Senate Democrats Named to Super Committee
Our first reaction…why didn’t anyone from the Senate’s Social Security Caucus made the cut? And Senator Kerry and Murray’s support for the Bowles/Simpson plan is certainly disappointing.Here are just some of the reactions this morning:Reid Picks Murray, Kerry, Baucus For Super Committee ? Here?s The Upshot ? TPM Cafe?Entitlement defenders were hoping for a more progressive bunch than this. But the key on the Democratic side of the new committee isn’t so much whether members will agree in principle to some entitlement cuts — most say they will — it’s whether they’ll require as a concession that Republicans agree to increase tax revenues. And through that prism, there’s some reason for optimism.?Harry Reid’s Super Committee Picks: Patty Murray, Max Baucus, John Kerry ? Huffington Post?The choices are not particularly trusted in liberal circles either, in part because of concerns that moneyed interests may come in to play when it comes time to negotiate. In FY 2009, for instance, companies in Murray’s home state of Washington received $5.2 billion in defense contracts. Boeing Inc. is the fourth biggest contributor to Murray over the course of her career, according to data gathered by the Center for Responsive Politics.More broadly, good government advocates were concerned that her post atop the DSCC, which comes with significant fundraising responsibilities, would influence her approach to the committee.?Reid Names Murray, Baucus and Kerry to New Deficit Panel ? CQ Today (by subscription)?While Baucus and Murray seem obvious choices for the joint committee, the selection of Kerry is more surprising. As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry has not played as prominent role in fiscal policy debates. He does, however, serve on the Finance Committee.In addition to serving on Obama?s fiscal commission, Baucus was a member of the bipartisan, bicameral group led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that unsuccessfully sought a compromise debt reduction plan to accompany the debt ceiling increase.The low-key Murray, who as secretary of the Democratic Caucus ranks fourth in the party?s hierarchy in the chamber, has become a prominent voice on fiscal issues during frequent appearances with Reid and other leaders. She is also the No. 2 Democrat on the Budget Committee and chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee that deals with transportation, housing and urban development issues.Murray is one of the few senior Senate Democratic women not up for re-election this cycle and is chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.Picking powerful members from the Finance and Appropriations committees makes sense, because the new panel will have jurisdiction over tax, spending and budget matters. Baucus and Murray will be able to use their new positions to ensure that their committees? interests are represented on the new panel.?Boehner will name the other co-chair. Just as Reid chose a party loyalist, Boehner is likely to choose a stout conservative.Dem official: Murray to be debt panel co-chair ? Associated PressIn a conference call Tuesday with rank and file House Republicans, Boehner said his three selections to the joint committee will be “people of courage who understand the gravity of this situation and are committed to doing what needs to be done,” according an account provided by a House GOP aide. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., are among the names most frequently mentioned by congressional aides and lobbyists as Boehner’s likely picks. Ryan and Camp were also deficit commission members but voted against the co-chairmen’s recommendations, citing tax increases and inadequate cost curbs of federal health care programs.
Promises Made and Promises Broken
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor?s acknowledgment the GOP intends to break the promise of economic security provided to millions of middle-class Americans thanks to Medicare and Social Security offered a welcome dose of debt debate honesty. Anyone who has watched the recent fiscal follies shouldn?t really be surprised by Congressman Cantor?s remarks. It?s just surprising he said it out loud–on camera?in front of millions of Americans.When it comes to promises made and promises broken, it?s clear, many in Washington have made their choices about the kind of America they envision for future generations?and it?s a very different America than we live in today. Washington?s so-called ?fiscal hawks? promise ?shared sacrifice? at the same time they promise to preserve trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthy. They tell the average American we can?t afford to keep our promises of income security for the middle-class while signing pledges promising protection for tax loopholes for corporations collecting billions in profits. It?s time to set the record straight about the American promises that some of our elected officials are ready to break and those they?ve vowed to protect.Broken PromisesMedicare: 47 million seniors receive Medicare in a program that?s more efficient than private insurance which, history has shown, won?t cover older Americans without massive government subsidies. Rather than support system-wide healthcare reform, the House instead voted for the GOP/Ryan budget which would replace Medicare with a voucher system designed to shift costs to seniors and profits to private insurers. America?s promise of guaranteed health coverage for our nation?s retirees is a promise the GOP says it just can?t keep.Social Security: For three-fifths of America?s retirees, Social Security is the majority of their income. While the average $13,000 annual benefit is modest it does keep millions of