Sequestration will damage US social safety net

note: this is revenge against most Americans for gop losing election and their buddies (rich) paying a few more percent on taxes.

Bad deal: The White House’s last-ditch plan stinks

Bad deal: The White House’s last-ditch plan stinks

click link

snip

This afternoon, President Obama is meeting with congressional leaders in a last-ditch attempt to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff. Most people in Washington think the effort is futile. That’s probably good thing, as going over the cliff is better than enacting the deal the White House is reportedly putting on the table at the summit.

While the details are sketchy and reports conflicting, according to the New York Times, the proposal would extend the Bush tax cuts up to $400,000 (instead of the $250,000 most Democrats want), and it would extend some important tax credits, but it would leave the estate tax as is, do nothing about the sequester (the automatic spending cuts that will go into effect January 1) and do nothing about the debt ceiling.

If you’re a progressive, those items are, respectively, mediocre, somewhat positive, bad, mixed and terrible. While the $400,000 threshold is tolerable in a larger deal, it’s no good in a bad deal. Changing the estate tax is a must, as current rates exclusively help the heirs of wealthy people to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Some of the tax credits are vital, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, but these should be passed automatically, not as something Democrats need to bargain for. The sequester is mixed because half the cuts come from the military, which are valuable and generally politically unachievable, but the other half come from the rest of the government, including programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

Other reports paint a more positive picture of the deal Obama will offer, but they seem less realistic, as the contours outlined by the Times fit with the deal Obama previously offered, which liberals rejected out of hand.

Krugman Hasty Fix to Deficit Would Cause 'Austerity Bomb'

Paul Krugman: Class wars of 2012 | Ames Tribune

Paul Krugman: Class wars of 2012 | Ames Tribune:

click link

snip

 Consider, as a prime example, the push to raise the retirement age, the age of eligibility for Medicare, or both. This is only reasonable, we’re told — after all, life expectancy has risen, so shouldn’t we all retire later? In reality, however, it would be a hugely regressive policy change, imposing severe burdens on lower- and middle-income Americans while barely affecting the wealthy.

Why? First of all, the increase in life expectancy is concentrated among the affluent; why should janitors have to retire later because lawyers are living longer? Second, both Social Security and Medicare are much more important, relative to income, to less-affluent Americans, so delaying their availability would be a far more severe hit to ordinary families than to the top 1 percent.

Or take a subtler example, the insistence that any revenue increases should come from limiting deductions rather than from higher tax rates. The key thing to realize here is that the math just doesn’t work; there is, in fact, no way limits on deductions can raise as much revenue from the wealthy as you can get simply by letting the relevant parts of the Bush-era tax cuts expire.

So any proposal to avoid a rate increase is, whatever its proponents may say, a proposal that we let the 1 percent off the hook and shift the burden, one way or another, to the middle class or the poor.

The point is that the class war is still on, this time with an added dose of deception. And this, in turn, means that you need to look very closely at any proposals coming from the usual suspects, even — or rather especially — if the proposal is being represented as a bipartisan, common-sense solution. In particular, whenever some deficit-scold group talks about “shared sacrifice,” you need to ask, sacrifice relative to what?

So keep your eyes open as the fiscal game of chicken continues. It’s an uncomfortable but real truth that we are not all in this together.

Krugman: The big budget mumble | The Salt Lake Tribune

Krugman: The big budget mumble | The Salt Lake Tribune:

click link

snip

 Republicans have howled in outrage. Sen. Orrin Hatch, delivering the GOP reply to the president’s weekly address, denounced the offer as a case of "bait and switch," bearing no relationship to what Obama ran on in the election. In fact, however, the offer is more or less the same as Obama’s original 2013 budget proposal and also closely tracks his campaign literature.

So what are Republicans offering as an alternative? They say they want to rely mainly on spending cuts instead. Which spending cuts? Ah, that’s a mystery. In fact, until late last week, as far as I can tell, no leading Republican had been willing to say anything specific at all about how spending should be cut.

The veil lifted a bit when Sen. Mitch McConnell, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, finally mentioned a few things — raising the Medicare eligibility age, increasing Medicare premiums for high-income beneficiaries and changing the inflation adjustment for Social Security. But it’s not clear whether these represent an official negotiating position — and in any case, the arithmetic just doesn’t work.

Start with raising the Medicare age. 

where did the money go---hardball

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Dems' muddled message on Medicaid worries advocates - The Hill's Healthwatch

Dems' muddled message on Medicaid worries advocates - The Hill's Healthwatch

click link above for story

medicaid is on the chopping block my information. One wonders what will happen when Medical care reform is in place in 2014 what will happen if it is already cut?

