Bankers Swimming over Fiscal Cliff
All posts by randyshannon
House Democratic Caucus Head: No Cuts to Social Security
Rep. Becerra to Obama, Democratic leaders: Don’t mess with Social Security
By Mike Lillis – 01/10/13 02:34 PM ET
Breaking with the White House and other Democratic leaders, the head of the House Democratic Caucus suggested this week that he’ll oppose any budget package that includes Social Security cuts.
Both President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have signaled a willingness to support a move to index future Social Security updates to the so-called chained consumer price index (CPI), which would reduce projected benefits over the long term.
But Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said that he’s not ready to back such a change, even as part of a much larger budget package.
“We know Republicans are interested in cutting Social Security and Medicare, [and] perhaps there are some [Democrats] who would say, ‘If that’s what it takes to reach a big deal, we’ll do that,’ ” Becerra said Thursday in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program. “I’m not yet convinced that simply because Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare, even though there’s no justification for doing it … that we should do that.”
Pelosi raised eyebrows last month when she defended Obama’s support of the chained CPI as part of a broad “fiscal-cliff” deal. Although the provision was not included in the final agreement, liberal critics were irate that top Democrats were ready to accept some Social Security cuts as part of the package.
Becerra, the fourth-ranking House Democrat, was quick this week to praise Pelosi for her work in searching for a long-term strategy to rein in deficit spending. But he warned that he’s ready to break with her and other party leaders on the Social Security issue as the deficit talks progress.
PDA Year 2012 Review
Congressional Progressive Caucus on Chained CPI
Begin Global Insurrection Against Banker Occupation
by Randy Shannon
December 21, 2012
Check!
Our move.
The right wing has collapsed.
The fiscal landscape will now be negotiated between the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Corporate Democrats. This will be a defining moment for the progressives in Congress and their base in labor, PDA, and other progressive organizations. If the movement base unites around core demands and the Congressional Progressive Caucus holds firm, our movement will take off. If the CPC wavers and crumbles it will be over for the Progressive Democrats.
Now we must shift from protest to our opening gambit:
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a green jobs Marshall Plan
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big cut in military spending
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carbon tax
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Wall Street transaction tax
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expansion of Medicare coverage,
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cancellation of student debt
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restructuring of home mortgages.
December 21, 2012 begins the global insurrection against banker occupation!
Proposed Social Security Cut Harsh Blow to Minorities
A Social Security cut could lead to higher Latino and black elder poverty
Posted December 19, 2012 at 12:53 pm by Algernon Austin
As my colleagues have shown, the “chained” cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security being discussed between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner is a cut to benefits. The AARP Public Policy Institute’s report, Social Security: A Key Retirement Income Source for Older Minorities, helps us to think about how this cut might affect different racial groups.
Nearly one-in-five (18.7 percent) of the Hispanic elderly lives in poverty. For African Americans, the rate is one-in-six (17.1 percent) (Figure A). A cut to Social Security benefits runs the risk of significantly increasing these rates.
Latinos and blacks tend to have lower lifetime earnings and this fact results in lower levels of Social Security income. But it is also the case that these groups have less wealth and therefore depend on Social Security more. Figure B shows that roughly one-in-four Latino (25.4 percent) and black (26.3 percent) Social Security beneficiaries rely on Social Security for 100 percent of their income. For these individuals, Social Security cuts will hurt the most.
Pittsburgh’s Largest Anti-Union Employer Charged by NLRB
UPMC charged with union violations
NLRB files complaint against health system
December 20, 2012 12:03 am
By Ann Belser / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An ongoing dispute between the UPMC health system and a union working to organize service and maintenance workers at three Pittsburgh hospitals escalated Wednesday, when the National Labor Relations Board charged UPMC with violating federal laws regarding employees’ rights to organize a union.
In a 30-page complaint against the Pittsburgh health care provider, the government detailed a pattern of intimidation of employees to discourage union-organizing efforts and retaliate against those the health provider knew were engaged in union activities.
Robert W. Chester, the regional director of the labor relations board, said Wednesday that it was the biggest case brought against a single employer in the four years that he has headed the Pittsburgh office.
UPMC has denied the allegations. A hearing is scheduled for February.
The complaint seeks to have the hospitals repay any suspended employees for lost time at work, and to reinstate and pay back wages to employees fired for union organizing. The board is also wants the health provider to allow the union access to bulletin boards where employee notices are normally posted and to expunge unlawful policies.
