Big Dan's Big News Nov 12, 2010

YOU don't like or want money. YOU want to work longer. That's what these well off people and their callers are saying about YOU. YOU don't want your social security but, but YOU want to instead continue spending $2.5 BILLION a week on the Iraq & Afghanistan wars. Did you know that's what YOU want???

Special Commentary by Big Dan: Further proof that radio call in shows are staged to an extent: Who are these people who call into radio talk shows and say they want their social security cut? I don't know one single person who wants their social security cut, yet that's all I hear on radio talk shows. People calling in and saying, "I don't like money, raise the social security age. I don't want or like money." Do you honestly believe these people? That they're for real? Or do you think talk radio, like the mainstream media, is a staged production not to be trusted? How many people do you personally know, who say to you, "I'm 65, but I don't want my social security."? How many? NONE!!! But yet, nearly 100% of people calling into radio talk shows (actors? paid shills? rich people who don't need social security?) call in and say, "I HATE MONEY! I DON'T WANT MONEY! PLEASE STOP MY SOCIAL SECURITY!" Or how about this one: "Social security it a PONZI scheme!" So???????? You don't like money and want to work longer because social security is a PONZI scheme? wtf? Do you really believe this? Or do you think that any media owned by corporations - the mainstream media, radio talk shows, newspapers - is not to be trusted and speaks for a small percentage of the wealthiest elites, military war profiteers, and corporations including the corporation that owns that media? What do you believe? Compare actual real people you know, especially people you know in their 60's. Are they saying to you, "I'm 65, but you know what? I hate money. I don't want money. I want to work longer."? Are they saying this to you? Believe what your eyes and ears tell you about people you really see and know, and not what the media says. You have to be insane to believe what you hear on talk radio. You're an idiot if you believe it and there's no hope for you. It may be too late, but one day you will wake up and realize the mainstream media isn't liberal. In the meantime, I'm waiting for you to show me a real 65 year old person who doesn't want their social security. This will be easy for you, as there's so many on the radio (that you can't see for real). Next up in the media: "THE TEA PARTY DOESN'T WANT THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY". The reality is: "THE TEA PARTY" is John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, the Republicans, and those people in the picture above.

Big Dan's TV challenge: I want to see a 65 year old guy who can be identified go on TV and say: "I AM (name) AND I AM 65 YEARS OLD AND I DON'T WANT MY SOCIAL SECURITY!!!" I also want to see on TV, the identifiable unemployed guy who doesn't want unemployment, the identifiable guy without health care who doesn't want health care, the identifiable young student who doesn't want college aid, etc....(but they're all UN-identifiable anonymous callers on the Rush Limbaugh & rightwing radio shows!!!)

But that will never happen, because these people don't exist. They only exist as unidentified people on call in talk shows (actors? paid shills?) or by word of mouth by the people in the picture above. Just like the Canadians who come to the U.S. and pay cash (somehow) for health care. And they happen to have the same "views" as millionaires and billionaires like Rush Limbaugh. Isn't that peculiar that all these "callers" have the same views as these rich radio hosts, but you've never seen one you know in person??? If your 65 year old next door neighbor Joe was running around going, "I DON'T WANT MY SOCIAL SECURITY", you'd call the LOONEY BIN on him! They don't exist. Because it's really wealthy elitist people like Rush Limbaugh saying it. Caller: "Hi, Rush! I'm a 65 years old and I don't want my social security! I want to work longer, and I agree with everything you say!"

FOX "news" (and WILK FOX "news" Jr) calls for the repeal of Social Security.

REPORT: 104 Republicans In Congress Want To Privatize Social Security

Rumsfeld advocates cutting social security, but not defense spending.

Three Good Ideas And Three Not So Good Ideas From The Chairmen Of The Debt Commission

Obama Deficit Commission Criticized for Proposals to Slash Social Security, Medicare



Sanders Calls For Progressive Meeting, Alternative To Fiscal Commission

This is Exactly How They Are Going to Cut Social Security

BDBB Social Security post from Sept 4th

Guy on government medicare covered jazzy..."get government out of my medicare!!!".

Mainstream media pushing cutting social security, health care, & education...but not WAR SPENDING!!!

Myth: Social Security is going broke.

Reality: There is no Social Security crisis. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.3 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a 'T'). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever.1 After 2037, it'll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits--and again, that's without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers retirement decades ago.2 Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.

Myth: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.

Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than did 70 years ago.3 What's more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly--since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half.4 But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

Myth: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security.

Reality: Social Security doesn't need to be fixed. But if we want to strengthen it, here's a better way: Make the rich pay their fair share. If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come.5 Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income.6 But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.

Myth: The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided and is full of IOUs

Reality: Not even close to true. The Social Security Trust Fund isn't full of IOUs, it's full of U.S. Treasury Bonds. And those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.7 The reason Social Security holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has never missed a single interest payment on its debts. President Bush wanted to put Social Security funds in the stock market--which would have been disastrous--but luckily, he failed. So the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget, are as safe as can be.