seniors from poverty each year. Even though Social Security has not contributed to our debt crisis, many in Congress continue to target the program for benefit cuts in a plethora of ways including; raising the retirement age, changing the COLA formula, means testing and privatization. According to Washington?s fiscal hawks this is also another American promise we just can?t keep for the millions of middle-class Americans and their families who will depend on Social Security in the future.If we can?t afford the vital safety net programs which touch the lives of virtually every average American family, what can we afford as a nation? What should be preserved during these difficult economic times? Incredibly, here are the promises conservatives have fought so hard to keep.Promises KeptTax Cuts for the Wealthy: Even though the Bush-era tax cuts have cost the nation $1.7 trillion in reduced revenue, ballooning our debt and showing no evidence of boosting the economy, fiscal hawks promise to continue to fight to protect America?s millionaires and billionaires from losing their tax breaks. At the same time, America?s rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is disappearing.Corporate Tax Loopholes and Giveaways: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, ?In 2010, the tax code included over $1trillion a year in tax expenditures. This far exceeded the cost of Medicare and Medicaid combined ($719 billion), or Social Security ($701 billion), or non-security discretionary programs, which stood at $589 billion or a little over half the cost of tax expenditures. Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economist who served as Chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, wrote last summer that tax expenditures are the single largest source of wasteful and low-priority spending in the federal budget and should be the first place that policymakers go to restrain spending.? Unfortunately, tax expenditures were not addressed in any way in Congress? recent debt deal and Speaker Boehner has promised they won?t be addressed by his GOP appointees to the newly-created ?Super Committee? either.While members of Congress are back in their Districts this month during the Congressional recess, their constituents need to demand a straightforward answer to these questions: Will you sacrifice America?s safety net to preserve tax breaks? Most importantly, what promises to America are you willing to keep and which are you ready to break?
National Committee names New Leader
As Washington debt battle continues, New NCPSSM President/CEO, Max Richtman, vows ?Trading Away America?s Social Safety Net Is Not an Option?
The Board of Directors for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and the National Committee Foundation, today announced Max Richtman, JD, as the new President and Chief Executive Officer, becoming the fourth leader of the national seniors advocacy organization since it?s founding by James Roosevelt in 1982.?Max Richtman has spent most of his career working on behalf of America?s seniors. We need his experience in the trenches, now more than ever, to lead our fight against Washington?s never-ending quest to balance the budget on the backs of seniors and their families. I am confident we are positioned, under Max?s leadership, to take our advocacy to a new level in what could be the fight of our lives to preserve America?s social safety net.? Dr. Carroll Estes, NCPSSN Board ChairRichtman has served at the National Committee since 1989, most recently as its Executive Vice President and acting CEO. He was also a former staff director of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and 16-year veteran of Capitol Hill. Richtman now leads the National Committee at a critical juncture in the history of Social Security and Medicare. ?The threat to millions of Americans who depend on Social Security and Medicare and their families has never been more serious. Over and over again we?ve seen these programs used as bargaining chips in closed-door Washington negotiations where the decisions of a very few could determine the economic security of virtually every American family. The creation of the debt deal?s ?Super Committee? is the latest example of this attempt to end-run the system to fast-track cuts in vital programs. Cutting benefits to millions of middle-class Americans to pay for fiscal mistakes of the past is not the answer to our fiscal woes; however, that is exactly the course being plotted by too many politicians in Washington today.Our three million members and supporters nationwide want fiscal sanity returned to our federal government. They have already paid the price for this failed economy and continue to do so every day. Suggestions that they must continue to pay with benefit cuts, means testing, smaller COLA?s, a higher retirement age, and vouchers so that the wealthy can keep their tax breaks and corporate loopholes demonstrate a growing disconnect between Washington and the nation. We at the National Committee are committed and our members mobilized like never before to ensure Congress understands what?s at stake as a new ?Super Committee? of just twelve members prepares a debt deal that could destroy retirement security for generations of workers.? Max Richtman,NCPSSM President/CEOAs NCPSSM President/CEO, Richtman will build on the National Committee?s past successes to protect and strengthen both programs. He also plans to broaden the committee?s reach on issues such as Medicaid and the Older Americans Act. The National Committee is recognized as one of the leading groups responsible for defeating President Bush?s privatization campaign and for the inclusion of numerous improvements to the Medicare program in the Affordable Care Act.
