On Boehner’s Insulting Offer: No Deal

Washington, DC – The Campaign for America’s Future’s co-directors Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey say, “No Deal” to House Speaker John Boehner’s offer for the not-so-grand bargain.

Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, said, "Speaker Boehner doesn’t get it. Demanding cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as a price for long overdue fairer taxes on the richest Americans isn’t an offer; it is an insult. Using the debt ceiling to hold the country hostage to exact otherwise unacceptable cuts in education and other vital domestic programs is disreputable policy and politics. Offering to hold off a year before taking the next hostage does not remove the threat. Clearly the president and Democrats have two words to say to the speaker: No deal.

“The top 1 percent of Americans pocketed fully 93 percent of the income growth over the last couple of years. Boehner suggests that a small increase in the tax rates of millionaires is acceptable only if benefits are cut for Social Security recipients or 65- and 66-year-olds go without Medicare, adding an estimated $2,200 a year to their health insurance premiums. No deal. Better simply to let the Bush tax cuts expire and revive them for 98 percent of Americans in January.”

Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, said, "If this is what a so-called `Grand Bargain’ looks like, it is nothing more than a `Grand Swindle:’ a measly tax increase on the super-wealthy followed by unnecessary and draconian cuts to our vulnerable seniors.

"America's elderly are not the problem. Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. Medicare faces insolvency because of price gouging by the insurance and drug industries. If the deficit hawks are serious, they would demand a public health insurance option and government bargaining power to lower drug prices. But they are not serious. They are only looking for excuses to dismantle the New Deal. Democrats should say: `No Deal.’”