Is Kuhl still a phase-out man?
The aptly-named John Boehner — the new bagman for Jack Abramoff Republican House Majority Leader — will be in town doing a fundraiser for Kuhl on Sunday. It seems that Boehner thinks it is time for the House “get serious” about phasing-out (or what’s the euphemsim they like? “privatizing”?) Social Security.
Maybe it’s time to find out what Randy Kuhl thinks about phasing out Social Security? Is he still for phasing it out? Why not give him a call and let us know in the comments what his office says? That is, if you can get a straight answer.
Related posts:
- no word from Kuhl office on Social Security privatization/phase-out
- Kuhl turnaround on Social Security privatization — 180 degrees or a full 360?
- NY-29: Randy Kuhl becomes a Democrat with regards to Social Security
- Remember when Randy Kuhl was pushing Bush’s Social Security Privatization plan?
- Kuhl and staffer on war: don’t blame me, I just work here
Now, now. You know that “Rubber Stamp” Kuhl and the GOP are going to claim that Social Security is in economic crises despite all evidence to the contrary and that “privatization” will fix it. They will won’t stop pushing this issue because Wall Street and banks will make billions in transaction fees if they can play with the money instead of leaving it T-Bills.
Also, since it is your private account, people who make more will get more or else be allowed to “opt out” of the system because it benefits them less, leaving the lower income Americans to pay for everything. It’s still the GOP philosophy of “the rich deserve to be richer and the poor deserve to be poorer.”
I almost hope that the Republicans keep pushing this issue. American voters are not as stupid as the Republicans think and this may be the issue that gets them out of office.
According to the business section of today’s NY Times,
“Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., delivering his first public remarks since taking office last month, pledged today to work with Democrats to revamp Social Security and Medicare, and in a gesture aimed at Bush administration critics he said he recognized that the economy was not benefiting all Americans. Amid this country’s strong economic expansion, many Americans simply aren’t feeling the benefits,†Mr. Paulson said in a speech at Columbia Business School. “Many aren’t seeing significant increases in their take-home pay. Their increases in wages are being eaten up by high energy prices and rising health care costs, among others.”
The GOP has finally figured out that we know that we are not better off, no matter how many times they’ve told us we are. But they are still playing their old game of proposing initiatives that do exactly the opposite of what they claim.
Property values are uncertain and have dropped in many areas. When the stocks dove in the late 90s many people lost 30-40% of their savings right before retirment. Enron employees lost everything. The only thing that anyone can really count on is social security. Unless we let GOP and Randy “Rubber Stamp” Kuhl “get serious” and “fix” the problem.
There is one change that needs to be made. Get rid of cap! Why do you stop paying at 90K? A person who makes 500K in a year should pay the tax on the whole 500k. Another regressive tax where poorer people have pay a larger percent of their income than rich people. And add in taxes for executive stock options, bonuses, etc! The CEOs (like mine) have been making big bonuses by reducing employee pensions and then moving the pension funds over to the profit side of the books.
I saw that about Paulson. And to the extent that Social Security will be a big problem down the road (which isn’t clear), removing the cap would most likely solve it. As is often the case, there’s a simple solution — trouble is, it involves askind the super-wealthy to pay their share, so the GOP wil never consider it.
Don’t we already know where Kuhl stands? Didn’t he co-sponsor the privitization bill last year until our local MoveOn chapters hounded him enough at his “town meetings” that he took his name off?
And he would’ve gotten away with it, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!