Open Letter To Alan Simpson & Erskine Bowles Chairmen Of The U.S. Deficit Commission - Regarding Proposed Changes To Social Security
Flashback:
Dear Esteemed Chairmen:
No huge surprise here. What's unfortunate for you is that for years, even decades - going back to Ross Perot - the American people have been prepared for and willing to accept changes (means testing the wealthy) to Social Security. You, the politicians never gained the courage to ask, but I think for the most part the general public has been ready. And since I've been screaming about these issues my entire adult life, and have always pushed the concept of shared sacrifice as a means to budget sanity and limited government, I'm not comfortable with what I'm about to write, but it's inescapable after watching and recording a 32-month orgy of fiscal mayhem dominated by trillion-dollar bailouts, trillions in wasted stimulus, and trillions gifted to the military-industrial killing machine.
Fast forward from the Perot deficit awakening 20 years ago, and finally, you, the generationally-irresponsible political class seem to be facing up to the unfunded entitlement budget nightmare of your own creation - or at least you're in the discussion phase of 'facing it' - and what is the societal backdrop? Seething anger over the recession, the wars, multiple failed stimulus, dollar destruction, QE, and the government bailouts of favored industries.
So against this backdrop, your Commission now recommends cuts to Social Security and a hike in the retirement age to help us on our merry way to a fiscally sane future.
Here's my recommendation for you.
The American people are willing to sacrifice as part of a shared effort at righting our budgetary path, but they are not prepared to be sacrificial lambs led to the 'benefits and promises slaughterhouse' while the Wall Street Banker Pigs gorge on trillions in stealth FED and FDIC bailouts, ZIRP giveaways and a record $144 billion in bonuses - an amount equivalent to the 49th largest GDP in the world - $144 billion in bonuses being paid by criminally insolvent banks that are only still operating due to a Wall Street financed K-Street lobbying tsunami that forced FASB to change the accounting rules that now allow these same insolvent institutions of usury and arrogance to apply Faustian valuations to complete shit assets all over their lying, godforsaken, Enron resembling, off-balanced, imbalanced, bs-balanced, sheets.
Banks exist in the lala land of leveraged deferred tax assets representing most of tier-1 capital at Citigroup, of hundreds of billions of helocs at Wells Fargo worth pennies, but marked at dollars, of hundreds of billions of fraudulent MBS pumped out by Countrywide, whose liability now sits with Bank of America. This is a mere glimpse of the great banking lie that provides cover for the $144 billion insolvent bonus river that bathes the Street, all supported and paid for by taxpayers, Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Therefore, ultimately, taxpayers.
In this environment, selling 'cuts to social security' is not going to work, and considering the role you both played in creating the irresponsible federal spending machine that now controls Washington and has bankrupted future unborn generations, fuck you for even bringing it up.
Signed,
The Daily Bail
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Jul 1, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Reader Comments (60)
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/10/deficit-commission-recommends-changes-social-security/
Why the should someone like me who his struggling on 75% less income because I am now on SSD and trying to get by on 850$ a month when you rich sobs spend 800 a day? I worked my butt off for rich folks and when I got sick i lost everything while I had to live on the street sick and dying.
Why can't you live on less?
My partner has been outsourced repeatedly so you rich snobs can outsource our jobs. Now we get by on 25g when we made between us 113,000 10 yrs ago. Our savings are gone my health is gone I wish the hell you were gone too.
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Hear, hear! First the war machine, then the bailout machine. It's the least we can do before we can start throwing old people into the street. ;-)
Some days ago I watched part of an interview of three retired senators who had made a study of the government's current critical finances and made some recommendations to return to sanity. One of the key suggestions was to cut the defense budget which is currently over 700 billions by 50 percent. They had identified specific items that are absolutely unnecessary for "the defense of our country" Why would we need nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers, supersonic planes, to defend ourselves against terrorists who attempt to smuggle explosives onto aircraft by concealing them in people's underwear or in toner cartridges? How would a nuclear bomb accomolish this? Also 80 billions dollars a year for "intelligence" that cannot locate a person named Osama bin Laden in 9 years certainly can be reduced by more than 50 percent.
No one has been able to dominate the loose assortment of tribes known now as Afghanistan. working backwards, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, all the way back to Genghis Khan, We should pull out next year save the lives of our young volunteers, and all that money which is being wasted. What would still be a good investment is to destroy the crops supplying opium production.
Funny how they didn't see a problem when the contributions for SS gave them a $2.4 TRILLION slush fund. But now that they are facing the prospect of paying back the money paid in....
And the cases people are making for privatization are bullshit. May as well just sell the entire government to Wall St.
