Social Security News 8-30-12

 Washington Post (NAT)

Paul Ryan fails -- the truth

Jonathan Bernstein

8-29-12

It was, by any reasonable standards, a staggering, staggering lie. Here’s Paul Ryan about Barack Obama: He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report.  He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing. “They.” “Them.” “Them.” Those words are lies. Because Paul Ryan was on that commission. “Came back with an urgent report.” That is a lie. The commission never made any recommendations for Barack Obama to support or oppose. Why not? Because the commission voted down its own recommendations. Why? Because Paul Ryan, a member of the commission, voted it down and successfully convinced the other House Republicans on the commission to vote it down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/paul-ryan-fails----the-truth/2012/08/29/bbfe1eac-f254-11e1-b74c-84ed55e0300b_blog.html

 

New York Times (NAT)

The Vacuum Behind the Slogans

8-29-12

The reasons for that are clear: Details are a turn-off, at a boisterous convention or apparently in a full campaign. A New York Times poll last week showed that the Medicare plan advocated by Mr. Ryan and Mitt Romney was highly unpopular in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin. As soon as voters find out that the Republicans plan to offer retirees a fixed amount, they disapprove, clearly preferring the existing system. The Romney campaign knows this, of course, so it has developed a counterstrategy that was fully on display at the convention for those who might have missed it on the trail: Don’t change the plans, but don’t talk about them, either. Instead, invent a phony attack on President Obama’s policies, which are public in full detail, and hope that voters get so confused that they throw up their hands and cast their vote on some other issue or on emotion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/opinion/the-vacuum-behind-the-republican-political-slogans.html?_r=1

 

New York Times (NAT)

Postponing Retirement Indefinitely

Ann Carrns

8-29-12

More than a third of adults near retirement age — 35 percent — said last year that they simply don’t expect to retire. That was up from just 29 percent two years earlier. More than four in 10 of these “pre-retirees” who don’t expect to retire say it is because they are financially unable to do so. They cite the need for extra income and the maintenance of employer benefits as the main reasons for continuing to work. That was among the findings in the “2011 Risks and Process of Retirement Survey Report” from the Society of Actuaries.

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/postponing-retirement-indefinitely/

 

Take Action News (DC)

Rob Zerban

8-25-12

Rob Zerban, Democratic candidate for Congress running against GOP running mate Rep. Paul Ryan in Wisconsin's 1st district, discusses supporting Medicare for all, being a small businessman, & how Ryan is out of touch with his district.

http://www.mixcloud.com/weactradio/take-action-news-rob-zerban-august-25-2012/

 

Ebony (NAT)

Women and the Future of Medicare

Zerlina Maxwell

8-30-12

While media focuses on the GOP's attack on contraception, abortion, and pay equity, the risk for the elimination of the program and it's impact on older women should not be ignored.  “[Republicans] want to raise the eligibility age for Medicare up to 67 and more women will need to be in the work force longer because they won’t be eligible for these benefits.”  While the face of the 'war on women' is usually White and young, the reality is that the attack is on all women, especially those who are older and brown. With most seniors on a fixed income, the Ryan plan for Medicare (which moves seniors to a voucher system by 2023) will put many women in a very tight spot--unable to pay the additional healthcare costs that are not covered by the voucher. Combine that with the repeal of Obamacare, which will mean prescription drug costs and the infamous donut hole will return making healthcare costs high for retirees yet again, and disaster is imminent. According to a study conducted by the AARP, women are more likely than men to have chronic illnesses as seniors that require them to take prescription medication on a regular basis.

http://www.ebony.com/wellness-empowerment/women-and-the-future-of-medicare-422

 

Mercury News (DC)

Daniel Borenstein: Pension reform bill loophole would expand spiking opportunities

8-30-12

A gaping loophole in the pension reform bill lawmakers are ramming through the Legislature would actually enable more spiking of retirement pay in 20 California counties, including Alameda, Contra Costa and San Mateo.

Because of a missing word, the bill would greatly expand the number of workers who could boost their compensation by counting unused vacation time in pension calculations. Perhaps it's a drafting error, perhaps it's deliberate. But it must be fixed.

The plan, unveiled by Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday, faces an end-of-session vote Friday. Legislative leaders plan to push forward on this complex legislation even though members of the Senate and Assembly have had minimal time to review

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_21434913/daniel-borenstein-pension-reform-bill-loophole-would-expand

 

Wall Street Journal (NAT)

'The Economy Stole My Retirement'

Sarah E. Needleman and Emily Maltby

8-30-12

Baby boomers, in many cases, were blindsided by the recession and its effect on their retirement plans, says George Vozikis, director of the Institute for Family Business at California State University in Fresno. "Boomer entrepreneurs grew up believing in the American dream that you could start a business and eventually sell it for a good return or pass it onto your kids," adds Aaron Chatterji, associate professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in Durham, N.C. "Because of the financial crisis and subsequent recession, that is more difficult today."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444230504577615861593287688.html

 

 

Politics

 

The New Republic (NAT)

The Most Dishonest Convention Speech ... Ever?

