Social Security News 7-5-12

 *SSSC/SSW mention

Los Angeles Times (NAT)

The young don't buy into propaganda of war between generations*

07-04-12

Michael Hiltzik

There's good news from the front in one of our internecine economic and political battles: the war between the generations.The news is that the younger generation is beginning to see through the propaganda.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120704,0,1556561.column

 

New York Times (NAT)

In Washington’s New Mood of Austerity, Legislating Turns Into a Zero-Sum Game

07-04-12

Jonathan Weisman

Two presidents — one Democrat, one Republican — tried unsuccessfully for more than a decade to cut back or eliminate a fund for closing abandoned coal mines that had become a piggy bank for Western states.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/us/politics/washingtons-new-austerity-spreads-around-the-pain.html?_r=1&ref=us

 

CNN (NAT)

Why Medicaid expansion is a key part of health reform

07-05-12

Aaron Carroll

The big summer showdown has come and gone. The Supreme Court decided the Affordable Care Act could stand, and so it remains, for the most part, undisturbed. The next hurdle will occur in November, when the country goes to the polls.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/opinion/carroll-medicaid-expansion/index.html?iref=allsearch

 

Business Insider (NAT)

Ben Bernanke Is Bankrupting The Social Security Trust Fund

07-04-12

Bruce Krasting

In June of each year the Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF) reinvests a significant portion of its investment portfolio in newly issued Special Issue Treasury Securities. The interest rates on these bonds is set by a formula that was established in 1960. The formula was designed to insulate the SSTF from transitory changes in interest rates by averaging market based bond yields over a three-year period. 

http://brucekrasting.blogspot.com/2012/07/bernanke-my-goal-is-to-destroy-social.html#ixzz1zktqcLzh

 

Baltimore Sun (MD)

Supreme Court Obamacare decision: good news for the kids

07-04-12

Susan Reimer

Nothing will trigger a conservative conversion experience in your children faster than a look at their first paychecks. When they see how much has been deducted for federal, state and local taxes, they suddenly realize they are against big government, the nanny state and, while they are at it, the filling of potholes.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bs-ed-reimer-healthcare-20120704,0,1830472.column

Miami Herald (FL)

The Truth-O-Meter checks Connie Mack's Penny Plan

07-05-12

Amy Sherman

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV faced accusations of using public money for campaigning when he sent an office mailer about his "Penny Plan" beyond his southwest Florida congressional district in May. Mack, R-Fort Myers, is running statewide for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/07/the-truth-o-meter-checks-connie-macks-penny-plan.html#storylink=cpy

 

Daily Press (MI)

Can I get sick now?

07-05-12

Andy Heller

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act (critics call it "Obamacare," which is incorrect since the law is 100 years and a thousand authors in the making, one of them being Mitt Romney himself), the comedian Paula Poundstone wrote on Twitter, "Can I get sick now?" That sums it up perfectly for me.

http://www.dailypress.net/page/content.detail/id/537184/Can-I-get-sick-now-.html?nav=5097

 

Asheville Citizen Times (NC)

Column: Senior citizens have earned a right to have a say

07-04-12

Doug Dickerson

When it comes to the future of Social Security and Medicare, elected leaders are usually talking to each other — not to people who depend on these benefits to survive every month.

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120705/OPINION03/307050004/Column-Senior-citizens-earned-right-say?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFrontpage%7Cs

 

The Hudson Star-Observer (WI)

AARP holds forum on Social Security and Medicare

07-05-12

Randy Hanson

The American Association of Retired Persons presented information and gathered opinions on proposals for reforming Social Security and Medicare in a forum at The Valley House north of Hudson on Wednesday, June 27.

http://www.hudsonstarobserver.com/event/article/id/47907/

 

Detriot Free Press (MI)

70's a good number to retire at, study says

07-05-12

Susan Tompor

Many baby boomers head to work each day and wonder "So what's the number?"

