A small gaggle of greed-obsessed billionaires and multimillionaires are financing another of their endless attempts to wreck the most successful and beloved social safety net programs in history, Social Security. Greed-obsessed billionaires and multimillionaires have always hated Social Security and even tried fomenting a coup d'état against Franklin Roosevelt for signing it into law. Of course, all the plotters were conservatives, including Irénée du Pont, J.P. Morgan and, of course, Nazi sympathizer Prescott Bush. Today, Republicans are still denigrating the government and still trying to destroy Social Security-- although now they approach it differently. Now they say they have to make some adjustments to "save it." Those adjustments inevitably mean raising the retirement age so that more people die before they can collect on what they've put in and on cutting benefits to the elderly. The conservative dream is to "privatize" it, meaning turn it over to the tender embrace of the Wall Street banksters, heirs to the class of criminals who tried hiring a general to lead a military move against FDR.Instead of coups though, today we have massive brain-washing exercises through Fox News and Hate Talk Radio, underpinned by a network of billionaire-financed think-tanks. One of the worst of the right-wing think-tanks, No Labels," just roused two wealthy old white men out of retirement to give wrecking Social Security another try. I'm sure anyone who's been reading DWT for any length of time remembers the odious Joe Lieberman and billionaire Jon Huntsman, heir to a family of Mormon fanatics who became rich manufacturing one of earth's most devastating pollutants, polystyrene, the biggest and most toxic component of plastic garbage in the ocean. Every cent of the Huntsman fortune should be seized by the government and used to clean up the existential worldwide mess the family created. Instead, Huntsman has teamed up Lieberman to make poor people's lives unbearable in old age.Wall Street banksters fund No Labels to destroy Social Security, Medicare and other social services and they have decided on Lieberman and Huntsman as their new frontmen. Reactionary politics is the name of their game and the two of them have been spotted recently lurking around Capitol Hill, shopping their ideas to lawmakers-- primarily Republicans and New Dems-- and to their natural allies on K Street, the corporate lobbyists. The organization founded by Eric Kingson, Social Security Works is sounding the alarm and demanding that Lieberman and Huntsman stand down. Social Security Works points out that that in the midst of a $7.7 trillion retirement security crisis and with two-thirds of retirees relying on Social Security for the majority of their income, now is not the time to be cutting Americans' hard earned benefits. Instead, as Kingson, a congressional candidate in Syracuse, and other progressives explain as part of their campaigns, we should be expanding Social Security benefits for millions of Americans. Social Security Works:
The American people are united in our support of protecting and expanding Social Security-- the most successful social insurance program in our country's history. And right now, a majority of Democrats in Congress support our efforts. We cannot allow Lieberman and Huntsman to successfully flip Congressional Democrats-- and worse yet, the next president-- on the future of Social Security.All we need in order to strengthen Social Security is to finally ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. Right now, individuals pay into Social Security on the first $118,500 of their income. But if wealthier individuals pay in on ALL of their income, we will be able to expand the benefits of millions of Americans and have enough left to extend the lifespan of the Social Security trust fund.
No one likes to admit in public-- especially not right before an election-- that they want to cut Social Security and Medicare. But on February 6, 2013, Oregon Blue Dog Kurt Schrader offered an amendment seeking to insert the anti-Social Security provisions of Simpson-Bowles into another bill. Schrader's House Amendment 19 to HR 444 failed 75-348. But 54 Democrats, primarily New Dems and Blue Dogs (the Hillary wing) voted for it. Thankfully, many are no longer in Congress, but these are some of the Democrats who voted for a death sentence for Social Security that day:
• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)• Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)• Joe Crowley (New Dem-NY)• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)• Susan Davis (New Dem-CA)• John Delaney (New Dem-MD)• Denny Heck (New Dem-WA)• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)• Steny Hoyer (MD)• Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)• Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)• Loretta Sanchez (Blue Dog-CA)• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)• Adam Smith (New Dem-WA)• Chris Van Hollen (MD)• Filemon Vela (New Dem-TX)
New Dems Joe Garcia (FL) and Pete Gallego (TX) both voted for it as well and were subsequently defeated for reelect. I mention these two scumbags because both are trying to worm their way back into Congress this year. This would be an especially good year to defeat Kurt Schrader, who has a strong progressive opponent, Dave McTeague. McTeague and all the progressives on this list want to expand, not cut, Social Security: