Headlines
Whatever Happened to Hope and Change?
Think back to 2008. The words and rhetoric were magical. Transformative, change, change to win, hope. Progressives could paint their dreams and ideals on candidate Obama, and candidate Obama encouraged them to do so. We could believe in a new…
Saving Social Security: Why New Proposals Are Drawing Fire
On April 10, President Barack Obama released his $1.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2014, which included a controversial — but not altogether surprising — plan to change how Social Security benefits are calculated. Rather than using the Consumer Price…
Record 8.9 Million People Are Now On Disability — And Getting Younger
The nation’s disability rolls continued to climb sharply, as 76,983 workers enrolled in the Social Security Disability Insurance program in April, according to new data from the Social Security Administration. More than 300,000 have joined the program so far this…
Don’t blame boomers for Social Security dilemma
We baby boomers get blamed for just about every economic hiccup, because there are so many of us. And our children are particularly furious because they believe the crisis in Social Security, which may affect their ability to retire, can…
President Obama’s Predictable Budget: More Spending, More Tax Increases
President Obama tells us in the Overview to his Fiscal Year 2014 Budget just released last week that his budget proposes, “more than $2 in spending cuts for every $1 of new revenue from closing tax loopholes and reducing tax…
Out of Balance
Earlier this month, President Obama released his fiscal year 2014 budget, which calls for $1.1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade, cuts of $400 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, and alterations to Social Security’s benefit rate worth about…
Social Security Cuts: Chained CPI is Obama’s Grand Compromise
Social Security was created as a way to protect the well-being of retired American citizens. Currently, new changes are being proposed that may upset the spirit behind the Social Security Act of 1935, but these changes are only brought up…
Column: Obama irking Democrats but still needs them _ Republicans, too _ for agenda passage
He wants to take on the expensive Democratic sacred cows of Social Security and Medicare. He doesn’t agree with a judge and women’s rights groups that girls of any age should have easy access to emergency contraception. He has hinted…
Obama’s Budget Revives Benefits as Divisive Issue
Whether or not Republicans ever agree to a budget deal with President Obama, one thing seems certain: now that he has officially put Social Security and Medicare benefits on the negotiating table, opponents on his party’s left will make that an…
2.3 Million Petitioners Urge Rejection of ‘Chained-CPI’ Social Security Cut
US Senator Bernie Sanders, Congressman Mark Takano, Congressman Mark Pocan, Congressman Rick Nolan and leaders of organizations that oppose President Obama’s anticipated assault on Social Security went to the White House Tuesday to present petitions signed by 2.3-million Americans who reject the president’s proposal for “chained-CPI.”…