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Social Security Privateer Paul Ryan Coming to NH!

by: Dean Barker

Thu Feb 11, 2010 at 19:32:58 PM EST
February 28th, at the NHIOP, and hosted by the NH Young Republicans.

Maybe he'll be passing out copies of Atlas Shrugged?

What a perfect opportunity for Frank Guinta, Charlie Bass and the rest to declare their support for the US House Budget that Ryan authored.  The one that guts Medicare and privatizes the "collectivist" Social Security.  

Remember back in 2005 when Paul Ryan joined up with John E. Sununu and George W. Bush to turn Social Security into Private Risk?

On April 20, 2005, Sununu and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced the Ryan-Sununu "Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act" (S. 857 and H.R. 1776). The comprehensive measure, first introduced in the 108th Congress, is designed to strengthen Social Security by empowering workers with more control over their financial future and establishing permanent solvency for the retirement security system.
Oh, how more recession-y this recession would have been had they been successful.  Good times!
Dean Barker :: Social Security Privateer Paul Ryan Coming to NH!
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Social Security Privateer Paul Ryan Coming to NH! | 2 comments
This is a long-term strategy (4.00 / 1)
and it has me greatly concerned.  

Democrats have significant majorities in Congress, and control the White House but have no uniting strategy.  The focus on phantom bipartisanship and a lack of political will on the Dem side has created an opening for the Republicans to deftly control the debate.  So, we're talking about filibusters, nominee blocks, deficit reductions, and privatization schemes for Social Security and Medicare.  

The relentless assault on progressive policies and agenda restructures the debate on more fertile ground for conservatives.  What appear to be non-starters in discussions regarding SS and Medicare are simply designed to re-center solutions amenable to conservatives.  

1 in 7+ Americans qualify for food stamps and structural unemployment is near 17%.  These are catastrophic numbers.  The Senate's answer: a bipartisan bill from Finance that has a clumsy tax credit for new hires and 90 day extensions for unemployment insurance and COBRA assistance.  The price paid by Dems for Republican support for this incredibly inadequate bill: concessions from Dems on reduction of the estate tax. That's my reading of this WaPo article:
http://voices.washingtonpost.c...

I feel like I'm living in an alternate universe where minority rules, the voice of the people does not count, and the majority party is inept.  Maybe it's just me.

Well, the voice of the people doesn't count when (0.00 / 0)
the conversation is led by people who are into lip service--all talk, no action.  The object now is the same as it always is--intimidation.  The public is to be controled by making people fearful about the future.  That's been an on-going effort for three decades and the periodic recessions, which economists declared all along were to be expected ("natural" corrections in the market) are the evidence of their success.  The underlying message has always been, "if you think you got it bad now, just wait until I get through with you."  The accumulation of assets in a few hands is not a happenstance.
These are not nice people.  They are directed by basic impulses or base emotions, which manifest as:
wrath
pride
envy
greed
gluttony
lust
sloth

That last, sloth, is their and our saving grace.  It keeps them from actually doing anything much on their own and this keeps them from incurring revenge from people who actually do carry through on their intent.

"All hat; no cattle."
"All bark; no bite."
Is it worth the effort to even call their bluff?  I doubt it.  But, even Democrats enjoy playing games.  Trouble results when the people do what the autocrats say.

And, btw, I would not be surprised by an argument that, if Wall Street had the money in the Social Security Fund to play with, they wouldn't have had to invent funny money--i.e. new borrowing instruments.  
It's seems worth remembering that the games Wall Street played were all with borrowed money and the "bonuses" they "earned" are based on the number of times the money changed hands--like being rewarded in baseball for going extra innings.

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Social Security Privateer Paul Ryan Coming to NH! | 2 comments

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