Barack Obama's teachable moment

Gene Lyons' latest opinion column.

"What Obama's got here is a teachable moment, an opportunity to apply his formidable pedagogical skills. He's already said that reforming Social Security is "easy"-simply remove the cap on payroll taxes on persons earning over $200,000 a year and the program can be self sustaining indefinitely. Compromise? Maybe raise age limits slightly to give moderate Republicans cover.

The point is to bring aboard those members of the opposition willing to deal with reality. Let the rest walk around Washington wearing signboards printed at the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation or any of the other tycoon-funded propaganda shops dedicated to rationalizing tax cuts for multimillionaires above all else.

Medicare's tougher. The simplest fix would be to make it universal. As that's probably a political impossibility, Obama must keep pointing out that simply cutting benefits would produce a cascade of bad effects. The answer lies in increased efficiency through universal health insurance, which also would greatly improve the competitive position of U.S. auto companies, for example.

Bipartisanship, then, involves personal civility, repeatedly emphasizing that we Americans are all in this mess together and soliciting ideas from Republicans willing to brave the wrath of Rush Limbaugh. It certainly doesn't mean occupying the middle ground between wisdom and folly."

- rest at http://moose-and-squirrel.com/gene/gene.html

I hope that Mr. Lyons is correct that reasonable Democrats and reasonable Republcans can work together to save Social Security and Medicare for the long term.

 

I think that under current law that lower paid wage earners receive more compared to contributions than higher paid wage earners, and this aspect will need to increase going forward, imo.

Here is the plan that I support for Social Security reform:

www.centrists.org/pages/2003/12/11_lemieux_wealth.html

 

A little bit of raising taxes, a little bit of reducing benefits for the high income folks, and a little bit of raising the retirement age. That's what Ronald Reagan did back in the 1980s and it kept Social Security in the black for about 35 years to 2017. It worked then, it will work again.

 

Yes, it is.

 

I don't see where Robin Hood is relevant to the topic at hand, but I do agree with you about Robin Hood.

 

The Bible does not tell the government whether it can or can't provide assistance to people in old age.

We, the American people, vote for our representatives who set the policies. You have as much say in the matter as I do.

A lot of us think that providing a mechanism to help people economically in old age(Social Security) is a good thing for us as a society as a whole to do.

A lot of us think that providing a mechanism to help people with medical needs in old age(Medicare) is a good thing for us as a society as a whole to do.

If you want to fight us politically, you are free to do so.

 

You are free politically to attempt to put that into law. I doubt you will succeed. I doubt the majority of the American people will allow Social Security and Medicare to be done away with, nor should they. We are all in this together as a country.