“… the president will be running for re-election as Nancy Pelosi.”
Democracy and Power 104: Future Debt Burden
A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property – an unpaid tax bill. – Hans F. Sennholz,
All democracies institute programs for current voters and shift the debt to future workers, even the unborn. Social Security, Medicare, prescriptions drug benefits for seniors are prime examples in America.
“… the president will be running for re-election as Nancy Pelosi,” Ross Douthat, New York Times
Team Obama has made a major 2012 campaign decision. Ross Douthat of the New York Times states the theme: “Tax the rich, and Medicare forever.”
Claiming to reduce the deficit, the President proposes taxing the rich, leaving Medicare intact and insignificantly tinkering with Social Security. Hence, the President totally ignores the source for America’s enormous and dangerous debt – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. In his article, Douthat most closely refers to Nancy Pelosi as representing the hardcore liberal base of the Democratic Party. However, this strategy is reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi’s claim in 2005 that Social Security was not bankrupt. If you need a quick reminder of Pelosi’s claims, read the transcript of Pelosi and Chris Wallace in 2005, as reported by Fox News:
PELOSI: … Your previous speaker said incorrectly that Social Security would be in the red in 2018. That’s simply not true. The more money going out than coming in doesn’t start until 2030. There’s time for us to do this right. …
WALLACE: But I just want to make sure, Congresswoman Pelosi, you know, we’re talking about Social Security, the Democratic social program. I didn’t hear anything about raising taxes. I didn’t hear anything…
PELOSI: Of course you didn’t.
WALLACE: … about cutting benefits. There doesn’t seem to be any plan that you are offering to solve the long-term solvency.
PELOSI: Chris, the issue is solvency, and the issue of solvency is one that President Reagan and Tip O’Neill addressed in 1983. They took measures…
WALLACE: But there’s a problem now. I’m asking you, do you have an answer?
PELOSI: They had a crisis at that time. There is no crisis, as the president indicated to us in our private meeting with him until he went out and said, “It’s a crisis. It’s bankrupt.” That’s not the case.
What we have to do is come together in a bipartisan way at the table, bringing principles that say we cannot begin by slashing benefits. We must stop robbing Social Security’s trust fund of its money to pay for other things to cover the enormous deficits in the Bush reckless economic polict, in my view.
Six and half years have passed since Pelosi’s conversation with Chris Wallace and the Bush and Obama administrations with the participation of Pelosi and Congress have continued to rob the Social Security “trust fund.” Be aware, every sane politician knows there is no trust fund and the drivers of America’s precarious debt are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Additionally, every sane politician knows a year-long delay greatly exacerbates the debt.
This is the deplorable state of American politics. When Representative Ryan published his Path to Prosperity with proposals to restructure Medicare, the President and Democrats simply resorted to demagoguery.
Now, we enter the 2012 election campaign with no serious discussion for reducing the debt.
Only We the People can put an end to these despicable political deceptions. The 2012 election is critical to the future of democracy in America.
Additionally, only a system of personal accounts for Social Security and medical care will prevent the continuation of this political corruption.