Jonathan Cohn

8-29-12

You’re going to read and hear a lot about Paul Ryan’s speech on Wednesday night. And I imagine most of it will be about how Ryan’s speech played—with the party loyalists in Tampa, with the television viewers across the country, and eventually with the swing voters who will decide the election. I’d like to talk, instead, about what Ryan actually said—not because I find Ryan’s ideas objectionable, although I do, but because I thought he was so brazenly willing to twist the truth. At least five times, Ryan misrepresented the facts. And while none of the statements were new, the context was. It’s one thing to hear them on a thirty-second television spot or even in a stump speech before a small crowd. It’s something else entirely to hear them in prime time address, as a vice presidential nominee is accepting his party’s nomination and speaking to the entire country. Here are the five statements that deserve serious scrutiny:

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106730/ryan-most-dishonest-convention-speech-five-lies-gm-medicare-deficit-medicaid

 

The Atlantic (NAT)

Paul Ryan and the Post-Truth Convention Speech

James Fallows

8-30-12

Paul Ryan's speech was well-written, well- delivered, and well-received. All of that was evident to anyone watching on TV. It had a number of nice smilingly vicious hit lines -- starting with the masterful "staring up at the faded Obama posters" riff -- plus a note of encouraging uplift at the end. It was also profoundly dishonest in ways large and small. Small: telling the sad story of the closing of the Janesville GM plant, and clearly implying that this was one more casualty of the Obama-unemployment era. Whereas of course the plant was shuttered before Obama even took office. Medium: telling that story on the assumption that no one would say, "Wait a minute: wasn't Obama the guy who was pushing the big auto-industry bailout, which your nominee and your party opposed? So wouldn't there have been a lot more closed plants if you'd had your way?"

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/paul-ryan-and-the-post-truth-convention-speech/261775/

 

Bloomberg (NAT)

Paul Ryan’s Hypocritical Attack on Barack Obama

Josh Barro

8-29-12

Paul Ryan forcefully attacked the Obama Administration tonight. But many of the criticisms he leveled against Barack Obama apply equally to his and Mitt Romney’s own records. Ryan attacked Obama’s Patient Protection Affordable Care Act for being laden with “mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country.” He was talking about mandates such as the one Mitt Romney imposed in Massachusetts. Ryan decried“$716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for.” But the budget House Republicans passed this year, which Paul Ryan wrote, keeps Barack Obama’s Medicare cuts and adds another $205 billion on top. It's true the Republican budget repeals PPACA, so it doesn’t use the Medicare savings “to pay for a new entitlement.” But if Medicare cuts constitute the abrogation of “an obligation we have to our parents and grandparents,” presumably they’re not OK even if they aren’t used to pay for Medicaid expansion. Ryan criticized Obama for ignoring his own debt commission. “They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.” That urgent report? Technically, it wasn’t a report from the debt commission. Too many of its members dissented from the report for it to be adopted as the commission’s official report. One of those dissenters was Paul Ryan.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-30/paul-ryan-s-hypocritical-attack-on-barack-obama.html

 

Talking Points Memo (DC)

Top 5 Fibs In Paul Ryan’s Convention Speech

Brian Beutler

8-30-12

“You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn’t have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it.” Obama did use those Medicare savings — in the form of targeted cuts in payments to providers, not in benefits to seniors — to pay for the health care law. Ryan’s budget calls for using them to finance tax cuts for wealthy Americans, and deficit reduction. But by now calling to restore that spending commitment to Medicare, Ryan and Romney are pledging to hasten Medicare’s insolvency by many years.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/ryan-risks-reputation-with-misleading-nomination-speech.php

 

Fox News (NAT)

Romney-Ryan play to youth vote, seek those disillusioned by 'fading' Obama promise

Joseph Weber

8-30-12

GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan on Wednesday night made what was perhaps the most direct and descriptive pitch yet to younger voters.

“College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life,” he said during his speech at the Republican National Convention. At the same time, Ryan stressed the cool factor, noting his personal playlist includes AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. So can the GOP ticket make the sell?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/30/romney-ryan-seek-youth-vote-seek-those-disillusioned-by-faded-hope-and-change/