Comments

1
I hate having to take down my "Sherman's March" posters down, even if they're nothing but quick and dirty photoshop jobs. Seahawks lost, but 2013 is going to be a much better year.
2
I would love to hear your opinions on Sen Max Baucus and his culture of corruption. Who received special tax breaks during fiscal cliff talks? The same Goldman Sachs that robs the American people talks about how Americans must not expect a social safety net, must tighten their belts.
3
It's becoming rarer and more surprising whenever journalism actually invests a little energy, intelligence, and public trust into doing its job. There's nothing like doing a little homework before informing the public on an issue.

Thanks for posting this.
4
Ohmigod... a newspaper editorial board that actually attempts to understand and explain complex policy issues instead of just bludgeoning readers with regurgitated ideological talking points. How refreshing.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHACOUGHCOUGHCOUGH.

Irony in the morning.
6
If they indexed based on just the price increases of shoe polish, watch batteries, books of paper checks, and incandescent lightbulbs, a lot more seniors could afford their prescription co-pays and the electric bill, among other things.
7
@5 Life expectancy hasn't increased much after someone hits 65, when SS kicks in. We have seen a dramatic decline in deaths under 18.
We will not have fewer workers in the future, though the ratio of young people to old people may decrease.
We really don't need to cut anyone's benefits, at least not for the next couple decades. SS is good through 2040 or so.

Any economic forecasting beyond that is worth about as much as the talking points you regurgitated.

I'll regurgitate some of my own: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/k…
8
@5, Romney won the 60-plus vote by 9 points, but the "white vote" by 20 points. Would you suggest that all whites be treated to the whole gamut of what Romney had in store for them?
9
These benefits are already paid for and demographics are changing slowly and by very little if you look at the overall picture. Longevity has improved mostly by reducing infant mortality, not by old folks living longer lives, and productivity improvements have far outweighed losses due to changes in the ratio of workers to retirees. You have to look at the Republican agenda: a bigger piece of the pie for the super rich and multi-national corporations, to get an idea of what is driving the decades of relentless propaganda to dismantle the New Deal, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (AKA Obamacare)
Just because the president offers chained cpi or some other barbaric cut in benefits when it is already obvious that the Republicans will refuse to make a deal no mater what he gives them doesn't mean he's really willing do it. It's just hard ball negotiations where the president is being just as stubborn as the tea baggers without looking unreasonable at all, because after all he is being the only reasonable adult in the discussion.
11
@5, 10: That is what the Trust Fund (and its $2.6 Trillion or so) is for, to cover the gap between generations. Old people don't live forever, you know. This batch will die off and then, what? All subsequent ones will be screwed out of benefits but tax collections will stay at the same rate to build up an even bigger surplus? Which will get used for, what exactly?

There is no Social Security problem. When the accumulated surplus is spent down, the Trust Fund is depleted, then there'll be a problem we have to deal with. Come back then. thxkbai.
12
@10,

Since the cuts through chained CPI compound over time, it's not the current Republican elderly who are going to get fucked over, it will be the rest of us, who didn't vote against our own interests. And how exactly is chained CPI going to solve our current fiscal problems? Social Security isn't part of the regular budget. Is it your proposal that the government raid the Social Security trust to pay off our debts? How Republican of you.
13
Suburban? For a paper printed in Yakima, and with almost half your readers in the suburbs, that's funny.

Please wait...

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