The Neoliberal Attack on Social Security

by Alan Nasser

Among Obama’s principal tasks right now are to reverse his dwindling popularity and to bolster the Democrats’ chances in the the upcoming fall elections. These are not unrelated objectives. He’s got to get people to perceive him as on their side with respect to things that matter, and matter big, to the electorate, and to credibly distinguish himself from the Republicans on these same issues. After all, the cardinal political objective of liberal Democrats is to keep Republicans out of office.

Rasmussen Reports reveals that Obama’s popularity has plunged in the last three months As of Sunday, 43 percent of the nation’s voters “Strongly Disapprove” of his performance as president. Obama’s weekly radio address on Saturday was an effort to endear himself to the gullible by showing that he defends their most fundamental interests against clear and present Republican danger. With titanic irony, he chose Social Security as the issue that makes the difference.
Continue reading Corporate Democrats Campaign against Privatization Now but Plan to Cut Social Security after the Election →

Bob Stewart (left), a member of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees and Randy Shannon (right), Treasurer of the 4th CD’s Progressive Democrats of America, hold sign while others sign messages at Congressman Altmire’s Aliquippa office.  ‘We just want him to state in plain language that he will not vote for cutbacks to Social Security. So far, he has refused, and that’s the message we are writing on the sheets we a delivering here today.”

The next vigil to protest Altmire’s intention to cut social security will be on September 15th at noon, 2110 McLean St., Aliquippa.

By John Mulcahy

How to Deal with the Blue Dog

and Still Defeat the Republicans—

PDA Breakfast Meeting Discusses the 2010 Election

 by Carl Davidson

About 40 seasoned Progressive Democrat activists from the 4^th CD gathered on Aug. 7 at the Candlelight Lounge in Economy, PA for a two-hour breakfast discussion. The hot topic of the day was the District’s Blue Dog Congressman, Jason Altmire, and what to do about him in the upcoming election and beyond.

It was not an easy question. The people in the buffet line putting tasty scrambled eggs, sausage and home fries on their plates were a cross section of Beaver County’s best political fighters—steelworkers, trade union organizers, African-American community leaders, retirees, postal and construction workers, teachers, social workers and day care workers, and a few candidates and local elected officials. Almost all of them had worked very hard four years ago to replace the GOP’s right-winger, Melissa Hart with Jason Altmire in Congress. While there was little naiveté about politicians in this dining room, they had still expected more from Altmire, especially given the distressed condition of the working class and small business in the area.

Continue reading What to do about Blue Dog Cong. Altmire: PDA Holds Breakfast Discussion →

Attacking Social Security

By PAUL KRUGMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/opinion/16krugman.html?_r=1&hp

Click twice to watch. You have to click a second time, ‘Watch on YouTube’, to start the Video



Public Opposes Cutting Social Security To Trim Deficit: New Poll

First Posted: 08-11-10 10:38 AM   |   Updated: 08-11-10 12:18 PM

Social Security turns 75 this week and remains an intensely popular program with voters of all ages, who strongly oppose cutting it to reduce the deficit, according to a new survey paid for by AARP and conducted by GfK Roper.

The poll, which was provided exclusively to HuffPost, finds that 85 percent of adults oppose cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit; 72 percent “strongly oppose” doing so.

Numbers like that simply don’t appear in surveys of almost any other national issue that is subject to debate.

Continue reading Cut Social Security? Public Says No! Cong. Altmire Says mumble mumble blah blah can’t say no. →

Labor Fights Back for Living Wages and Jobs For All

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 07/20/2010 – 3:08pm.

SHAMUS COOKE FOR BUZZFLASH

If the U.S. economy eventually recovers and current trends continue, U.S. workers won’t be celebrating in the streets. The corporate establishment has made it clear that a “strong recovery” depends on U.S. workers making “great sacrifices” in the areas of wages, health care, pensions, and more ominously, reductions in so-called “entitlement programs” — Social Security, Medicare, and other social services.

These plans have been discussed at length in corporate think tanks for years, and only recently has the mainstream media begun a coordinated attack to convince American workers of the “necessity” of adopting these policies. The New York Times speaks for the corporate establishment as a whole when it writes:

“American workers are overpaid, relative to equally productive employees elsewhere doing the same work [China for example]. If the global economy is to get into balance, that gap must close.”

and:

“The recession shows that many workers are paid more than they’re worth…The global wage gap has been narrowing [because U.S. workers’ wages are shrinking], but recent labor market statistics in the United States suggest the adjustment has not gone far enough.”

The New York Times solution? “Both moderate inflation to cut real wages [!] and a further drop in the dollar’s real trade-weighted value [monetary inflation to shrink wages] might be acceptable.” (November 11, 2009).

The business journal, The Atlantic, agrees:

“So how do we keep wages high in the U.S.? We don’t…U.S. workers cannot ultimately continue to have higher wages relative to those in other nations [China, India, etc.] who compete in the same industries.”

President Obama speaks less bluntly about the wage subject for political purposes, but he wholeheartedly agrees with the above opinions, especially when he repeatedly said:

“We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity, where we consume less [as a result of lower wages] at home and send more exports abroad.”

Continue reading Labor Fights Back for Living Wages and Jobs For All →