Cenk Uygur Rocks
The video below should be required viewing for every Dem politician. This is how to fight back.
Republicans want to eliminate Social Security (and Medicare/Medicaid). And why Democrats aren’t screaming this fact from the rooftops (like Cenk) escapes me. More of this, please!
I’ve wondered why Democrats have seemed so disengaged on the economy. Why aren’t they calling a special session of Congress, letting Republicans filibuster bills meant to help the economy. Why not make endless floor speeches about it? I just don’t get it. Republicans use the power of the minority in ridiculous degrees. Why don’t Democrats use the power of the majority?
Cenk was too rabid… he did not effectively communicate the main point, which is that the Social Security fund is not an actual vault full of money, and it isn’t supposed to be. He said it once, but it got lost when they started batting talking points back and forth.
The point is that the rich borrowed Social Security money for their tax cuts, and now they don’t want to pay it back; they want us to pay it back via cuts in our standard of living.
It is a common misconception that Social Security ought to be a giant vault full of money. But that’s not the way it works. It is a future liability, backed by Treasury notes. Every time politicians stumble across this fact, they wave it around like it is some kind of moral flaw. But it is not.
The government cannot accumulate large amounts of money, because if it did it would have to invest it in private equities and then the markets would be distorted and the temptation for political meddling and favoritism would be irresistable.
Comment by Unstable Isotope at 9:05 am:
“I’ve wondered why Democrats have seemed so disengaged on the economy. Why aren’t they calling a special session of Congress, letting Republicans filibuster bills meant to help the economy. Why not make endless floor speeches about it? I just don’t get it. Republicans use the power of the minority in ridiculous degrees. Why don’t Democrats use the power of the majority?”
U.I.,
The D and R’s are not competitors engaged in a political contest.
They’re actors in a political exhibition, analogous to the Harlem Globetrotters and Washington Generals. It’s entertaining to watch, but you’re just in the audience, not on the court. The R’s and ‘Trotters always win because the script says so.
Do you think that he’ll stay with TYT or be b(r)ought into the MSNBC?
I don’t have CATV/SAT; the way he can cut loose on the interwebs is inspirational. He may be too hot for a regular slot.
Oh, on topic: Those stinking MFrs are still going with the old “privatization” of SS gag. Even a crushing global recession won’t penetrate the numbskulls. Pray tell again exactly who is destroying my America?
I also think he was too over the top. I takes away from the message. Turns it into just another shout session. No, that’s not they way to do it. Now if you simply want to say Social Security is not about numbers it’s about people. That we who support Social Security as is, are totally committed to keeping it a solid safety net. A dependable stipend all Americans can depend on. We cannot ask in good conscience, nor can we expect, our blue collar American workers, men and women in our manufacturing plants, our carpenters, stone masons, bridge builders, auto mechanics, truck drivers, all those people who earn by the strength of their back, the sweat of their brow, is it Christian to ask them to postpone retirement until their bodies are totally exhausted in the pursuit of a days wage? Is that what we have come to? The man on Wall Street can shuffle money past 65, but the women on the hard floor of McDonald’s deserves a dignified retirement before being totally spent. Words like that.
think123,that was well put.
I agree, think. Your opinion will be worth more than shit as soon as you feel free to adopt some of your fellow retirees with the few millions you have stashed away for your own leisure life. All you and your generation’s other odious limo liberals do is get on your high horse and then saddle it all up on the backs of the same McDonald’s workers you bemoan both young and old — but mostly young. You’re a bunch of generational thieves and greedy self dealing hypocrites. You’re also about to get pushed down the stairs politically pops.