Kerry Urges Republicans to “Live Up to Sacrifice” of Soldiers

By: Nick Ottens (Diary)  |  November 20th at 02:09 PM  | 

With all President Barack Obama’s lambasting of Republicans for supposedly “putting party before country,” I honestly hadn’t expected a Democrat to criticize conservative lawmakers more vehemently for their “intransigence” before the election but Senator John Kerry did on NBC’s Meet the Press today. Republicans, said Kerry, had made “the calculation politically” to block a comprehensive deficit reduction effort “to wait until next year and just | Read More »

America’s Looming Entitlement Disaster

By: Nick Ottens (Diary)  |  January 7th at 11:40 AM  | 

After billions in stimulus spending and bailing out banks and automakers, America’s public finances are in dire straits. Last year, the federal deficit reached almost $1.5 trillion while the debt has grown to $14 trillion, equaling the total annual economic output of the United States. Americans may need to brace for austerity but plans to rein in spending are few and controversial. Republicans have pledged | Read More »

Debt Commission Proposes Deep Budget Cuts

By: Nick Ottens (Diary)  |  November 11th at 09:59 AM  | 

Members of the president’s debt commission have proposed deep budget cuts in order to rein in government spending in the United States. Entitlement programs as Medicare and Social Security, which are responsible for the brunt of federal spending, would be hit especially hard. The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, created by President Barack Obama in January of this year, was not supposed to | Read More »

Should Washington Leave Social Security Alone?

By: Nick Ottens (Diary)  |  September 5th at 12:22 PM  | 

Ezra Klein likes to think so. In Newsweek he urges lawmakers not to mess with Social Security in order to restore balance to the federal budget. Popular wisdom has it has Social Security is financially unsustainable. Klein disputes that. He notes that, over the next 75 years, the program’s shortfall will equal approximately 0.7 percent of GDP. That isn’t a crisis, he attests. “It’s a | Read More »

Socializing Social Security Even Further

By: Nick Ottens (Diary)  |  August 21st at 07:19 AM  | 

President Barack Obama may wish to preserve Social Security forever, he certainly doesn’t intend to preserve it in its current form. The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House-created commission studying the future of Social Security is considering: [...] raising the retirement age, which is now set to reach age 67 in 2027, specific cuts under consideration include lowering benefits for wealthier retires and | Read More »

Obama: Preserve Social Security “Forever”

By: Nick Ottens (Diary)  |  August 14th at 09:55 AM  | 

President Barack Obama used the anniversary of Social Security to accuse the opposition of wanting to destroy it. In his weekly address to the nation, Obama said that he had an “obligation” to keep Franklin D. Roosevelt’s monumental pension legislation intact—”today, tomorrow and forever.” According to the president, Republicans are “pushing to make privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda if they | Read More »