Sunday, March 8, 2009

The "Entitlement Reform" Trap

Congressional repugs may have gone down in flames over the economic stimulus bill, but that doesn't mean their agenda is dead.

The wingnut zombie currently stalking the capital is - you better sit down - gutting Social Security.

Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The pitch sounds preposterous to millions of ordinary working people anxious about their economic security and worried about their retirement years. But an impressive armada is lined up to push the idea--Washington's leading think tanks, the prestige media, tax-exempt foundations, skillful propagandists posing as economic experts and a self-righteous billionaire spending his fortune to save the nation from the elderly.

These players are promoting a tricky way to whack Social Security benefits, but to do it behind closed doors so the public cannot see what's happening or figure out which politicians to blame. The essential transaction would amount to misappropriating the trillions in Social Security taxes that workers have paid to finance their retirement benefits. This swindle is portrayed as "fiscal reform." In fact, it's the political equivalent of bait-and-switch fraud.

President Obama got an early lesson in the futility of one-sided bipartisanship, but his instinct for "centrist" compromise remains a clear and present danger to liberal policies.

But Obama is also playing footsie with the conservative advocates of "entitlement reform" (their euphemism for cutting benefits). The president wants the corporate establishment's support on many other important matters, and he recently promised to hold a "fiscal responsibility summit" to examine the long-term costs of entitlements. That forum could set the trap for a "bipartisan compromise" that may become difficult for Obama to resist, given the burgeoning deficit. If he resists, he will be denounced as an old-fashioned free-spending liberal. The advocates are urging both parties to hold hands and take the leap together, authorizing big benefits cuts in a circuitous way that allows them to dodge the public's blame. In my new book, Come Home, America, I make the point: "When official America talks of 'bipartisan compromise,' it usually means the people are about to get screwed."

It's not fair that having achieved the greatest liberal electoral victory in 76 years, we don't get half a minute to rest on our laurels, but must immediately don again our bloody, battered armour and wade back into the battle.

The Social Security fight could become a defining test for "new politics" in the Obama era. Will Americans at large step up and make themselves heard, not to attack Obama but to protect his presidency from the political forces aligned with Wall Street interests? This fight can be won if people everywhere raise a mighty din--hands off our Social Security money!--and do it now, before the deal gains momentum. Popular outrage can overwhelm the insiders and put members of Congress on notice: a vote to gut Social Security will kill your career. By organizing and agitating, people blocked Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security. Imagine if he had succeeded--their retirement money would have disappeared in the collapsing stock market.

It's hard to remember now, but after the 2004 election Social Security privatization was a lock. The Chimpinator was riding high and congressional dems were reeling. No national leader stood up to rally people against bush's plan. It was us, we the people, who saw in our own families how Social Security had saved the nation, who struggled with the payroll tax increase Reagan imposed, who cared more about our grandparents and our grandchildren than about our own pocketbooks, we the people said No More.

No victory in a democracy is ever complete. Whether you are 65 or 45 or 15, you will be defending our Liberal Democracy against the forces of the New Feudalism for the rest of your life.

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

3 comments:

Jack Jodell said...

It honestly looks like the repugs are deliberately trying to commit suicide. There is no other rational explanation for the stances they are taking now. NOBODY could truly be THAT out to lunch!

Anonymous said...

Jack, there are some wrong words in your comment: first of all, we are not looking at a RATIONAL explanation, and secondly, yes, somebody COULD be truly that out to lunch. I mean, what other explanation for yet another attempt at gutting SocSec, after the way Bush got his ass handed to him last time? And now they want a liberal Democrat to do the job that a radical conservative couldn't manage to get done 4 or 5 years ago?

Which brings me to agree with your first sentence quite heartily. It does indeed look like the repugs are deliberately trying to commit suicide. It's simply my contention that THEY don't see it that way.

These are incredibly stupid people. So stupid that they are willing to cut themselves off at the knees, as long as they APPEAR to be following repug dogma. See, they don't care if they fail, as long as they believe they tried all the right stuff.

Stupid. Just incredibly, unfathomably stupid. IMHO, anyway.

BimBeau said...

It is more important to Republican thought to be Republican-pure than successfully elected to office. Of course lying about issues makes them "pure", for no Republican may ever be found being truthfull on any issue arising from the "New Deal."

The trail of lies will be longer, wider & thicker as the O'Bama Administration ages. The attraction of these lies to the pure of spirit and faithful of the party will increase daily, and so will their use. As their applicability deceases their use will increase.

Be prepared.