Smart Talk

As conservatives relentlessly demand more and more spending cuts in their crusade to impose austerity on our economy, they have fixated on cuts to benefits offered by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – the core pillars of family security. One particularly noxious idea is the "chained CPI.” It is a political trick, not a technical fix. It is a hidden benefit cut that would shackle seniors with lower benefits and thus less security over time. Here are seven reasons shackling seniors and the disabled with a chained CPI is just plain wrong.

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The leaders of both political parties suggest that more deficit reduction is needed and that it would help the economy. Not surprisingly, polls suggest that most Americans believe that cutting spending will help the economy, not harm the recovery. The reality is that spending is not out of control, the deficit is already plummeting, and we should be focused on fixing the economy to make it work for working people, not on austerity driven by wrong-headed deficit hysteria.

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Conservatives are trying to extort unpopular cuts in vital programs by holding the economy hostage. In total, the White House has agreed to spending cuts that total $1.5 trillion (or $1.7 trillion including interest savings) over 10 years. And the New Year’s “fiscal cliff” deal will raise $600 billion in taxes over 10 years. But all that has only encouraged them. Now they have triggered the biggest set of austerity bombs in history to go off this spring if they don’t get their way. Holding America hostage is a ridiculous way to negotiate a budget. It is time to say, "No more."

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We don't have an "entitlements" problem; we have a broken health care system. The rising costs of publicly funded health care programs like Medicare will consume a larger portion of the budget in the future if nothing is done. But the real problem is runaway health care costs generally, driven by the entrenched corporate interests – the drug and insurance companies and the private hospital complexes – that have made our health care the most expensive in the world.

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The emerging Washington consensus on addressing the end of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts is that we can raise more revenue by lowering tax rates, especially on the wealthy and corporations, while “broadening the base” by limiting or eliminating tax deductions. Lowering rates, it is argued, helps growth; closing loopholes produces revenue to reduce deficits. It is a seductive proposition. But there are good reasons to resist the seduction. more »

We need to fix the economy so it works for working people. Instead Washington is focused not on jobs and growth, but on an extortionist threat concocted by the Tea Party-dominated Republican Congress. Cut the benefits in vital family security programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – 10 years from now, they threaten, or they’ll blow up the recovery next year with an “austerity bomb,” a mix of tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts that will throw people out of work and the economy into recession. This dangerous extortion is no way to make sensible policy.

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Self-proclaimed “deficit hawks” want to cut Medicare benefits for the most vulnerable seniors (and tomorrow’s retirees). And many want to drastically change Medicare by giving seniors a fixed amount of money to buy insurance on the private market. Calling Medicare an out-of-control “entitlement” whose costs are rising dramatically and unsustainably, they claim we just can’t afford Medicare as we know it any more. They ignore the experience of history that demonstrates private insurance is more costly. They are really making the case for a giant step backward as a nation and as a civilized community. And it would avoid the real causes of our budget deficits.

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American companies continue to ship good jobs to China. They seek to profit from underpaid, overworked labor with few rights. China, meanwhile, pursues mercantilist policies, promoting its export industries at the expense of those who play by the rules. We can’t continue to let countries like China rig their currency, target our industries and drive us into a race to the bottom. It's time to enforce the rules – and to change the rules that rig the game.

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Even more than seniors, today’s workers, especially women and people of color, will really need Social Security. And yet a multimillion-dollar campaign is being waged to get the president and Congress to cut Social Security benefits for everyone, with the worst cuts aimed at those under the age of 55. Even though unemployment is the number one issue on the minds of most Americans, these elite activists say we must cut Social Security in order to reduce the federal deficit. The case against these so-called “deficit hawks” is easy. more »

We have a jobs crisis, but the media and political elite are focused on deficits and debt. How do we make the case that pursuing austerity only will deepen the jobs crisis and send us back into recession?

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