Earlier
this week, President Barack Obama indicated that cuts to Social
Security and Medicare would be “on the table” when he met
with congressional leaders to discuss the deficit crisis and the
national debt. According to the
Washington Post, Obama now supports a plan that would slash Medicare
spending and Social Security benefits.
As part of ongoing debt negotiations,
Obama is seeking $3 to $4 trillion in deficit reductions over the
next decade. This is twice what the president had proposed earlier.
Although officials have not said exactly what types of cuts are being
considered, cost-of-living increases to Social Security would almost
certainly be attacked.
“Everybody
acknowledged that there is going to be pain involved politically on
all sides,” Obama said to reporters after the meeting.
The
“pain” Obama is referring to would overwhelmingly affect
working-class families and retirees, not the corporate interests he
represents. For workers, that pain means deep cuts to their Social
Security retirement and disability benefits, and possibly eliminating
medical coverage for the elderly and indigent. In other words, Obama
is willing to sell out workers and retirees
in order to keep taxes low for big corporations and banks and their
wealthy shareholders.
However, it
should be noted that both Social Security,
a social insurance program, and
Medicare, health insurance coverage for those 65 and over and those
under 65 who are permanently disabled,
are independently funded through payroll taxes. In fact, Social
Security
continues to run annual surpluses and remains capable of paying
scheduled benefits in full for nearly three decades. It currently
has a $2.6 trillion surplus and does not contribute at all to the
national debt.
Obama’s proposal
of new public spending cuts would come in return for Republican
backing of new tax hikes on corporations and wealthy households. At a
town hall-style event with the social network site Twitter, Obama
criticized Republicans for opposing tax increases in talks so far.
And while Congressional Democrats are expected to initially push back
against any changes to Medicare and Social Security, we cannot count
on them to defend workers’ interests. Obama, a Democrat, has
consistently been making the case that cuts to “entitlement
programs”—programs that workers fought for and earned—need to
be considered as part of any deal to reduce the deficit.
Endless
money for war
While much of the budgetary talks in Washington
have centered so far on minimally raising taxes for corporations and
the rich while cutting Social Security and Medicare for workers, far
less attention is being paid to the growing cost of the U.S. wars
overseas. A new study from Brown University has estimated that the
true cost of the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now
Libya will wind up costing approximately $4 trillion—far more than
the Bush or Obama administrations were willing to admit. The authors
of the report disclose that because the wars have been financed
almost entirely by borrowing, $185 billion in interest has already
been paid on war spending, and another $1 trillion could accrue in
interest alone through 2020.
And
while the U.S. ruling class does not seem to mind bankrupting the
country to fund endless and expensive wars, workers are told that
there is no money for jobs, schools, childcare, clinics and now
Social Security and Medicare.
How do we stop the cuts to our benefits and
education?
We need to build a system for the people and by
the people so we can keep the gains that we fought hard for. We need
to keep up the fight in the streets and build a movement that will
make real change.
Hands off Social Security and Medicare!
