I’ve been meaning to post for a couple of days this Gaius Publius cross-post to Naked Capitalism: Like Nixon to China, It Takes a Democrat to Put the First Knife in Social Security. It makes the point that the ’emergency’ about Social Security is the need to start paying back all of the money that was looted from the trust fund to pay for Bush’s tax cuts and wars. The ‘surplus’ that Clinton left was all Social Security Trust Fund payments, and other taxes hadn’t quite been enough to cover the cost of government.

So when the Shrubbery cut taxes and got involved in two unfunded wars, he was blowing through the retirement funds of the workers. All of these games are to avoid repaying the money that the Republicans borrowed under the Hedgemony.

As Yves noted today Zero has put cuts to Social Security and Medicare in the middle of the budget debate.

I realize that there are still a few people around who haven’t figured out that these cuts are Zero’s idea. He was talking about ‘fixing’ Social Security when he was a candidate in 2007. This, together with his voting record, is the reason I rated him a moderate to conservative Republican in January of 2008. and why I have never voted for him.

If Joe Biden actually wants to run for President in 2016, he is going to have to resign when this becomes official. You have no chance of winning the Democratic nomination backing Social Security benefit cuts. Democrats running in the 2014 election are going to be facing a massive negative campaign based on these recommendations. It could cost them the Senate, and give the Republicans a bigger majority in the House.

Someone needs to sit Zero down and explain to him that no ‘Grand Bargain’ is going to last more than two years because every two years there is a new Congress that has no obligation to go along with anything done in the previous Congress.

You should check out Class War Kitteh, especially this one [via Lambert at Corrente].

From the Social Security Administration FAQs: the maximum you could be paid on Social Security in 2012 was around $30,000/year. The minimum is $1. The average payment is about $14,500/year. A full-time minimum wage [$7.25/hour] job pays $15,000/year. People receiving Social Security make less on average than high school students flipping burgers, but they are somehow responsible for the deficit.

I have already talked about chained CPI, and why it wasn’t relevant to Social Security recipients, especially when the Bureau of Labor Statics tracks the CPI-E [Consumer Price Index for the Elderly]. Social Security recipients are already losing ground using the CPI-W [CPI for Workers in metropolitan areas], so the chained version makes it even worse. What sort of changes do the Villagers think that a group that makes less than minimum wage will be able to make?

Update: From Duncan, the median annual payment for Social Security is $13,500. Half the people make less than that and half make more.

Also the current Federal Poverty threshhold for an individual is $11,490.

The Local Puppy Trainer identifies the Post Office advertisers:

The Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee has drawn attention from residents recently as volunteers set up shop in front of local post offices with signs promoting their controversial and varied platform and messages.

“Lyndon LaRouche and LaRouche PAC are what stand between you and an otherwise inevitable collapse of civilization,”the PAC’s website states.

Buried among the “impeach Obama” signs, they are calling for the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act to rein in banks. There are points where their universe intersects reality.

BFF

Zzzz…zzzz…

[Editor: Lutu and Mini-Sox continue to sleep together, as they have since they were littermates.]

Friday Ark