The Voices

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

- Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Submitted by Scott Laczay
December 10, 2007
"We stand united today to say that a privatization plan that cuts benefits, deepens our debt, and drains the Social Security trust fund is unworkable, unwise, and unacceptable to the American people."

   26 April 2005

Rep. Charles Rangel

- Rep. Charles Rangel
Submitted by Scott Laczay
December 10, 2007
"You know, if President Bush was here, I would advise him as a friend and as an American that there are just three things you don't do. One, you don't spit against the wind. Two, you don't look under the lone ranger's mask. And three, you don't mess with our Social Security."

   26 April 2005

Sen. Jon Corzine

- Sen. Jon Corzine
Submitted by Scott Laczay
December 10, 2007
"I find it absurd and misleading for the President to imply, as he did today, that the Treasury securities held by the Social Security trust fund are not meaningful and safe assets."

   4 April 2005

Bernard Wasow

- Bernard Wasow
Submitted by Scott Laczay
December 10, 2007
"The administration hopes that the excitement about private accounts, pro and con, will hide the unpopular fact that the real measures to shore up Social Security are the proposals to cut benefits"

   16 December 2004

Progressive Opinion

Lining up at Midnight at Wal-Mart to buy Food

From mybudget360.com
November 15th, 2009

mybudget360.com — "On the one hand, you have the financial sector swimming in their bailout-induced profits like a modern day Scrooge Mcduck. In their circles, it appears as if the recession is over. On the other hand, you have average Americans seeing access to credit cards shut down, equity in their homes vanishing"

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A Modern Safety Net

By Shelley Waters Boots and Karin Martinson
From prospect.org
September 17th, 2009

prospect.org — We need to update our social contract for the real lives of working families in a brutal economy.

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The Truth Behind the Social Security and Medicare Alarm Bells

By Robert B. Reich
From tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com
May 14th, 2009

tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Social Security is a tiny problem. Medicare is a terrible one, but the problem is not really Medicare; it's quickly rising health-care costs. Look more closely and the real problem isn't even health-care costs; it's a system that pushes up costs by rewarding inefficiency, causing unbelievable waste, pushing over-medication, providing inadequate prevention, over-using emergency rooms, and spending billions on advertising and marketing seeking to enroll healthy people and avoid sick ones.

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The Bankrupt Debate Over Bankrupting Our Children

By Dean Baker
From truthout.org
May 13th, 2009

truthout.org — In reality, what determines the well-being of future generations is the whole world that we hand down to them: the public and private capital stock, the state of technical knowledge and the specific skills and education that we give the future workforce as well as the natural environment and resources.

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How Social Security Can Save Us All

By James K. Galbraith
From motherjones.com
May 8th, 2009

motherjones.com — Thank god, Bush failed to privatize Social Security. Now it can help to rescue the economy.

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There Is No Social Security Crisis

By Paul Waldman
From prospect.org
February 24th, 2009

prospect.org — It is time to remind everyone about the real facts on Social Security.

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Supply Side Economics and Generational Theft

By Hale Stewart
From huffingtonpost.com
February 23rd, 2009

huffingtonpost.com — Sometime over the last few weeks Republicans started to use the phrase "generational theft" to describe the stimulus bill. This is particularly interesting, considering supply-side economics started the idea of massive government debt issuance.

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The Peter G. Peterson Intergenerational Fairness Tax Credit

By Dean Baker
From tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com
February 23rd, 2009

tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — Peter Peterson is out to get your Social Security and Medicare. For those who don't know him, Peterson has long been in the public limelight.

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Reform Health Care -- and Leave Social Security Alone

By Joe Conason
From salon.com
February 23rd, 2009

salon.com — During his fiscal responsibility summit, President Obama must not cave in to the privatizers and slashers.

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The Attack of the Deficit Hawks

By Robert Kuttner
From washingtonpost.com
February 23rd, 2009

washingtonpost.com — We need to increase public spending and debt now to restore economic growth and then gradually reduce the debt ratio once recovery comes. Social Security has little to do with this challenge. Nor does Medicare, if we reform our overall health system. Since the early 1980s, Peter G. Peterson has been warning that future entitlement deficits would crash the economy. Yet when the crash came, the cause was not deficits but wild speculation on Wall Street.

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