Social Security News 8-13-12

 SSW/SSSC mention *

Foster’s Daily Democrat (NH)

Leading the golden goose to slaughter

8-12-12

The Alliance, closely tied to the AFL-CIO, and Social Security Works seem to believe that saving Medicare and Social Security is as easy as making the rich pay more or putting the goose on a starvation diet so it can slim down.

As reported by Foster's Sunday Citizen, a Social Security Works study argues that FDR's safety net can be saved by removing the cap on Social Security taxes which currently applies to incomes up to $110,100 — thus making the rich pave the golden road to solvency.

As for Medicare, the study naively suggests reducing health care costs — an argument the editorial board here at Foster's Daily Democrat will address later in this editorial.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120812/GJOPINION_01/708129934/-1/FOSNEWS

 

SSW/SSSC mention***

 

LA Times (NAT)

Reaction to Paul Ryan as Romney VP choice is swift, polarizing

Lisa Mascaro

8-11-12

"A Romney-Ryan ticket is a weapon of mass destruction unapologetically pointed at our Social Security, our Medicare and our hopes for maintaining a modest, middle class lifestyle during our retirement years," said Eric Kingson, co-founder of the Social Security Coalition and Nancy Altman, co-director of the Social Security Works.http://articles.latimes.com/print/2012/aug/11/news/la-pn-reaction-to-paul-ryan-vp-choice-is-swift-polarizing-20120811

 

CEPR (DC)

Lesson for Reporters: Social Security Does NOT Add to the Budget Deficit

Dean Baker

8-13-12

Under the law, Social Security cannot possibly contribute to the on-budget deficit. It can only spend money that has been collected from the designated payroll tax or from the investment of past surpluses. (The money from general revenue to make up for the temporary payroll tax cut the last two years is an exception to this rule.) If benefit payments exceed current revenue and the money available in the trust fund, as the Congressional Budget Office projects will happen in 2038, then Social Security would not be able to pay full scheduled benefits. It could not force the government to increase its deficit.

 

It is incredible that a "fact check" failed to note the on-budget budget. This is obviously what Becerra and Sanders were referring to when they said that Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. Reporters who write on Social Security should be familiar with it.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/lesson-for-reporters-social-security-does-not-add-to-the-budget-deficit

 

New York Times (NAT)

The Romney-Ryan Plan for America

EDITORIAL

8-12-12

Less than 24 hours after Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate on Saturday, his campaign was already trying to distance itself from Mr. Ryan’s politically toxic budget plan. His budget is not ours, the campaign said; Mr. Romney “will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/opinion/the-romney-ryan-plan-for-america.html?smid=tw-share

 

Daily Kos (Blog)

Romney: Ryan budget? What Ryan budget?

Jed Lewison

8-13-12

That Romney would seek to distance himself from the Ryan budget is the weirdest part of his decision to pick Ryan. If he wanted to disown Ryan, then why pick him? Yet as soon as Romney announced the pick, the campaign put out talking points saying the Ryan budget is not the Romney budget even though Romney has said he would have signed it into law. (Ignore, for a moment, the fact that presidents don't sign budgets into law. Romney apparently believed that they did, and said he would have signed Ryan's. And just yesterday, one of his top aides said the same thing.)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/13/1119589/-Romney-Ryan-budget-What-Ryan-budget

 

Rolling Stone (NAT)

The Five Fatal Flaws of Romney's Ryan Veep Pick

Tim Dickson

8-13-12
Medicare recipients under the Ryan plan "would bear a much larger share of their health care costs than they would under the current program," according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's because Ryan privatizes medical insurance for the elderly, sending future seniors out into the individual market with a voucher that covers what the government now pays for each senior's Medicare.

 

Ryan hits the elderly two ways. First: The same money buys far less in the individual market than it does with government acting as the single payer. Right off the bat, seniors will be forced to pay more for the same coverage, with insurers reaping the windfall profit. Second: The voucher isn't pegged to healthcare inflation, which rages far above regular inflation. The voucher system would neatly cap the cost to Uncle Sam, but it would shift those spiraling costs onto seniors living on fixed incomes.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-five-fatal-flaws-of-romneys-ryan-veep-pick-20120812

 

New York Times (NAT)

The Romney Package

Bill Keller

8-13-12

THE APOSTLE OF MARKETS Ryan would have been a powerful voice in a Romney administration even if he had not been chosen for the sidekick role — the younger, quicker, more conviction-filled half of the ticket. His manifesto for lower tax rates and severe cuts in nonmilitary spending has become his party’s master plan, a brutal alternative to the recommendations of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles fiscal reform commission (which Ryan participated in, then voted against because it included tax hikes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/opinion/the-romney-package.html?_r=1&hp

 

Huffington Post (NAT)

Todd Akin Attacked For Social Security Views 'Far Out Of The Mainstream'

Patrick Svitek

8-13-12

A new ad released Monday by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee accuses Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) of endangering seniors' retirement plans by supporting the privatization of Social Security.

