Joan McCarter on DKos: 'Greatest retirement crisis' in history looms large

As is often the case, Joan McCarter is one step ahead the rest of us on timely topics. Today it's the retirement crisis facing American Baby Boomers. And I'm not just saying this because I am one of those Boomers on the verge of retirement. Check out Joan's Daily Kos column here and the daily schedule for our fellow Kossacks posting about the topic this week.

Dear Mr. President: Don't capitulate on "fiscal cliff" negotiations

Kos on Daily Kos posted tonight about President Obama's capitulation on the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations. There's an e-mail petition to sign if you've a mind to. I did. This is what I said, which is part DK boilerplate and part me:

Mr. President: As of today, I am three years away from retirement. I expect to find my investment in Social Security intact when that day comes.

Please don't cave in to Republican blackmail. Stop proposing cuts to Social Security.

Social Security does not contribute even $1 to the deficit, and is 100% solvent for over 20 years according to even the most pessimistic projections. It should not be a part of the fiscal showdown negotiations.

Please live up to your campaign promise of not balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class. 

Note to Wyoming Sens. Enzi and Barrasso and Rep. Lummis: NO CUTS!

Overpass Light Brigade posted this: From the San Diego Labor Council's candlelight event outside Sen. Dianne Feinstein's downtown office to avoid cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs; instead to pressure Congress to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans. NO CUTS!

Tea Party Slim's new bumper sticker: "Wyoming: Love it Unquestionably or Leave It"

I let a few weeks pass before bringing up the election.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Tea Party Slim.

"I understand." I finished off my pumpkin scone. "Bad memories."

He sipped his coffee. "Water under the bridge."

We sat at a small table at the downtown Starbuck's. Two weeks after the historic election. Four more years of Barack Hussein Obama probably looked like an eternity to Slim.

"Is your family well?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yours?"

"Just dandy. What you doing for Thanksgiving?"

"Wife cooking up a storm, as always. Having over a few friends. Son coming up from Denver with his family."

"That's nice."

"Yes it is. You?"

"Kids will be home. We're taking everything over a sick friend's house. She's been in the hospital but can't cook."

Slim sipped his coffee. "That's nice."

"Yes it is."

"Good thing she had insurance, and thank goodness for Medicare. There were complications."

I could tell Slim wanted to say something, maybe a comment about Medicare running out of money and maybe it should be privatized. Instead, he just said, "I hope she gets well soon."

"She's doing better." I sipped my coffee. "Wonder what the State of Wyoming plans to do about the Affordable Care Act?"

"Obamacare," snorted Slim.

At last! "State doesn't do something, get a health exchange going or something similar, feds will step in and run it."

"Federal government can't run anything."

"Not even the military?" I knew this was a sore spot, him being a veteran and all.

"Don't go picking on the military now," Slim said. "It's one thing we do right."

"I'm just saying..."

"You're not a veteran," he said. "I was protecting the U.S.A. while you were a party boy in college, buying kegs with your student loan."

"I never thought of that, Slim. I was probably too busy working two jobs."

Slim harrumphed. "Just don't pick on the military."

"Let's make a deal, Slim. I won't pick on the military and you lay off Medicare and Social Security and state employee pensions."

"Why should I pay for state employee pensions? And why should you get pensions while private sector employees don't?"

"Let's put the shoe on the other foot, Slim. Why should I pay for military pensions and the V.A.?"

"Because we've put in our time and that's part of the deal -- serve your country and you get benefits."

"I could say the exact same thing about my 20-something years as a state employee. I've put in my time, including many years without a raise, and I've contributed to the defined benefits plan. When I retire, I expect benefits."

"You can't compare serving your country with serving the state."

"Why not?"

"It's different, that's all. People put their lives on the line. You're a paper pusher."

"True. But how often was your life in danger? And how much paper did you push around?"

"It was Vietnam..."

"You were off the coast on a big ship, were you not?"

"True..."

"Were you ever actually in Vietnam?"

"Well...."

"Never?"

"We had to arm the planes that went on bombing runs. Dangerous work."

"I'm sure it was." I finished my coffee. "I don't question that. I am thankful you get a pension and can go to the V.A. when needed. So why do you want me to face retirement without a pension and medical coverage?"

"I didn't say that."

"That's what your Tea Party Republican legislators want to do."

"They just want fairness, that's all."

"Look, employers in the private sector want to pay less than minimum wage and no benefits. They get ticked off when they train people and they go to work for the state. Meanwhile, the state can't hire much-needed staff because Wyoming wages are ridiculously low and our legislature is the embarrassment of the nation."

"If you don't like it, you can always retire and move to blue-state Colorado."

"Love it or leave it?"

"I used to have that on a bumper sticker."

"I don't doubt it. Maybe you need a new one, Slim. How about "'Wyoming: Love It Unquestionably Or Leave it?"

"Not bad."

"I know another slogan that might be better."

"What?"

"Wyoming: You Can't Eat the Scenery."

Call in and ask Sen. Enzi about GOP plans to ensure healthy retirements for Wyomingites

Laramie's Nancy Sindelar is a great source for intriguing political happenings around the state. She just alerted me about this:

Thursday, November 15, 7 p.m., Wyoming PBS presents "Wyoming Perspectives: the Future of Medicare and Social Security." This is a discussion with Republican Sen. Mike Enzi; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesperson Mike Fierberg; University of Wyoming professor and economist Anne Alexander; AARP Vice President/Financial Security Jean Setzfand; and AARP Wyoming Director Tim Summers. This is a live call-in show, or you can watch archived copy afterwards. FMI: http://www.wyomingpbs.org/seniors. Email jamend@cwc.edu. Ask live on-air questions: 1-800-495-9788 or wyomingperspectives@wyomingpbs.org. Twitter @WyoPBS, #WyoPBSseniors. 