Medicaid is the program most of those "uninsured" will enter at that time

Time for Medicare for All?

gop on debt from abc

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with tax increases "off the table", you can imagine what they are talking about cutting.

time for dems to call their bluff

Alliance for Retired Americans action allert

Alliance for Retired Americans

click link ask representative to vote against the Ryan budget proposal. cutting social security and medicare will not balance the budget

cutting education programs will not get us anywhere as well.

jobs for justice rally in st. Louis against social program cuts in Missouri

I attended the rally/demonstration today. Democratic State Representative Jeanette Mott Oxford was the only politican whom attended this rally. Ms Oxford is a very progressive leader in the St. Louis area.



Below is from KSDK on the subject: http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=181370

Demonstrators protest proposed Missouri budget cuts
Posted By: Mike Garrity Date last updated: 7/29/2009 8:49:16 PM


There's new concern among many Missouri state workers as well as people who depend on state social or health services. They're worried proposed budget cuts could mean vital services will be eliminated.

By Mike Garrity

KSDK -- There's new concern among many Missouri state workers as well as people who depend on state social or health services. They're worried proposed budget cuts could mean vital services will be eliminated.

In south St. Louis on Wednesday, a crowd of more than 100 state workers and people who depend on state services demonstrated outside the Missouri Department of Social Services office on South Broadway.

It was an effort to draw attention to proposed budget cuts.

The union that represents state social services workers says Governor Jay Nixon has asked state departments to cut an additional $60 million from their budgets. That's on top of $425 million that's already been cut.

The union says nearly half of the Governor's newly requested cuts are to come from the Missouri Department of Social Services and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

And the people at Wednesday's demonstration say in this economy, more and more Missourians are turning to those agencies for assistance.

Meanwhile the governor's office is only saying that Governor Nixon has asked each state agency to review it's budget and submit recommendations for proposed cuts.

Nixon's office says each recommendation is being reviewed, but no decisions have been made.

The governor expects those decisions, "within the next few weeks", his press secretary tells us.

But the state workers' union says sunshine law requests show numerous programs on the proposed chopping block.

"Foster care services, crisis nursery services, child abuse and neglect prevention services, emergency child care, inspections at residential care facilities, long term care facilities, basic stuff, this is not like eliminating the cream and getting skim milk," says Bradley Harmon, a Missouri Department of Social Services Employee who is also the president of the state workers' union.

Among the people at Wednesday's demonstration was Melanie Shouse.

She's a struggling small business owner who could only afford a catastrophic insurance policy.

So ever since she was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, she's become dependant on the state, specifically Missouri Medicaid to assist her with chemotherapy treatments.

Melanie is now concerned that the health services that she now depends on could be on the chopping block as well.

"Well it will affect people like myself all over the state who are really counting on Missouri Medicaid to fill the gaps in their health coverage," Shouse worries.

"The cuts that are being proposed now are cutting bone, there's no fat left, there's no muscle left, we are dismantling our social safety net system," says Harmon.

These proposed cuts also put Governor Nixon in a tough spot politically.

Many of the people demonstrating Wednesday, including those with the state workers union worked to get Nixon elected.

They are now asking for a meeting with the Governor, and are suggesting things like a proposal to change the state's tax structure to bring in more revenue.

"I'm counting on him (Nixon) to do what he said he was going to do when he was running for office, which would put the needs of ordinary working Missourians first," says Harmon.

Democratic State Representative Jeanette Mott Oxford was also at Wednesday's demonstration.

She thinks the Governor should at the very least postpone any cuts to social, senior, or health services.

Mott Oxford believes the proposed cuts would end up costing the state in the long run.

"I can't believe it will save money, because if you take money out of crisis nurseries, (for instance), you put kids into foster care which is very expensive," Mott Oxford says. "One of the easiest places to look is when you cut money in the mental health budget. It means that people who could get medication and services in their neighborhood don't get treated, and they wind up making stupid choices that get them in jail, which is expensive."

And while it wouldn't be on the table until the next legislative session Mott Oxford is the one behind a proposal to change in the way the Missouri tax system works.

She wants to adjust the state's tax brackets so the wealthiest 20 percent of the population would be forced to contribute more, and the poor would not have to pay as much.

Below is the statement from Governor Nixon's office in its entirety:

"The Governor has asked each state agency to review their budgets for fiscal year 2010 and submit recommendations to the state budget office for proposed cuts. With the challenging budget picture for the foreseeable future, it is vital that Missouri's state government live within its means so we do not find ourselves having to cut core essential services as other states have been forced to do. Each of the recommendations from the agencies is being reviewed, but there have been no decisions made. We expect those decisions to be made within the next few weeks."

- Scott Holste, Press Secretary to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon


KSDK