How many more years do they need to keep working? It turns out that if many of us could just keep working until age 70, we could be OK in retirement, according to a new study.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120705/COL07/207050469/Susan-Tompor-70-s-a-good-number-to-retire-at-study-says?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

 

M-Live (MI)

This pledge keeps lawmakers from serving their country

07-05-12

Ed Conant

An unelected political operative named Grover Norquist exerts an enormous influence on the Republican Party. The president of Americans for Tax Reform, he has convinced 95 percent of Republican legislators to sign an open-ended pledge not to raise taxes. If a Republican wavers on following the pledge, Norquist and his allies put forth the possibility of a primary election challenge from a Republican farther to the right.

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/jackson/index.ssf/2012/07/column_this_pledge_keeps_lawma.html

 

WCTV (GA)

What Is The True Cost Of Illegal Immigration?

07-04-12

Greg Gullberg

"Two-thirds of all undocumented workers pay into Medicare, Social Security and they pay income tax," said Tom Hochschild, VSU Sociology Professor.

http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/What_Is_The_True_Cost_Of_Illegal_Immigration_161355085.html

 

Politics

 

Los Angeles Times (NAT)

Obama, Romney so far are long on goals, short on specifics

05-07-12

Mark Z. Barabak

Mitt Romney is famously data-driven, a relentless distiller of facts and consumer of cleareyed, unsentimental analyses. The approach built Romney a fortune in business and is helping guide his quest for the White House.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-campaign-2012-candidates-vague-20120705,0,4568755.story

 

Washington Post (NAT)

Mitt Romney now says the individual mandate is a tax. Who cares?

07-05-12

Ezra Klein

Confession time: I don’t care whether Mitt Romney thinks the individual mandate is a tax or a penalty. And you shouldn’t, either.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/05/mitt-romney-now-says-the-individual-mandate-is-a-tax-who-cares/

The Hill (DC)

Obama launches bus tour in key swing states Ohio and Pa.

07-05-12

Mike Lillis

President Obama launches a bus tour Thursday through two battleground states crucial to his reelection bid. Obama’s focus during the trip through Ohio and Pennsylvania is the economy, and it begins a day before a critical monthly report on jobs — an event the White House is awaiting with some anxiety after May's figures fell far short of analysts' predictions.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/236229-obama-launches-bus-tour-in-key-swings-states-ohio-and-pa

 

Kaiser Health News (NAT)

Medicaid Expansion Already An Issue In Some Gubernatorial Races

07-05-12

Phil Galewitz

Hours after the Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama’s health law but made its Medicaid expansion optional, Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Randles said the state would be foolish to expand the health insurance program for the poor — even it means passing up hundreds of millions of federal dollars.

http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/07/medicaid-expansion-already-an-issue-in-some-gubernatorial-races/

 

Wall Street Journal (NAT)

Romney’s Tax Confusion

07-05-12

Editorial

This latest mistake is of a piece with the campaign's insular staff and strategy that are slowly squandering an historic opportunity. Mr. Obama is being hurt by an economic recovery that is weakening for the third time in three years. But Mr. Romney hasn't been able to take advantage, and if anything he is losing ground.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304141204577506652734793044.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

 

The Guardian (UK)

Why Americans should work less – the way Germans do

07-03-12

Dean Baker

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman and Richard Layard, a distinguished British economist, took the lead last week in drafting a sign-on "Manifesto for Economic Common Sense", condemning the turn toward austerity in many countries. This manifesto seems destined to garner tens or even hundreds of thousands of signatures, including mine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/03/why-americans-should-work-less-way-germans-do

 

Washington Post (NAT)

Why the Higgs boson wasn’t discovered in America

07-05-12

Brad Plumer

It was a triumphant moment for science: On Wednesday in Geneva, a team of researchers at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, announced that they had found the elusive Higgs boson — or at least something that looks an awful lot like it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/05/why-the-higgs-boson-wasnt-discovered-in-america/

 

New York Times (NAT)

Olympian Arrogance

07-04-12

Jules Boykoff and Alan Tomlinson

While Europe roils in economic turmoil, London is preparing for a lavish jamboree of international good will: in a few weeks, the city will host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

But behind the spectacle of athletic prowess and global harmony, brass-knuckle politics and brute economics reign. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/no-medal-for-the-international-olympic-committee.html?ref=opinion