Social Security News 7-9-12

 Bloomberg Businessweek (NAT)

Why Young and Old Americans Have More in Common Than You Think

07-09-12

Chris Farrell

The catchphrase of the public policy moment seems to be intergenerational warfare, a conflict over scarce resources waged between aging boomers and those 35 and younger.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-09/why-young-and-old-americans-have-more-in-common-than-you-think

 

Politico (DC)

Alan West: Social Security disability is ‘slavery’

07-09-12

MJ Lee

Rep. Allen West is accusing President Barack Obama of making Americans increasingly dependent on social programs, blasting Social Security disability insurance as “a form of modern, 21st-century slavery.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78223.html#ixzz208IB7pOj

 

LA Times (NAT)

Letters: Solving the ills of Social Security*

07-07-12

Letters page

Social Security brings generations together. It benefits all and runs itself well enough to have a surplus. There is no danger to this program other than the political forces that want to destroy it. May Alex Lawson and the advocacy group Social Security Works succeed in educating all of us about this pension plan, life insurance policy and disability insurance we pay into.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-0707-saturday-social-security-20120707,0,2190180.story

 

The Huffington Post (NAT)

Fear Itself: Why the Republicans Hate FDR and Why Obama Must Become Him

07-09-12

Sanjay Sanghoee

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, Democrat, and architect of the New Deal, was a giant. Through his visionary leadership and courageous actions, FDR helped define a new era for the American economy and indeed our democracy that would resonate for another 80 years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sanjay-sanghoee/new-deal-fdr_b_1658650.html

 

The New York Times (NAT)

Social Security and the Stork

07-09-12

Nancy Folbre

The proverbial stork, bringer of babies and emblem of fertility, has been driven off course by the socialist welfare state. Now that people can rely on the state for income security in old age, they no longer need children. Social Security is undermining parenthood.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/social-security-and-the-stork/

 

US News (NAT)

Why You Should Plan to Work Until Age 70

07-09-12

Emily Brandon

Only about half of households are on track to maintain their current standard of living upon retirement at age 66. However, if workers are willing to delay retirement until age 70, 86 percent can expect to enjoy a comfortable retirement, according to recent Center for Retirement Research at Boston College calculations.

http://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/2012/07/09/why-you-should-plan-to-work-until-age-70

 

LawyersForSocialSecurity.com (Blog)

Social Security: not the young against the old*

07-09-12

“Generational conflict messaging is incredibly potent right now,” observes Alex Lawson, 32, executive director of the Washington advocacy group Social Security Works. He thinks that it’s time for young activists to push back against this myth.

http://www.lawyersforsocialsecurity.com/blog/social-security-not-the-young-against-old/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-security-not-the-young-against-old

 

Truth Out (Blog)

The Dirt on Erskine Bowles: The Tame Half of Bowles-Simpson

07-09-12

Dean Baker

In recent weeks, Alan Simpson, the foul-mouthed former senator, has apparently been sent to the sidelines. It seems that his inability to restrain his contempt for those who are now or will in the future be dependent on Social Security and Medicare makes him an undesirable spokesperson for the drive to cut back these programs. This means that Erskine Bowles, who was the other co-chair of President Obama's deficit commission, will play a more visible role in pushing the cause.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10219-the-dirt-on-erskine-bowles-the-tame-half-of-bowles-simpson

 

Tampa Bay Times (FL)

Tactics in 1936 presidential race get new life in 2012 one

07-08-12

John Romano

“Democracy is at stake in the forthcoming election.”This is what the politician warned in 1936. He insinuated America was at risk from government intrusion. His supporters screamed about socialism, and a former presidential candidate said the White House was leading the country down the road to communism. Once upon a time, these were the critics of the Social Security Act.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/tactics-in-1936-presidential-race-get-new-life-in-2012-one/1239308

 

Buffalo News (NY)

Social Security confronts a looming financial crisis

07-09-12

Allen W. Smith

Social Security is facing its greatest challenges ever. If the surplus revenue generated by the 1983 payroll tax increase had been saved and invested in U.S. Treasury bonds, as was the intent of the legislation, the Social Security trust fund would now hold $2.7 trillion in "good-as-gold" marketable U.S. Treasury bonds.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/from-our-readers/another-voice/article940479.ece

 

Chicago Tribune (IL)

Illinois seniors hit by state budget cuts

07-09-12

Monique Garcia

Marytherese Ring is scared. The 79-year-old retiree lives on a modest $1,400 a month from Social Security. Much of that, she said, is squirreled away to pay property taxes and flood insurance on her Des Plaines home. The rest goes toward food, health insurance and the nine prescription medicines she must take each day.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-senior-budget-cuts-20120709,0,2831910.story

 

The Tribune Democrat (PA)

Put Social Security focus on raising revenues

07-07-12

William Lloyd

Regardless of which party wins in November, Social Security will be under the budget-cutting microscope. Social Security is financed primarily by a payroll tax on employers and employees.

http://tribune-democrat.com/editorials/x546499796/William-Lloyd-Put-Social-Security-focus-on-raising-revenues

 

Politics

 

NPR (NAT)

GOP To Make 31st Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Act

07-09-12

Tamara Keith

The House Rules Committee takes up a bill Monday called the "Repeal of Obamacare Act." And just like it says, the bill would wipe away the president's Affordable Care Act. A vote of the full House is planned for Wednesday.