"Congressman Todd Akin has a plan for your retirement: work longer," a narrator says as a hunched-over, elderly worker punches his timecard. "Akin would undermine Social Security."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/todd-akin-social-security_n_1773084.html

 

Business Insider (NAT)

Social Security Is Going To Have To Confront Its Own Mortality

Staff

8-13-12

As we dramatically reduce birthrates across the globe, where there will soon be more of us over age 60 than under 14, it is the reverse that must begin to animate our thinking: What does a working life look like in the 21st century when there are two decades beyond 20th century traditional retirement age?

The campaign for retirement is not only peculiar in light of our longevity – how many people really want to play golf or garden for twenty years or more? Living for decades without an active income is also fiscally unsustainable in light of the dramatic demographic shift of what would be "working to retirement."

http://www.businessinsider.com/social-security-is-going-to-have-to-confront-its-own-mortality-before-its-too-late-2012-8

 

Wall Street Journal (NAT)

Romney Takes Medicare Message to Florida

Sara Murray

8-13-12

Mr. Romney's challenge will be convincing Floridians and other seniors that tweaks to Medicare don't mean dismantling it—a charge that's been levied by Democrats. Some 18% of Florida's population received Medicare benefits in 2010, one of the highest shares in the country, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"The truth is that the Romney-Ryan budget would end Medicare as we know it by pushing seniors into the private market and raising their health-care costs by thousands of dollars per year," said Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign. "It's unfortunate that Mitt Romney would rather distort the truth than have an honest debate about the devastating impact the Romney-Ryan plan would have on Florida's seniors."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444184704577587162454575658.html

 

Politics

 

Politico (DC)

Paul Ryan ramps up fight for Catholic vote

James Hohman

8-13-12

Now, the selection of Ryan, only the second Catholic ever nominated for national office by Republicans, all but guarantees a fierce election-year fight for the affections of Catholic voters — or more specifically, white Catholics, who form the bulk of the Catholic vote here in this corner of Iowa and across the Rust Belt.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79653.html?hp=t1

 

The Hill (DC)

Sen. Wyden distances himself from Medicare plan he crafted with Ryan

Sam Baker   

8-13-12

"Bipartisanship requires that you not make up the facts. I did not 'co-lead a piece of legislation,' " Wyden told the Oregonian. "I wrote a policy paper on options for Medicare. Several months after the paper came out I spoke and voted against the Medicare provisions in the Ryan budget. Governor Romney needs to learn you don't protect seniors by makings things up, and his comments today sure won't help promote real bipartisanship.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/243387-wyden-downplays-medicare-plan-he-crafted-with-ryan

 

NPR (NAT)

Does Ryan Pick Help Or Hurt Romney's Chances In Florida?

Scott Finn

8-13-12

Remember, Ryan was at the forefront of President George W. Bush's failed plan on Social Security — which would have allowed participants to invest in the stock market. Not to mention Ryan's more recent plan for Medicare — which, depending on your politics, either saves the program through competition, or turns it into a voucher system to "push grandma off a cliff."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/08/12/158656291/does-ryan-pick-help-or-hurt-romneys-chances-in-florida

 

Washington Post (NAT)

Sarah Palin won’t speak at GOP convention

Aaron Blake

8-13-12

Sarah Palin has announced that she will not be speaking at the 2012 Republican National Convention, saying it’s time to give others a chance.

“This year is a good opportunity for other voices to speak at the convention and I’m excited to hear them,” she said in a statement to Fox News’s Greta van Susteren.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/sarah-palin-wont-speak-at-gop-convention/2012/08/13/08190b9e-e549-11e1-8f62-58260e3940a0_blog.html

 

Yahoo (NAT)

House sues Holder in Fast and Furious gunwalking case

Liz Goodwin

8-13-12

A House committee filed suit against Attorney General Eric Holder Monday in federal court. The suit attempts to force Holder to turn over key documents relating to the Justice Department's Fast and Furious gunwalking program during the Bush and Obama administrations, when as many as 1,000 guns ended up in the hands of Mexican cartels in a botched attempt to capture higher-ups in the organizations.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/house-sues-holder-fast-furious-gunwalking-case-164053784.html

 

Time (NAT)

What the Ryan Pick Means for Religion and the Romney Campaign

 Elizabeth Dias 

8-13-12

Instead, Romney opted for Ryan, who may have been a more natural fit on religious grounds. ”Historically there has not been the same level of animosity between Mormons and Catholics as between Mormons and evangelicals,” says historian David Campbell of Notre Dame. “Today, when we look at how people of different faiths perceive one another, Catholics actually have quite a positive perception of Mormons (and vice versa).” Catholics and Mormons have found common cause in recent years, he says, in opposing same-sex marriage.

http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/13/what-the-ryan-pick-means-for-religion-and-the-romney-campaign/