In other news, your Paultard membership will probably get revoked for this:
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1794:reject-the-welfarewarfare-state&catid=31:texas-straight-talk
I like him less with every passing day....
so he has ll this working in his favor...and in that sense i am not angered when ron paul says we need to make cuts...it's not coming from a hypocrite...we both know that medicare has an unfunded liability that is $40 trillion versus only $6 trillion for SS...so paul is right, we are going to have to have cuts in entitlements...the point of my piece is that hearing these other free-spending assholes make the call for SS cuts is hypocritical and pisses me off...
http://dailybail.com/home/bailout-comedy-video-hbo-bill-maher-interviews-texas-congres.html
Also, don't forget, paul will be making you happy on a weekly basis as he torches bernanke next year in the monetary policy sub-committee...that's going to be fun...
He is the absolute epitome of hypocrisy. You need to wake up to that reality, my friend.
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Just tell yourself to write a 150 word sentence, and this kind of venom starts to flow naturally...
Why not just waterboard me, DB?
And no he won't make me happy next year - I've seen him question Bernanke before...In fact, in the last clip you posted, RP rambles aimlessly for 4 and a half minutes straight!!!!! That's what wiped the smile off Benny's face - he was afraid RP was going to bore him to death!!! He's a joke, to both me and Bernanke. He is helping to crash the economy and ruin the country's future every single day and you don't see it.
Call for Elizabeth Coleman's firing?.....Nah
Call for Bernanke to be rejected?.....Nah
Call for Bernanke to be indicted?....Nah
Call for honest debt auctions?....Nah
Call for interest rates determined by a free maret?....Nah
Fuck people out of the money he was entrusted?...Sure, he can do that.
I have far more respect for Sarah Palin at this point.
I'll go watch the Maher thing now.
Another excuse for not doing his fucking job, to me.
With enemies like Ron Paul - the elites don't need friends.
Call for honest debt auctions?....yes, i've heard it
Call for interest rates determined by a free market?....yes...he talks about this regularly...
Who else brings up issues like this to bernanke's face...you'll see what i'm talking about in this link...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul644.html
I know that you're a tough critic, mark..and i respect you for that...but you're talking about the leading anti-Fed, anti-war machine voice in the entire Congress as though he were Judd Gregg or some other corporate tool....Ron Paul might not meet your standards for excellence, but then does anyone, really...?...
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he wasn't happy that bernie sanders watered down his version of hr 1207 that went to the senate...so it was a protest vote in both regards...i don't want to waste time fighting...i'm working on more stories, so we can agree to disagree on this...i'm not saying he's perfect, but he's the best we've got out of 535...
Can't find a link for Ron, but Rand (freedom lite) opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_Paul#Abortion_and_bioethics
So white trash like them have the "freedom" to inbreed....nice
Why do you like them?
Right, McHugh?
Tax the rich?? Fuck No. The Pauls subscribe to this insane notion that the huddled masses are somehow sustained by the rich and would surely perish without them. You know, the people who got rich by outsourcing our jobs? Well somehow if we tax them, we'll lose more jobs or something. Don't ask us to explain it or anything, just trust us....
It's just such a coincidence that the "freedoms" most important to him, always benefit the rich.
I hate Maher too, but He's not in Congress and thankfully, I don't have HBO. Paul's has been part and parcel of the Congresses that have brought America to the brink of collapse, and everyday Ron Paul goes to work and fails to knudge the ball (even a little).
And he's treated like a fucking god because he wrote some books telling people stuff that a casual glance at the constitution would.
Hey - here's a guy who really gets it, and he writes a lot better than RP too. Check it out:
http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html
Let's make him President!!! Oh, wait "he" is Alan Greenspan. Hmmm what do you call somebody who talks a great game, but whose actions are 180 degrees out of phase with those words? Oh yeah, a Paul.
How can Elizabeth Coleman possibly still have her job with Mr "Audit the Fed" around? Answer Mr "Audit the Fed" is bullshit from the word go.
Shame you can't see it.
regarding this post...on erskine and bowles...yves smith ahs picked it up as a guest post on naked capitalism and the response has been good so far...
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/guest-post-open-letter-to-alan-simpson-erskine-bowles-chairmen-of-the-u-s-deficit-commission-regarding-proposed-changes-to-social-security-%C2%BB.html
Perfect on the FASB BONUS. That fact should be a full page add in the NYTimes. That's our money. These fuckers belong in jail. We need a prez with the balls to clawback these gains.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/09/Misleading-the-Public-How-the-Social-Security-Trust-Fund-Really-Works
Kinda like ignoring Bernies whistleblower...
I do appreciate the First Amendmant freedom.
Do the Republicrats get it? Do they understand the people's mandate they presume to represent? First and foremost we REJECT the bailouts. We are NOT going to "just get over it and move on". The time to talk austerity was Sept 2008, and it's the criminals who should have been delivered the austerity of justice, not the innocent receiving the austerity of cronyism.