Not Much to Celebrate…But It’s Something
Literally minutes after the President signed the Debt Deal the Social Security Administration sent this:
Social Security Benefits Will Be Paid On Time(Printer friendly version)Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced today that Social Security payments for August 3rd will be made on time and as scheduled. Payments for August 10th, 17th, and 24th also will be made as scheduled.?I am happy to announce there will be no delay in the payment of August Social Security benefits,? Commissioner Astrue said, ?which should be a relief to those people who were concerned about their benefits. I?m pleased the President and Congress were able to come together in a bipartisan fashion to avoid an interruption in payments.?People still receiving paper checks from Social Security should consider signing up for Direct Deposit, the secure and convenient way to receive Social Security payments. All current beneficiaries must switch to electronic payments by March 1, 2013.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Debt Deal
Reaction from Max Richtman, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Executive VP/Action CEO
?America?s seniors have been terrified by threats that their life-sustaining Social Security checks wouldn?t be delivered this month if the federal government were to default. So there is some good news in this debt deal if it passes; default will not deny millions of American seniors the benefits they?ve earned. However, that?s small consolation because it never should have come to this in the first place.For too long, middle-class Americans and their families have been held hostage while anti-tax crusaders threaten American default unless vital programs, like Social Security and Medicare, are slashed. Unfortunately under this debt deal, those programs will still be under attack?this time by a newly-created ?Super Committee? of just 12 members of Congress tasked to cut programs by $1.5 trillion dollars. This committee plan will be fast-tracked to force it through Congress with no amendments allowed and little time for debate. Americans of all ages and political persuasions know that Social Security and Medicare have not caused this economic crisis and do not support cutting these programs to pay down the debt. Yet, Washington continues to use these vital programs, and the Americans they serve, as bargaining chips in a quest to balance the budget on the backs of working class Americans and their families. Our work is clearly cut out for us. The House Speaker has said he will appoint only ?Super Committee? members opposed to revenue increases. Leaving the debate right where we started?100% benefit cuts and 0% revenue?except this time, the proposal will bypass the normal Congressional process. That makes it even easier to force middle-class benefit cuts to pay for billionaire tax breaks and corporate loopholes. This is no way to run a country. And the over 3 million members and supporters of the National Committee will continue to deliver that message loud and clear, focusing our efforts on this Super Committee as well as the rest of Congress and the White House. ? Max Richtman, Executive Vice President/Acting CEO
Senate Democrats Named to Super Committee
Our first reaction…why didn’t anyone from the Senate’s Social Security Caucus made the cut? And Senator Kerry and Murray’s support for the Bowles/Simpson plan is certainly disappointing.Here are just some of the reactions this morning:Reid Picks Murray, Kerry, Baucus For Super Committee ? Here?s The Upshot ? TPM Cafe?Entitlement defenders were hoping for a more progressive bunch than this. But the key on the Democratic side of the new committee isn’t so much whether members will agree in principle to some entitlement cuts — most say they will — it’s whether they’ll require as a concession that Republicans agree to increase tax revenues. And through that prism, there’s some reason for optimism.?Harry Reid’s Super Committee Picks: Patty Murray, Max Baucus, John Kerry ? Huffington Post?The choices are not particularly trusted in liberal circles either, in part because of concerns that moneyed interests may come in to play when it comes time to negotiate. In FY 2009, for instance, companies in Murray’s home state of Washington received $5.2 billion in defense contracts. Boeing Inc. is the fourth biggest contributor to Murray over the course of her career, according to data gathered by the Center for Responsive Politics.More broadly, good government advocates were concerned that her post atop the DSCC, which comes with significant fundraising responsibilities, would influence her approach to the committee.?Reid Names Murray, Baucus and Kerry to New Deficit Panel ? CQ Today (by subscription)?While Baucus and Murray seem obvious choices for the joint committee, the selection of Kerry is more surprising. As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry has not played as prominent role in fiscal policy debates. He does, however, serve on the Finance Committee.In addition to serving on Obama?s fiscal commission, Baucus was a member of the bipartisan, bicameral group led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that unsuccessfully sought a compromise debt reduction plan to accompany the debt ceiling increase.The low-key Murray, who as secretary of the Democratic Caucus ranks fourth in the party?s hierarchy in the chamber, has become a prominent voice on fiscal issues during frequent appearances with Reid and other leaders. She is also the No. 2 Democrat on the Budget Committee and chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee that deals with transportation, housing and urban development issues.Murray is one of the few senior Senate Democratic women not up for re-election this cycle and is chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.Picking powerful members from the Finance and Appropriations committees makes sense, because the new panel will have jurisdiction over tax, spending and budget matters. Baucus and Murray will be able to use their new positions to ensure that their committees? interests are represented on the new panel.?Boehner will name the other co-chair. Just as Reid chose a party loyalist, Boehner is likely to choose a stout conservative.Dem official: Murray to be debt panel co-chair ? Associated PressIn a conference call Tuesday with rank and file House Republicans, Boehner said his three selections to the joint committee will be “people of courage who understand the gravity of this situation and are committed to doing what needs to be done,” according an account provided by a House GOP aide. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., are among the names most frequently mentioned by congressional aides and lobbyists as Boehner’s likely picks. Ryan and Camp were also deficit commission members but voted against the co-chairmen’s recommendations, citing tax increases and inadequate cost curbs of federal health care programs.
