AP:
He said Wednesday, without details, that his initial budget proposal will include "some very specific outlines" of how he plans to tackle spending. That extends to the ballooning and so-far unsolvable fiscal problem presented by the Social Security and Medicare programs, which Obama promised would be "a central part" of his deficit-reduction plan.
"Ballooning and unsolvable fiscal problem presented by Social Security"?!?
When Bush proposed Social Security reform, there was an awful lot of pushback from Democrats that "there is no crisis," that SS was perfectly solvent and that the GOP was just fabricating stories about deficits to scare people into supporting privatization. Its was "politics of fear," we were told. I even remember the "There Is No Crisis" blogads, because they were absolutely everywhere.
Now, just three years later, it's a "ballooning and unsolvable fiscal problem?"
Now, just three years later, it's a "ballooning and unsolvable fiscal problem?"
Notice that Obama doesn't use those words. It's the AP editorializing again.
Well, yeah. But if there's no fiscal problem with Social Security, why does it need to be "a central part" of his deficit reduction plan?
I'll also note that you seem to believe there's some sort of difference between the AP and Obama. ;-)
Imagine what Social Security would look like now if it HAD been privatized three years ago. Now that is scary!
3 Score + 10
Keith Hays
it's also a question of who is administering the reform--if I don't let my five-year old son drive the car, and then I flip my keys to my father, it doesn't make me a hypocrite.
In all fairness, IP, don't you think you're trying a little too hard to advance your partisan argument. Democrats, before the election, never said there aren't some eventual changes that need to be made to social security. They did say there is no immediate crisis, and the problem in covering payments with receipts in the future can be easily fixed by removing the cap on the social security taxes. They also said there are immediate problems with Medicare that need to be addressed. The AP story conflates social security and Medicare but there is a difference in how they're funded and the trust monies available. And, as a previous commenter noted, the Republican fix for social security, investing part of it in the stock market, would have been worse than the disease.
"Imagine what Social Security would look like now if it HAD been privatized three years ago. Now that is scary!"
This tired line deserves the same tired debunking. Allowing younger tax payers to choose putting some of their SS taxes into long term investments (other than loans to the federal government that have to be paid back through their other income taxes) is hardly on par with 'privatizing social security.'
Second, and most importantly, since older taxpayers obviously couldn't use such an option for long term investments other than short term gains/losses in recession cycles they were exempt from the option and their situation was unchanged under the proposed reforms.
ie... the reforms wouldn't have made anything scary in this current recession, nor made much difference at all other than some younger taxpayers would have part of their SS taxes buying low right now for larger gains in the long run instead of getting the usual and full double whammy of paying SS taxes and then income taxes to pay off the interest for the gov't loaning itself the revenue from the SS taxes.
"And, as a previous commenter noted, the Republican fix for social security, investing part of it in the stock market, would have been worse than the disease."
Only if the Republican fix was the same as the Democratic rhetoric on what the fix was, which as noted above wasn't the grandma killing/CEO enriching boogey man they made it out to be. There were problems with the Bush proposal that made it unworkable, imo, but the malicious intent was a construction entirely in the heads of his political opponents. Not that the GOP is immune to similar tactics by any means.
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Glock21 Op/Ed
It's time to face the hard fact there is neither a Democratic or Republican fix to those components of SS and Medicare which are going negative. Politicians have either a 2 or 6 year memory, except the President who has a 4 year memory. It all about getting re-elected folks. On rare ocasions they think in multiples of those numbers they have caught a little conscious or need a raise. Todate, fixing those components of SS and Medicare which are bleeding tax dollars will cost both parties too much at the polls. So they have put up Political Election Promises with no iplemented plan. Us voters are still waiting, putting up with lots of noise from both parties but no actions.
They're going to turn SS into welfare by removing the Cap on the Income that is taxed by SS. People in with minimum incomes won't pay SS taxes.
IP has decided the Obama administration is a failure only two week before he talks office. None of this would have happened if Judy Myers was in the state senate.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016473.php