Continue reading Pittsburgh’s Largest Anti-Union Employer Charged by NLRB
Rep. John Lewis Slams Proposed Cut to Social Security
John Lewis Slams Obama’s Fiscal Cliff Proposal to Cut Social Security
By Lauren Victoria Burke
Crew of 42
December 19, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/c2rth2a
Rep. John Lewis quickly came out in opposition against
President Obama’s latest fiscal cliff proposal which
included a cut to Social Security.
“After seniors suffered through two years during some
of the roughest economic times in recent American
history without seeing a Cost of Living Increase, there
are some suggesting a significant change to the formula
used to calculate cost of living adjustments for Social
Security beneficiaries. An obscure term is being used
to refer to this cut—“the chained Consumer Price Index
or chained CPI”.
Continue reading Rep. John Lewis Slams Proposed Cut to Social Security
Progressive Caucus Head Rejects “Chained CPI” Cut in Social Security Benefits
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2012
Grijalva Rejects Potential Social Security Benefit Cuts Through “Chained CPI” in Latest Floated Year-End Financial Agreement
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today released the following statement on the potential inclusion of a so-called chained Consumer Price Index feature in the latest floated version of a financial agreement.
“Federal law has always prohibited Social Security from contributing to the deficit. Any talk of shrinking the program to ‘save money’ is flawed from the start because Social Security is not part of the national budget in the same way as military spending – it’s paid for through a dedicated payroll tax separate from general budgeting.
“Some have suggested that Social Security benefits should be based on a chained Consumer Price Index (CPI), which assumes that when the price of one item rises, people buy something else – no matter how popular or necessary that original item might be. If this change goes into effect, Social Security benefits would stop reflecting the rising prices of popular goods.
“The average Social Security recipient rakes in a whopping $13,000 a year. If we pass chained CPI, projected annual cuts for a typical retiree would be about $560 a year by age 75, $984 a year by age 85 and $1,400 a year by age 95.
“The less money our Social Security recipients – including 9 million veterans – are able to spend, the less money goes to the businesses that create jobs. Chained CPI makes life harder for millions of retirees, weakens Social Security and doesn’t reduce the deficit by a penny. It’s a Beltway fig leaf that I will never support, and I call on my colleagues to make their feelings known as soon as possible before this becomes yet another piece of conventional wisdom that makes things worse.
“Lifting the cap on high earners paying into Social Security is a real fix that would make the program solvent indefinitely. If we want to talk about solutions, let’s talk about that, not inventing reasons to take money from American retirees.”
The Icelandic Success Story
The Icelandic Success Story
December 8, 2012
http://azizonomics.com/2012/12/08/the-icelandic-success-story/
Emotionally, I love Iceland’s financial policies since the crash of 2008:
Iceland went after the people who caused the crisis — the bankers who created and sold the junk products — and tried to shield the general population.
But what Iceland did is not just emotionally satisfying. Iceland is recovering, while the rest of the Western world — which bailed out the bankers and left the general population to pay for the bankers’ excess — is not.
Few countries blew up more spectacularly than Iceland in the 2008 financial crisis. The local stock market plunged 90 percent; unemployment rose ninefold; inflation shot to more than 18 percent; the country’s biggest banks all failed.
This was no post-Lehman Brothers recession: It was a depression.
Since then, Iceland has turned in a pretty impressive performance. It has repaid International Monetary Fund rescue loans ahead of schedule. Growth this year will be about 2.5 percent, better than most developed economies. Unemployment has fallen by half. In February, Fitch Ratings restored the country’s investment-grade status, approvingly citing its “unorthodox crisis policy response.”
So what exactly did Iceland do?
First, they create an aid package for homeowners:
To homeowners with negative equity, the country offered write-offs that would wipe out debt above 110 percent of the property value. The government also provided means-tested subsidies to reduce mortgage-interest expenses: Those with lower earnings, less home equity and children were granted the most generous support.
Then, they redenominated foreign currency debt into devalued krone, effectively giving creditors a big haircut:
In June 2010, the nation’s Supreme Court gave debtors another break: Bank loans that were indexed to foreign currencies were declared illegal. Because the Icelandic krona plunged 80 percent during the crisis, the cost of repaying foreign debt more than doubled. The ruling let consumers repay the banks as if the loans were in krona.
These policies helped consumers erase debt equal to 13 percent of Iceland’s $14 billion economy. Now, consumers have money to spend on other things. It is no accident that the IMF, which granted Iceland loans without imposing its usual austerity strictures, says the recovery is driven by domestic demand.
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 