Promises Made and Promises Broken
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor?s acknowledgment the GOP intends to break the promise of economic security provided to millions of middle-class Americans thanks to Medicare and Social Security offered a welcome dose of debt debate honesty. Anyone who has watched the recent fiscal follies shouldn?t really be surprised by Congressman Cantor?s remarks. It?s just surprising he said it out loud–on camera?in front of millions of Americans.When it comes to promises made and promises broken, it?s clear, many in Washington have made their choices about the kind of America they envision for future generations?and it?s a very different America than we live in today. Washington?s so-called ?fiscal hawks? promise ?shared sacrifice? at the same time they promise to preserve trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthy. They tell the average American we can?t afford to keep our promises of income security for the middle-class while signing pledges promising protection for tax loopholes for corporations collecting billions in profits. It?s time to set the record straight about the American promises that some of our elected officials are ready to break and those they?ve vowed to protect.Broken PromisesMedicare: 47 million seniors receive Medicare in a program that?s more efficient than private insurance which, history has shown, won?t cover older Americans without massive government subsidies. Rather than support system-wide healthcare reform, the House instead voted for the GOP/Ryan budget which would replace Medicare with a voucher system designed to shift costs to seniors and profits to private insurers. America?s promise of guaranteed health coverage for our nation?s retirees is a promise the GOP says it just can?t keep.Social Security: For three-fifths of America?s retirees, Social Security is the majority of their income. While the average $13,000 annual benefit is modest it does keep millions of seniors from poverty each year. Even though Social Security has not contributed to our debt crisis, many in Congress continue to target the program for benefit cuts in a plethora of ways including; raising the retirement age, changing the COLA formula, means testing and privatization. According to Washington?s fiscal hawks this is also another American promise we just can?t keep for the millions of middle-class Americans and their families who will depend on Social Security in the future.If we can?t afford the vital safety net programs which touch the lives of virtually every average American family, what can we afford as a nation? What should be preserved during these difficult economic times? Incredibly, here are the promises conservatives have fought so hard to keep.Promises KeptTax Cuts for the Wealthy: Even though the Bush-era tax cuts have cost the nation $1.7 trillion in reduced revenue, ballooning our debt and showing no evidence of boosting the economy, fiscal hawks promise to continue to fight to protect America?s millionaires and billionaires from losing their tax breaks. At the same time, America?s rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is disappearing.Corporate Tax Loopholes and Giveaways: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, ?In 2010, the tax code included over $1trillion a year in tax expenditures. This far exceeded the cost of Medicare and Medicaid combined ($719 billion), or Social Security ($701 billion), or non-security discretionary programs, which stood at $589 billion or a little over half the cost of tax expenditures. Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economist who served as Chairman of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, wrote last summer that tax expenditures are the single largest source of wasteful and low-priority spending in the federal budget and should be the first place that policymakers go to restrain spending.? Unfortunately, tax expenditures were not addressed in any way in Congress? recent debt deal and Speaker Boehner has promised they won?t be addressed by his GOP appointees to the newly-created ?Super Committee? either.While members of Congress are back in their Districts this month during the Congressional recess, their constituents need to demand a straightforward answer to these questions: Will you sacrifice America?s safety net to preserve tax breaks? Most importantly, what promises to America are you willing to keep and which are you ready to break?
National Committee names New Leader
As Washington debt battle continues, New NCPSSM President/CEO, Max Richtman, vows ?Trading Away America?s Social Safety Net Is Not an Option?
