Obama Opposition - Progressive

Deutch Sounds Alarm Over Proposed Cut to Social Security Revenues

Tax Cut Compromise Would Make Budget Responsible for $120 Billion Towards Social Security

(Washington, DC) Today, Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-19) expressed concern over a provision in the recently unveiled tax cut compromise that would jeopardize Social Security's independent revenue stream and make the budget responsible for $120 billion per year towards Social Security. The temporary 2 percent payroll tax cut included in the compromise would have the unprecedented consequence of forcing the hard-earned retirement benefits of America's workers to compete with defense spending, child nutrition programs, physician payments, and other items for a share of funding from general budget revenues.

By David Swanson

If a person could approach you on the street, gently caress your cheek, and walk away leaving you with the feeling of having been violently slapped and dowsed with a bucket of ice water, they would approximate Tom Engelhardt's writing, including that in his newest book "The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's."

Let me stipulate from the start that at least three-quarters of the book has nothing to do with Obama, but deals purely with Bush's wars. However, those wars -- which always were and still are our wars and our Congress's wars, and the wars of our grandchildren who will pay for them financially and probably in more serious ways -- have not been fundamentally changed by applying the name of a different emperor to them. What Engelhardt has written over the past several years and collected here on the subject of war needed to be said and will continued to need to be said more loudly with each passing day.

Facing reality is a tough job but somebody's got to do it. And we foretell for you the events of the future NOT because we want them to happen, but to get you to act to keep them from happening. But to do that you need an action page, so here it is.

Put The Public Option Up For A Vote: www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1038.php

And now we will explain why this action page is so critical. To understand the current political dynamic, first you must understand that the Democrats are PLANNING on losing the next couple election cycles. UNTIL you understand that, the events to unfold in the next couple years (unless you act to derail them) will make no sense to you.

By Dave Lindorff

So much for economic “green shoots.”

The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve, along with the servile corporate media, have been quick to grasp at and trumpet every little suggestion that things might be improving, as they did when the Labor Dept. announced last week that new unemployment claims had dropped to “just” 434,000, from a high of 684,000 in the week ended March 28 or last year.

Or when the Commerce Dept. reported last month that November housing starts had risen by 8.9% compared to the prior month.