Social Security News 5-23-12

Politico (DC)

Alan Simpson flips out at Calif. seniors

05-23-12

Patrick Gavin

What a wretched group of seniors you must be to use the faces of the very people that we are trying to save, while the “greedy geezers” like you use them as a tool and a front for your nefarious bunch of crap. You must feel some sense of shame for shoveling out this….

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76673.html

 

CNBC (NAT)

Will Congress Forge Budget Deal, Avoid 'Fiscal Cliff'

05-22-12

Bruno J. Navarro

“I would want to put Bowles-Simpson in place immediately,” Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said Tuesday, adding that it would cut spending, simplify the tax code and fix Medicare and Social Security. “If I couldn’t be re-elected because Bowles-Simpson made some people mad, I could live with that.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47528062

MSNBC (Blog)

Outside-the-beltway extremism

05-22-12

Steve Benen

The radicalism of Republican lawmakers in Washington tends to help explain the breakdown in American governance at the federal level. But to find breathtaking extremism, you'll have to look outside the Beltway…It demands a phase-out of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and immediate provisions to make Social Security voluntary

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11815638-outside-the-beltway-extremism?lite

 

Time (NAT)

The Complete Romney Interview Transcript

05-23-12

Mark Halperin

Romney: Well, I don’t think we know all the things that the President is planning on spending on.  He told President Medvedev that he has a little bit more flexibility on missile defense after the election.  That’s very different than what I have.  I’ve laid out something he hasn’t done.  I’ve laid out, for instance, what I’ll do to preserve Medicare and Social Security.  These are two enormous programs...

Halperin: But I just want to focus on you...

Romney: Let’s talk about Medicare and Social Security.  That’s focusing on me...

http://thepage.time.com/2012/05/23/the-complete-romney-interview-transcript/

 

Time (NAT)

Social Security Benefits Taken Early at a 35-Year Low

05-23-12

Dan Kadlec

Retirement-minded Americans are getting the message: it pays to delay triggering Social Security benefits. That was one of the chief findings of a GAO study last year, and now the “take-up” rate for those who are eligible stands at a 35-year low. This is great news.

http://moneyland.time.com/2012/05/23/retirees-taking-early-social-security-benefits-hits-35-year-low/?iid=pf-main-lede

 

Bloomberg (NAT)

History Shows U.S. Can Stimulate Now, Cut Later

05-22-12

Peter Orszag

From 2017 to 2022, Social Security’s normal retirement age is scheduled to gradually increase to 67. And I’ll bet that not only happens as planned, but does so with little fanfare -- which is pretty much what happened several years ago when the age rose from 65 to 66.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-22/history-shows-u-s-can-stimulate-now-cut-later.html

 

LA Times (CA)

America's fiscal future: A presidential debate worth having

05-23-12

David M. Walker

That's not to say that both men haven't advanced some good ideas. Romney, for example, is pushing to limit federal spending, and he's showing political backbone in putting Social Security and Medicare reforms on the table.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-walker-obama-romney-fiscal-reform-20120523,0,1078158.story

 

Politico (NAT)

Goolsbee defensive on Obama deficits

05-20-12

James Hohmann

Goolsbee quibbled with Fox host Chris Wallace’s statement that Obama did not embrace the bipartisan Bowles-Simpson commission’s recommendations, saying that the president did not accept the whole plan but “embraced the central idea” of three dollars in spending cuts for every one new dollar of revenue.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2012/05/goolsbee-defensive-over-obama-deficits-123989.html

 

CBS (NAT)

Coburn: U.S. "going to get another downgrade"

05-23-12

Robert Hendin

But, he said no fix can happen without significant changes to the entitlement programs, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, that are the programs many attribute as the cause of the nation's bleak long term fiscal outlook.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57439931/coburn-u.s--going-to-get-another-downgrade/

 

News Observer (NC)