The Board of Directors for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and the National Committee Foundation, today announced Max Richtman, JD, as the new President and Chief Executive Officer, becoming the fourth leader of the national seniors advocacy organization since it?s founding by James Roosevelt in 1982.?Max Richtman has spent most of his career working on behalf of America?s seniors. We need his experience in the trenches, now more than ever, to lead our fight against Washington?s never-ending quest to balance the budget on the backs of seniors and their families. I am confident we are positioned, under Max?s leadership, to take our advocacy to a new level in what could be the fight of our lives to preserve America?s social safety net.? Dr. Carroll Estes, NCPSSN Board ChairRichtman has served at the National Committee since 1989, most recently as its Executive Vice President and acting CEO. He was also a former staff director of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and 16-year veteran of Capitol Hill. Richtman now leads the National Committee at a critical juncture in the history of Social Security and Medicare. ?The threat to millions of Americans who depend on Social Security and Medicare and their families has never been more serious. Over and over again we?ve seen these programs used as bargaining chips in closed-door Washington negotiations where the decisions of a very few could determine the economic security of virtually every American family. The creation of the debt deal?s ?Super Committee? is the latest example of this attempt to end-run the system to fast-track cuts in vital programs. Cutting benefits to millions of middle-class Americans to pay for fiscal mistakes of the past is not the answer to our fiscal woes; however, that is exactly the course being plotted by too many politicians in Washington today.Our three million members and supporters nationwide want fiscal sanity returned to our federal government. They have already paid the price for this failed economy and continue to do so every day. Suggestions that they must continue to pay with benefit cuts, means testing, smaller COLA?s, a higher retirement age, and vouchers so that the wealthy can keep their tax breaks and corporate loopholes demonstrate a growing disconnect between Washington and the nation. We at the National Committee are committed and our members mobilized like never before to ensure Congress understands what?s at stake as a new ?Super Committee? of just twelve members prepares a debt deal that could destroy retirement security for generations of workers.? Max Richtman,NCPSSM President/CEOAs NCPSSM President/CEO, Richtman will build on the National Committee?s past successes to protect and strengthen both programs. He also plans to broaden the committee?s reach on issues such as Medicaid and the Older Americans Act. The National Committee is recognized as one of the leading groups responsible for defeating President Bush?s privatization campaign and for the inclusion of numerous improvements to the Medicare program in the Affordable Care Act.
Not Much to Celebrate…But It’s Something
Literally minutes after the President signed the Debt Deal the Social Security Administration sent this:
Social Security Benefits Will Be Paid On Time(Printer friendly version)Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, announced today that Social Security payments for August 3rd will be made on time and as scheduled. Payments for August 10th, 17th, and 24th also will be made as scheduled.?I am happy to announce there will be no delay in the payment of August Social Security benefits,? Commissioner Astrue said, ?which should be a relief to those people who were concerned about their benefits. I?m pleased the President and Congress were able to come together in a bipartisan fashion to avoid an interruption in payments.?People still receiving paper checks from Social Security should consider signing up for Direct Deposit, the secure and convenient way to receive Social Security payments. All current beneficiaries must switch to electronic payments by March 1, 2013.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Debt Deal
Reaction from Max Richtman, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Executive VP/Action CEO
?America?s seniors have been terrified by threats that their life-sustaining Social Security checks wouldn?t be delivered this month if the federal government were to default. So there is some good news in this debt deal if it passes; default will not deny millions of American seniors the benefits they?ve earned. However, that?s small consolation because it never should have come to this in the first place.For too long, middle-class Americans and their families have been held hostage while anti-tax crusaders threaten American default unless vital programs, like Social Security and Medicare, are slashed. Unfortunately under this debt deal, those programs will still be under attack?this time by a newly-created ?Super Committee? of just 12 members of Congress tasked to cut programs by $1.5 trillion dollars. This committee plan will be fast-tracked to force it through Congress with no amendments allowed and little time for debate. Americans of all ages and political persuasions know that Social Security and Medicare have not caused this economic crisis and do not support cutting these programs to pay down the debt. Yet, Washington continues to use these vital programs, and the Americans they serve, as bargaining chips in a quest to balance the budget on the backs of working class Americans and their families. Our work is clearly cut out for us. The House Speaker has said he will appoint only ?Super Committee? members opposed to revenue increases. Leaving the debate right where we started?100% benefit cuts and 0% revenue?except this time, the proposal will bypass the normal Congressional process. That makes it even easier to force middle-class benefit cuts to pay for billionaire tax breaks and corporate loopholes. This is no way to run a country. And the over 3 million members and supporters of the National Committee will continue to deliver that message loud and clear, focusing our efforts on this Super Committee as well as the rest of Congress and the White House. ? Max Richtman, Executive Vice President/Acting CEO