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/09/156474493/gop-to-make-31st-attempt-to-repeal-obamacare-act

 

Washington Post (NAT)

Obama to propose tax-cut extension for middle-class households

07-09-12

David Nakamura

President Obama on Monday will propose a one-year extension of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for people earning less than $250,000, his latest election-year effort to appeal to middle-class voters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-propose-tax-cut-extension-for-middle-class-households/2012/07/09/gJQAxDWuXW_story.html?hpid=z1

 

CNN (NAT)

Obama should ignore ‘class war’ jibes

07-09-12

Julian Zelizer

During a meeting with historians in 2011, Politico reported, President Obama said: "What you could do for me is to help me find a way to discuss the issue of inequality in our society without being accused of class warfare." For Obama, this is not an esoteric question. Rather, this is a challenge that will be integral to his campaign and, if he is re-elected, to his second term as president.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/09/opinion/zelizer-inequality-class-warfare/index.html

 

The Hill (DC)

Hill Poll: Majority believe Obama has changed country for worse

07-09-12

Sheldon Alberts

Two-thirds of likely voters say President Obama has kept his 2008 campaign promise to change America — but it’s changed for the worse, according to a sizable majority. A new poll for The Hill found 56 percent of likely voters believe Obama’s first term has transformed the nation in a negative way, compared to 35 percent who believe the country has changed for the better under his leadership. 

http://thehill.com/polls/236627-hill-poll-majority-feel-obama-has-changed-country-for-worse

 

New York Times (NAT)

Mitt’s Gray Areas

07-09-12

Paul Krugman

Has there ever before been a major presidential candidate who had a multimillion-dollar Swiss bank account, plus tens of millions invested in the Cayman Islands, famed as a tax haven? And then there’s his Individual Retirement Account. I.R.A.’s are supposed to be a tax-advantaged vehicle for middle-class savers, with annual contributions limited to a few thousand dollars a year. Yet somehow Mr. Romney ended up with an account worth between $20 million and $101 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/opinion/krugman-mitts-gray-areas.html?_r=1&ref=politics

 

NPR (NAT)

New Republic: The Exile Of John Maynard Keynes

07-09-12

Robert Skidelsky

The last four years have created what economists call a "natural experiment" in economic policy. As a consequence of deregulation and globalization, Britain and the United States experienced the financial crisis of 2008 in much the same way. Large parts of the banking system collapsed and had to be rescued; the real economy went into a nosedive and had to be stimulated. But after 2010, the United States continued to stimulate its economy, while Britain chose the stonier path of austerity.

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/09/156480544/new-republic-the-exile-of-john-maynard-keynes

 

The Nation (NAT)
Time for a Coalition of the Rational

07-09-12

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Paul Krugman sounds frustrated. “You tend to think,” he told last month’s Netroots Nation conference, “that people who are demanding that we solve this [depression] quickly must be crazy idealists who are defying the wisdom of economic knowledge. But it’s actually the other way around. It’s actually the people in charge, who are refusing to end this thing quickly, who are ignoring the lessons of history and rejecting economic knowledge.”

http://www.thenation.com/blog/168737/time-coalition-rational

 

The Guardian (UK)

Wall Street’s link to Libor

07-08-12

Robert Reich

Britain is abuzz with the Libor scandal, but so far it's been a yawn in the United States. That's because Americans have assumed that the wrongdoing is confined to the other side of the pond. After all, "Libor" is short for "London interbank offered rate", and the main culprit to date has been London-based Barclays. It's further assumed that the scandal hasn't really affected the pocketbooks of average Americans anyway. Wrong, on both counts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/08/american-libor-banking-scandal-us

 

The Washington Post (NAT)

How Greek tax evasion sunk the global economy

07-09-12

Brad Plumer

The euro crisis first started really roaring in late 2009, when auditors inside the newly elected Greek government declared that the country had a much—much—bigger deficit than anyone realized. That, in turn, inflamed fears that Greece couldn’t wiggle its way out of its debt trap so long as it was tethered to the euro. Those worries soon spread to Ireland, Portugal, and eventually Italy and Spain. Now the entire global economy is on edge.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/09/how-greek-tax-evasion-sunk-the-global-economy/