Myth: Social Security adds to the deficit

Reality: It's not just wrong -- it's impossible! By law, Social Security funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security can't add one penny to the deficit.1

Sources:

1."To Deficit Hawks: We the People Know Best on Social Security" New Deal 2.0, June 14, 2010
http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/06/14/to-defict-hawks-we-the-people-know-best-on-social-security-12290/

2. "The Straight Facts on Social Security" Economic Opportunity Institute, September 2009
http://www.eoionline.org/retirement_security/fact_sheets/StraightFactsSocialSecurity-Sep09.pdf

3. "Social Security and the Age of Retirement"Center for Economic and Policy Research, June 2010
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/social-security-and-the-age-of-retirement/

4. "More on raising the retirement age" Ezra Klein, Washington Post, July 8, 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/more_on_raising_the_retirement.html

5. "Social Security is sustainable" Economic and Policy Institute, May 27, 2010
http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/social_security_is_sustainable/

6. "Maximum wage contribution and the amount for a credit in 2010." Social Security Administration, April 23, 2010
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/240

7. "Trust Fund FAQs" Social Security Administration, February 18, 2010
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html

8. "To Deficit Hawks: We the People Know Best on Social Security" New Deal 2.0, June 14, 2010
http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/06/14/to-defict-hawks-we-the-people-know-best-on-social-security-12290/

Rachel Maddow: the U.S. spends more on "defense" than EVERY OTHER SINGLE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD COMBINED!!! (we can afford that.......but they want to cut your social security)



George Carlin: they're coming for your Social Security



Bush wanted to "privatize" social security before the financial crisis, we'd be FUCKED if he got his way:



Alan Simpson (R): Social Security For Lazy Leeches




Cuts To Social Security & Medicare Coming?



With all this anti-social security shilling in the mainstream media, it's time to post this again for all you fucking idiots who think the mainstream media is "liberal""



The Fight to Save Social Security Begins



Pennsylvania activists (including the Tea Party) in Pennsylvania spied on by Israeli company ITRR; compared to "Al Qaeda":

Marty Williams, right, and his son, Jonah, of Harrisburg attend a tea party rally on the steps of the Capitol in October 2010.

Pennsylvania Homeland Security office engaged in domestic surveillance, compared political groups to Al Qaeda

When Political Activism Gets Treated as Potential Terrorism

The Privatization of Citizen Informant Networks

ISRAELI SPIES TARGET PA.

Institute of Terrorism and Response a Mossad Israeli company was Hired by the State of Pennsylvania to Spy on Pennsylvanians.

GORDON DUFF: TAXPAYERS FUNDING ISRAELI DATABASE OF AMERICAN CITIZENS

The Constitution and National Security: The First Amendment Under Attack


Naomi Wolf on Real and Fake Mass Protests

Big Dan's Big News Sept 4, 2010 - Sometimes I Feel So Uninspired

You know how I keep saying the NOT liberal media just goes from one rightwing talking point to the next? Well, you're watching in real time, as we transition from "The Mosque at Ground Zero" to "social security is in trouble". What was before "The Mosque"? Oh yeah, "unemployed are lazy" (illegal immigrants, death panels, Joe the Plumber, ACORN, Shirley Sherrod, Rev Wright...and on and on and on.....):

Elites from BOTH parties and Obama (just like Bush and just like the next Republican president) are coming after our social security, on behalf of the people really running this country. Take note: it's ALL of them from both parties. THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH SOCIAL SECURITY, THEY ARE ALL LYING TO US. While you ASSHOLES are ranting about the not Mosque not at ground zero like good little media DUPES, they're ALL plotting to steal your social security:

OK, watch out!!! I told you here that both parties always collude together on the big things, like the wars and dismantling social security. Why did Obama appoint this guy to his social security committee??? Keep in mind, this is more Obama wanting to dismantling social security than Alan Simpson, because Obama appointed Alan Simpson. Let's put blame where blame is due: ON OBAMA!!! Stop thinking he's a liberal or a socialist or a Muslim or a Communist...he's a Corporate Fascist!!! Just like Bush was. Just like the next president will be, no matter what party. The proof is in the pudding: why on earth would Obama appoint THIS GUY to examine social security:



He's against Vietnam Vets, too, the only conclusion can be that Obama is "in on it" for appointing him to any committee whatsoever:

Alan Simpson Says Veterans Who Are Agent Orange Victims Are ‘Not Helping Us Save The Country’

Following Simpson’s Comments On Veterans’ Benefits, Veterans Groups Call For Him To Be Fired

Stuff Alan Simpson Says.com

The President's Deficit Commission is designed to be as anti-democratic and un-transparent as possible. Its work is done in total secrecy. Commission co-chair Alan Simpson -- with his blunt contempt for Social Security and and other benefit programs (such as aid to disabled veterans) and his acknowledged eagerness to ...slash them -- has done the country a serious favor. His recent outbursts have
unmasked this Commission and shed light on its true character. Unlike his fellow Commission members, who imperiously dismiss public inquiries into what they're doing as though they're annoying and inappropriate, Simpson -- to his genuine credit -- has been aggressively engaging critics, making it impossible to ignore what the Commission is really up to:

In Defense of Alan Simpson, by Glenn Greenwald

Hands off Social Security

Situation Room Still Scaring on Social Security

Getting the government to pay out benefits from the money it has collected from citizens is like wishing your friend wins the lottery?

