Disaster capitalism in full effect: using default Armageddon to gut earned benefits programs
by digby
I noted on twitter yesterday that Village elder Bob Woodward was on TV pimping his book called The Price of Politics which apparently calls for cuts to the so-called "entitlements". John Amato documented the atrocity:
WOODWARD: In this book, you can see there are some ideas that they both have, believe it or not, that would be good for the country, be good for everyone. For instance, entitlement cuts.
TAPPER: Right. Everybody agrees that the current state of these social safety net programs is on an unsustainable path.
WOODWARD: Totally unsustainable. When I interviewed the president about this for the book, he said, oh, yes, it's bad politics for Democrats but then he went on to say it's untenable to not do this.
Now, how much have we cut or reformed entitlements in the Obama presidency? Zero. They need to get on with that task. This is where Paul Ryan, maybe has come up with a good idea.
TAPPER: Big bargain, yes.
WOODWARD: Yes -- well, at least do some reform on entitlements and do something that's really serious about tax reform. That's what needs to be fixed.
I want to give a big shout-out to Jake Tapper, who is usually much more nuanced than this, for helping push the meme that "entitlements" are on an "unsustainable path" --- as if we're careening into a disaster on these programs any minute. At a time when we may be on the verge of a real economic cataclysm at the hands of lunatics, even discussing a bogus deficit "crisis" years down the road is truly destructive. In fact, everyone should ask themselves why we would even be talking about this with average Americans economically struggling right this minute and the Republicans are threatening to default on the debt and send the world careening into chaos. It's textbook disaster capitalism. You can look it up.
I guess we have to keep reminding people that SS is fine for another two decades and that "fixing" whatever shortfall might exist within the funding stream does not require benefits cuts. Indeed, we need to start looking at raising benefits because it just isn't going to be enough as it is. (The idea of cutting desperately needed benefits for our own citizens so we can afford to continue to enrich the Military Industrial Complex is sickening.)
Also too: Medicare and other assorted health care costs are coming down and we should probably see if the health care reforms might just solve that problem too before we start slashing away with a meat-ax at medicare. And just for shits and giggles it might be worth a mention that the deficit projections are already plummeting due to the austerity that's already been inflicted on the nation over the past few years and point out that the only thing that's stopping it from dropping even more precipitously are the government policies that are holding back employment and economic growth.
Sigh. It look like deficit fever is spiked once again and everyone just gets delirious whenever it happens.
Anyway, Woodward must be awfully happy to see this:
Officials say House Republicans are offering to pass legislation to avert a default and end the partial government shutdown as part of a package that includes cuts in benefit programs.
Senior aides to Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor outlined the proposal at a late-night White House meeting Thursday with senior administration officials.
In addition to ending the shutdown and increasing the debt limit, the proposal includes an easing of the across-the-board spending cuts that began taking effect a year ago, and replacing them with curbs in benefit programs that Obama himself has backed.
.