News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
How Income Inequality Undermines Social Security's Finances by Daniel Marans, OurFuture.org | November 15, 2011
A recent study reveals how rising income inequality is jeopardizing Social Security’s finances. read more »Don’t Buy Into Generational Warfare: Keep the Super Committee Accountable to the 99% by Scott Hochberg, OurFuture.org | November 10, 2011
The 12-member Super Committee is down to its final two weeks to produce a plan to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. read more »Time To Retire The "Greedy Geezers" Myth by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | November 10, 2011
By now you've probably heard about the new supplemental poverty measure produced by the Census Bureau, which says 49.1 million Americans are living in poverty, compared to 46.2 million under the official measure. But did you know that the supplemental measure blows a big hole through the right's favorite "greedy geezer" talking point? Coming as it does on the heels of a Pew Research Foundation report on wealth gap between younger and older Americans — which is already being spun by the right as "proof" that we "spend too much" on grandma, at the kids' expense — the new supplemental poverty measure is a reminder that what we're spending is what's keeping grandma, and a whole lot of kids, out of poverty. read more »Why Mitt Romney's Entitlement-Privatization Plan Is Crazy by Matt Taibbi, rollingstone.com | November 8, 2011
David Brooks, the [gratuitous insult deleted], wrote this this morning entitled "Mitt Romney, the Serious One." In it, he explained how Romney’s recent decision to unveil a plan for reforming the entitlement system "demonstrates his awareness of the issues that need to define the 2012 presidential election." So we had a giant financial crash in 2008 that necessitated a bailout costing a minimum of nearly $5 trillion and perhaps ultimately costing $10 trillion more, we have foreclosure crisis with more than million people a year losing their homes, and we have a burgeoning European debt disaster that threatens to devastate the global financial system — and the chief issue facing the country, according to Brooks and the Times, is reforming the entitlement system? Romney’s ideas are not as draconian as Paul Ryan's, but they do pave the way for Wall Street’s ultimate goal — full privatization of Social Security and Medicare. read more »A Super Committee "Failure" Wouldn't Hurt The Economy - But a "Success" Sure Would by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | November 7, 2011
Some Democrats have come under a lot of criticism lately, much of it deserved, for abandoning popular and important programs that were historically associated with their party. But some of the other Democrats -- the ones who are trying to act in the country's best interests -- are genuinely concerned about what will happen to the economy if the Super Committee fails to come up with a plan. read more »Mrs. Moss Goes to Washington by Daniel Marans, OurFuture.org | November 4, 2011
During a National Nurses United (NNU)-sponsored march from Lafayette Square and the Treasury Department to the #OccupyDC encampment in McPherson Square on Thursday, I got the chance to talk to NNU member Tonya Moss, who came more than 1,000 miles to protest Wall Street’s outsize power over our political system. read more »Vetoing Democracy: In Athens or Washington, Elites Still Call the Shots by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | November 4, 2011
This week was a sharp reminder that the ancient ideal of democracy is just as threatened - and to some, just as threatening - as it's ever been. In government offices in Athens, G20 meeting rooms in Cannes, and "Super Committee" chambers in Washington, we learned that there are still places where the will of the people can be overruled by the whims of the powerful. read more »How The Rich Created The Social Security “Crisis” by Gene Lyons, politics.salon.com | November 3, 2011
Anybody who discerns a relationship between a decade of keeping the “have-mores’” yachts and Lear jets running smoothly and a manufactured crisis supposedly threatening grandma’s monthly Social Security check must be some kind of radical leftist. That, or somebody skeptical of the decades-long propaganda war against America’s most efficient, successful and popular social insurance program. It’s an effort that’s falsely persuaded millions of younger Americans that Social Security is in its last days and made crying wolf a test of “seriousness” among Beltway courtier-pundits like the Post’s Lori Montgomery, who concocted an imaginary front page emergency out of a relatively meaningless actuarial event. All in service, alas, of a single unstated premise: The “have-mores” have made off with grandma’s money fair and square. They have no intention of paying it back. read more »Sacrifice Scam by Digby , OurFuture.org | November 3, 2011
No, corporations and wealthy people will not be "sacrificing" anything. They won't even notice it. Corporations are nothing more than a legal construct so they don't have the capacity for "sacrifice." And Paris Hilton will still be able to buy anything she wants. read more »Fact Sheet: Inaccuracies in Washington Post's Halloween Social Security Article by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 30, 2011
A Huffington Post commenter responding to my recent piece on the Washington Post's recent Social Security article by saying that I "claimed 'inaccuracies, falsehoods, and downright lies' but delivered problems of tone, and emphasis." read more »
The Latest
Robert Borosage is quoted in The Washington Post: Voters want the focus on jobs, voices.washingtonpost.com | January 24, 2011
Call it the pre-prebuttal. Anticipating a heavy focus on reducing the deficit in President Obama's State of the Union address next week, liberal groups are already attacking the idea, arguing that deficit reduction should not come before further stimulus to help the economy. read more »
Roger Hickey is quoted in the Washington Post , The Washington Post | January 24, 2011
DCCC Chair: Dems Will Pound GOP On Social Security, Keep Retirement Age In Place , Huffington Post | August 13, 2010
Top officials insist that among all the issues they've tested with voters, the one that yields the best results for the party is a pledge to protect the retirement program from privatization. read more »
Protecting Social Security: Let's Tell The Deficit Commission Not to Slash Entitlements , dailykos.com | August 13, 2010
Earlier today I sent a letter to the White House, signed by myself and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Lynn Woolsey, making it clear that we will stand against any potential cuts to Social Security benefits. read more »
At 75, Social Security Ripens as Voter Issue, USA Today | August 13, 2010
They spent months on health care and Wall Street in Congress, but as lawmakers talk with voters during the summer recess they are increasingly focused on an entirely different issue: Social Security. read more »
Democracy Corps Poll: Cut the deficit by investing, not by cutting Social Security , dailykos.com | August 13, 2010
The most salient result from the polling, said Greenberg is that it reflected that the electorate is "remarkably sophisticated about the economic crisis and its causes" and hold the firm belief that the only way to address the deficit long term is with investment in the economy. The survey of 1,000 people who voted in 2008 was conducted at the end of July. Here are the key findings:
Dems Plan to Attack GOP on Social Security, thehill.com | August 10, 2010
House Democrats are planning more than 100 events around this week’s anniversary of Social Security to attack Republicans who want to reform the popular entitlement.
Democrats and interest groups on the left have scheduled “birthday parties” and other events to highlight Saturday’s 75th anniversary of the program signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt.
In Weak Economy, More People Are Filing Early for Social Security, The Washington Post | August 9, 2010
Social Security Approaches Its 75th Anniversary, mcclatchydc.com | August 9, 2010
Evelyn Sekula's widowed grandmother struggled to survive during the Depression. Like millions of other elderly people, she had no pension and no savings. read more »
Medicare Stronger, Social Security Worse in Short Run, Report Finds, The New York Times | August 6, 2010
Medicare will remain financially solvent for 12 additional years, until 2029, because of the cost-cutting measures in President Obama’s recently enacted health care legislation, the program’s trustees projected on Thursday. read more »