If they tell you social security is in trouble, they're LYING LYING LYING:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Time to shut down the commission to shut down social security...brought to you by Barack Obama:

Social Security is "a milk cow with 310 million tits."1 It's for the "lesser people of society."2

That's straight from Alan Simpson, the person President Barack Obama appointed to co-chair his deficit commission charged with cutting the budget. You can also call it the Catfood Commission; it's stacked with so many people who want to cut Social Security3 that senior citizens would be so poor they'd have to eat cat food.

Simpson's statements are vulgar and demeaning. But he shouldn't resign. The whole Catfood Commission should shut down completely. It's the only way to save Social Security.

Sign our petition to President Obama: it's time to can the Catfood Commission.

Click here: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/CanTheCatfoodCommission

Alan Simpson says in public what the Catfood Commission discusses behind closed doors: they want huge cuts to Social Security, the elderly be damned. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Catfood Commission is considering at least four types of benefit cuts to Social Security.4

We at Firedoglake first reported about the plan to cut social security in early 2009.5 We've been hounding the Catfood Commission since its creation. It's a huge threat to our country, and it's more dangerous now than ever.

We did the research and found that 14 of the 18 members appointed by President Obama to the Catfood Commission have advocated cutting Social Security in the past.6 It's a stacked deck. A scam. Alan Simpson just put it out in the open.

Social Security is on the chopping block. We need to save it from the Catfood Commission.

Tell President Obama the gig is up: the Catfood Commission's gotta go. Click here to sign the petition:

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/CanTheCatfoodCommission

Simpson's childish outbursts, his clear contempt for those he patronizes as "the lesser people" he says he is trying to protect, and his ignorance about the program he is tasked with "fixing" are but symptoms of a greater problem.

The Catfood commission is not legitimate. It was stacked with people who knew their job was to fulfill corporations' dreams of rolling back the New Deal and waging war on the social safety net.7 It is a committee of oligarchs designed to circumvent electoral repercussions for those who oppose the will of the vast majority of the American people, both Republicans and Democrats, who don't want to see the federal budget balanced on the backs of the nation's senior citizens.

President Obama, it is not just Alan Simpson who needs to go. It's time to shut down the entire commission. Click here to sign the petition:

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/CanTheCatfoodCommission

Thanks for your support.

Jane Hamsher
Firedoglake.com

Government Policy Caused America's Unemployment Crisis

Government Economic Leaders Surprised that Real World Isn't Responding to their Magic Pixie Dust

George Carlin: they're coming for your social security...and they're gonna get it:



Here's some blasts from the recent past that I've posted on the bi-partisan drumbeat to steal our social security:

Here's where I told you BOTH parties and Obama are going after OUR social security.

In setting up his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Barack Obama is again playing coy in public, but his intentions are widely understood among Washington insiders. The president intends to offer Social Security as a sacrificial lamb to entice conservative deficit hawks into a grand bipartisan compromise in which Democrats agree to cut Social Security benefits for future retirees while Republicans accede to significant tax increases to reduce government red ink.

Whacking the Old Folks

The attacks on Social Security have steadily intensified in the past few months. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer recently called for a higher retirement age, and House Minority Leader John Boehner suggested raising the retirement age to seventy. Meanwhile, President Obama’s bipartisan eighteen-member commission dealing with the nation’s public debt is due to come out with a report in November that is expected to recommend cuts to Social Security. We speak with Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Social Security Under Attack: Cuts Proposed, Higher Retirement Age Suggested

Greens protest Obama Administration proposals that would dismantle Social Security, public housing

Why the GOP Plots to Steal Social Security



GOP attacks unemployed and social security:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

They're coming after our social security - TARP Champion: Cut Social Security





Take the "For Sale" sign off the Capitol lawn!

As long as politicians are accountable to the corporations and lobbyists who finance their campaigns, they are never going to be accountable to the people who elect them. It's time to take the "For Sale" sign off the Capitol Lawn. Pass Fair Elections NOW! Sign the petition at http://fairelectionsnow.org/



George Carlin: The American Dream





Sometimes I Feel So Uninspired

I just got back from vacation at the Delaware beaches, and I've been skipping some posts. Because I feel uninspired since I got back. They say vacations clear your mind. I needed some inspiration to get back into it. But this social security thing has got my dander up.



Cave In - Inspire