They have one last chance to get it right, before we get it right for them, and have to show them how the people roll.
http://letthemfail.us/archives/6550
No, you haven't even begun. People are willing to make sacrifices, when the sacrifices are shared; and willing to endure hardship when there is a point. There is no point when the only end in sight is grinding poverty at the mercy of the lords of finance.
The press release is also so short on any specifics that its main point is just to open the "debate" ha, ha, ha on austerity. As in healthcare, all of OUR options are off the table, and our lobbyists will be in jail.
Thanks for being pissed. It is the only appropriate response to this ongoing decades long war on US.
Open Letter To Alan Simpson & Erskine Bowles From The Daily Bail
http://www.dylanratigan.com/open-letter-to-alan-simpson-erskine-bowles-from-the-daily-bail/
1 Make them buy their own lunch like the rest of us.
http://www.aolnews.com/house-money/article/congress-food-tab-604-000-for-bottled-water-152-at-quiznos/19541719
2 Make them buy their own booze, like we do.
http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=6045 This is considerably less than the alledged Pelosi alcohol bill. Makes you wonder about other tabs...
3 Save Social Security by eliminating Congressional retirements and put the critters in Social Security with the rest of us. Remember, this was meant to be a part time job... And they will fix it if it is all they got for a retirement.
4 Stop electing lawyers to Congress, America needs CPA's at this current juncture, we got enough laws.
5 Outlaw lobbyists buying lunch, drinks, etc., require Congressmen and women to pick up the tab out of their own pocket for their "meetings" with lobbyists. That oughta eliminate lobbying...
6 Make them purchase health insurance like we do.
7 Reduce their wages to slightly above minimum wage, don't worry, they will still find ways to get rich. Make any raises they would get come from their bosses ( you and I) in their districts if they deserve it.
8 Eliminate their housing allotments and put them up in the cheapest and seediest hotels in D.C (at weekly rates). so they can see and live in the cradle of the decisions they make for America
I am willing to vote for the first CPA that is willing to pack his own lunch and ride the bus, anyone else have any ideas...
The biggest threat to SS is the governments infinite meddling in the housing market. Fannie and Freddie are the greatest threat to America's future, this is the real "entitlement program". The insane idea that everyone's entitled to pay negative real interest on borrowed money. We're trying to minimize the damage by printing money to keep rates artificially low and I think we'd agree that this will end in disaster for most Americans.
We have to be willing to let housing crash ant let interest rates rise. If we would do that it at least partially solves two big problems:
It will allow savers to earn honest interest rates on their savings (in other words more than real inflation), diminishing dependance on raises to SS.
Providing lower priced homes to young people, rather than trapping them in homes with artificially high prices and artificially low rates, which only benefits the banks.
And third, for all the tweeners - they start learning basic economics, like the relationship between price and interest rates and that nothing (especially houses) goes up for ever and ever and ever.
My problem with so many of the people that are dead-set against the so-called nanny state have no problem stealing from both their kids and their parents to prop up the "value" of their McMansions. When they are willing to face the consequences of what a free-market will do to their imagined net worth, we'll talk. But it is all the knuckleheads who loved the housing bubble and what it did for their self-esteem that we're playing to here.
"Our founding fathers understood a profound principle--Government, with its monopoly on the use of force, is the ultimate danger to free people. It is necessary, but must be tightly reined...TIGHTLY. As another said, in effect: "A democracy's downfall begins when the people (or politicians?) learn they can vote themselves money from the public coffers."
MK, Houston
Continue your valuaable work Congress, and give yourself a raise while you are at it.
If you haven't seen the thoughtful, and interesting interview on the Charlie Rose Show that aired on Monday night, I suggest you spend the extra 50 minutes of your day tomorrow watching this before you spout off any more about what you know nothing about. Now I haven't read the draft report, but based on this interview, I'd be inclined to think that smart people (much smarter than I) are actually making real world proposals that have real solutions attached to their ideas.... I'm just sayin' READ BEFORE YOU REACT
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11294
secondly, did you bother to read any of my caveats at the beginning of the story...you have no idea what a maniacal deficit hawk i am...i would radically cut the federal gov't...this was MEANT to be a knee jerk response...it was about the anger over the bailouts and how that has affected the mood of the populace to accept entitlement cuts...
thirdly...have you read any other of the 2400 articles i've written...about 600 of them related to national debt and deficit issues posted on the site...try using the search box, doofus...
and lastly, stop being an asshole to as your main means of introduction...
Yea, all goverment in Washington gets a 20% pay cut. They now get 50% more than thAre worth. Goverment has already cut us 20% of everything, now its their turn.
and lastly, stop being an asshole to as your main means of introduction...
"WoW", where the hell did he come from, down town Detroit...........?
"WoW", where the hell did he come from, down town Detroit...........?
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nice one texas d...i just get pissed off at fly-by attacks from people who have NO idea of my views...
You mean like Scottish Socialists?