“Imagine the world they want…”

Conservatives/Tea Party want to end our current entitlement programs, scaling them back and/or privatize them. Members of the National Commission of Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, established by the President, are supposed to review government programs and develop recommendations to balance the federal budget by 2015 and review long-term prospects for entitlement financing (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid).

The political conservatives are working to influence the work of the Commission. They falsely assert that Social Security is going broke; they are promoting ideas such as raising the retirement age, changing benefits formulas, changing cost-of-living adjustment formulas, creating personal savings accounts within Social Security.

They also will not support new taxes to help balance the budget. Instead they are advocating cuts in social programs.

Imagine the world they want, in which Social Security contributions would be subject to the vagaries of the stock market (and provide enormous profits for Wall Street) and social programs would be cut back drastically, depriving the old, the sick and the poor of already diminished help.

Forces to counter the efforts of the conservatives are already working to block bad ideas, promoting letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, raising payroll taxes modestly for upper-income workers, and raising the limits on earnings that are taxable to fund Social Security.

Make your opinions known to those who must protect our entitlement programs by legislating with compassion and honesty.

Thank you,
Esther
esther@yeswecanli.org

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