinary people had no real part to play. Unless we employ an army of lobbyists or have a key to the Congressional washroom, it seemed there was no reconciling the debate on the Hill with the needs and desires of those most affected by the final deal.

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washingtonmonthly.com — We knew that the Great Recession was bad. We didn't appreciate just how bad. When Obama administration's economists put together its Recovery Act, it was working with a certain set of data and expectations, and envisioned what a worst-case scenario might look like. They were right about the need for action, but wrong about the scope of the disaster they'd inherited -- the worst-case scenario was far too rosy and the stimulus response was overwhelmed by conditions that were more severe than officials even imagined. Part of this was the result of faulty expectations. The notion of the U.S. unemployment rate going from under 5% to over 10% in just two years was so absurd, many just didn't consider it possible. But it was -- the mess the Bush administration left for Democrats to clean up really was that mind-boggling bad. But part of this was also the result of faulty statistics.

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