Nuclear meeting opens in Charlotte with debt worries

05-23-12

Bruce Henderson

The nearly 600 executives who convened Tuesday for the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual conference came to Charlotte with work finally under way on the first new reactors in the U.S. in three decades.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/22/2083162/nuclear-meeting-opens-in-charlotte.html

 

Martinsville Bulletin (VA)

Kaine discusses Social Security, Medicare issues with area seniors

05-23-12

Eric Stienkopff

Likely U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Tim Kaine told seniors and retirees in Martinsville on Tuesday that he is against privatizing Social Security.Privatization would change Social Security from a shared safety net to an investment portfolio for each person, he said.

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?ID=33297

Politics

USA Today (NAT)

Autoworkers pushed to limit as many plants max out

05-23-12

Chris Woodyard

Automakers are pushing factories and workers to the limit to try to meet burgeoning demand for new vehicles.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/05/auto-plants-ford-gm-chrysler/1

 

Bloomberg (NAT)

Obama Prospects Improve as Swing State Economies Improve -

05-23-12

Mike Dorning

Stay up to date on the latest business news, stock market data and financial trends. Get personal finance advice from leading experts.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-05-23/obama-prospects-improve-as-swing-state-economies-improve.html

 

Economic Policy Institute

Don’t let Congress fast-track another tax cut

05-22-12

Andrew Fieldhouse

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) high-profile speech at last week’s 2012 Fiscal Summit garnered much attention for its pledge to again hijack the debt ceiling; less noticed was his announcement that the House of Representatives will establish a fast-track process for expediting “tax reform.” Comprehensive tax reform could add much needed revenue and balance to a long-term deficit “grand bargain,” but that’s not what Boehner is talking about:

http://www.epi.org/blog/congress-fast-track-tax-cut/

 

Politico (DC)

GOP discovers that Mitt Romney could win

05-23-12

Jonathan Martin

Top Republicans, long privately skeptical about their presidential prospects, are coming around to a surprising new view — that Mitt Romney may well win the White House this November. Margin-of-error polling, fundraising parity last month, conservative consolidation around Romney and a still-sluggish economy has senior GOP officials increasingly...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76653.html

 

NPR (NAT)

Wall Street Titans, Behaving Badly

05-23-12

Avie Schneider

The reputations of JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have all been taken down a notch or two in recent days and months. If you're keeping up, the latest black eye came in the wake of last week's flubbed Facebook IPO.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/05/23/153369584/wall-street-titans-behaving-badly

 

The Washington Post (NAT)

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett satisfied Obama was born in United States

05-23-12

Rachel Weiner

President Obama will be on the ballot in Arizona afterall.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/arizona-secretary-of-state-ken-bennett-satisfied-obama-was-born-in-united-states/2012/05/23/gJQAN1czkU_blog.html?hpid=z4

 

Yahoo! News (NAT)

Hawaii verifies Obama birth records to Arizona 

05-23-12

Joel Robert

From the blog The Ticket: A nearly three-month-long tussle between two states over President Obama's birth records may be at an end. The state of Hawaii said late Tuesday it has provided verification of the president's birth to Arizona's secretary of state, who claimed he needed proof of Obama's citizenship before he could place his name on the state's November [...]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/hawaii-verifies-obama-birth-records-arizona-082322680.html

 

Reuters (NAT)

Obama defends foreign policy from Republican criticism|

05-23-12

Laura MacInnis

President Barack Obama on Wednesday staunchly defended his foreign policy record against Republican election-year criticism that he has overseen a decline in American

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/23/us-usa-campaign-obama-idUSBRE84M17L20120523

 

Reuters (NAT)

Guessing game begins over next Treasury chief

05-23-12

Glenn Somerville

Wanted for the Treasury Department: a new boss who can fix trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits, overhaul the tax system and spur a reluctant Europe into fixing its debt crisis.It's

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/23/us-usa-treasury-succession-idUSBRE84M07R201205