My first question to Sen. Enzi: Now that the Republican plans for privatizing Social Security and turning Medicare into a voucher system are as dead as Paul Ryan's budget, how do you plan to spend your time in D.C.? And then there's that little question about avoiding the fiscal cliff. How does the GOP plan to deal with that little issue, eh?

Today I stand with Pres. Obama

Pres. Obama draws the line against the Republican war on the middle class.

Daily Kos: Letter to Wyoming's Sen. Enzi on Social Security Comments

Republican Sen. Mike Enzi of Gillette has been making some strange and inaccurate comments about the Social Security program that millions of Americans depend on for at least some of their retirement. One of my fellow kossacks at Daily Kos, ceprDC, attempts to set him straight. Go to Letter to Sen. Enzi on Social Security Comments

Cow with 310 million tits? Not in Wyoming...

Stuff Alan Simpson Says is a new web site from http://www.boldprogressives.com/, a production of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee PAC. It’s a liberal group that supports a healthy Social Security system. To do that, the PAC is raising alarums by picking on Sen. Alan Simpson’s quaint Wyoming-bred phraseology.

Sen. Simpson has uttered no end of colorful quotes. You could probably fill a book. But he’s a moderate when compared with Republicans running for the House and Senate this year. He’s a moderate when stacked up against Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis. He’s trying to bring attention to a huge issue, one that too easily gets swept under the rug.

The BoldProgressives site is very clever. On the home page, you get to take a quiz. Multiple choice, with only two choices. I easily guessed the cow with 310 million tits one. Here it is:

'I've made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know 'em too...We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits!'

As one web site commenter notes, cows have “teats” and not “tits.” But you have to excuse the senator on this one. Wyoming is not really a milk cow state, save for a few farms in the Star Valley. When we think of cows, we think of cattle. Longhorns and shorthorns on the trail, kicking up dust, guided by rugged cowboys. Sure, female cattle have teats. Cattle ranchers would know this. Simpson should know this. But the metaphorical part of his brain – and his loose tongue – got the best of him.

A cow with 310 million teats would be a sight to see. I have no doubt that downwinders in the West have seen mutant cows (a la “The Hills Have Eyes”). All that fallout from those Cold War nuke tests had an effect. Somewhere out in the remote stretches of Utah or Idaho or New Mexico, is a cow with more than the allotted number of teats. There are bloggers in those parts who have seen such a thing. Please immediately report sightings to the deficit commission.

Go take the quiz. See how many you can guess. Hint: Pick the most outrageous of the two choices and you’re in good shape.

Trauner blasts Lummis on Social Security

Gary Trauner, Wyoming's candidate for the U.S. House, will hold a press conference on Friday, October 10, in the State Capitol rotunda in downtown Cheyenne at 9 a.m. After his speech, Trauner will stay around for questions. So come on out and hear Gary speak about some of the ways he can be a Congressional rep who actually does something for the people of Wyoming. You also can call into the press conference by dialing 712-451-6100 and using the pass code 721718#. The last time I put this call-in number on the blog, Cynthia Lummis's press secretary called in, pretending to be a "supporter" and asking Gary a loaded yet dumb question.

Speaking of dumb, Cynthia Lummis wants to privatize social security, throwing us all to the Wall Street wolves. Anyone notice how many points the Dow dropped today? The stock market has lost something like 17 percent of its value this week. How much did your 401(K) lose this week?

Here's statement on social security from the Trauner campaign:

Gary Trauner, candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, believes that social security is a vital safety net for Wyomingites. If elected, unlike his opponent Cynthia Lummis, he will not advocate to privatize social security. She advocates for investing this critical safety net in the stock market, a particularly dangerous proposition given the current state of the American economy. The stock market has lost 33 percent of its value this year alone.

"It is critically important that social security always be an available safety net to Wyomingites when they retire. It became even more clear this week as the Dow plummeted, that privatizing social security would be extremely dangerous," Trauner said. "It amazes me that my opponent, Cynthia Lummis, would advocate to invest our tax money in risky stocks, we could do that ourselves. That money should instead be there for the people that have spent their entire life paying into social security."

Social Security: Trauner vs. Lummis

In an Associated Press article that appeared in the Casper Star-Tribune, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, the Billings Gazette and a host of others, Cynthia Lummis is quoted as saying she wants to extend the income tax to the poorest Americans and, if elected, will advocate the privatization of the Social Security System. Cheyenne's Lummis is the Republican candidate for Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat. To her credit, she seems to have done a good job as the Wyoming State Treasurer. She demonstrated her money management skills by increasing the state's investment portfolio. I always admire anyone who can increase any investment portfolio, as I'm so lousy at it.

But privatizing the national safety net for retirees? Puts her on the same page with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain.

Lummis's Democratic opponent, businessman Gary Trauner, had this response in the AP story:

Gary Trauner, Lummis's Democratic proponent, criticized Lummis's proposal to extend income taxes to people who aren't currently paying them.

"One in every five kids in this country is born and raised in poverty," Trauner said. "A large number of those people are living below the poverty line, and she wants to raise taxes on the people who can least afford it in this country?"

Trauner also opposes privatizing Social Security. He pointed to the tumult on Wall Street over the past week as one reason why.

"I would just ask how all of our millions of Americans that look forward to having Social Security as a safety net would feel today if we had privatized Social Security, and they had been in the marketplace, investing in the market for the last 10 or 15 years," Trauner said.

"They would have lost billions and billions worth of money just in the last week alone."

Lummis would bankrupt Social Security

I've been reading lots of stories the past couple days about how the Social Security System would have gone into a nosedive if we had sided with George Bush in 2006 and decide to vote for John McCain and Cynthia Lummis in 2008. In the past week, you may have lost some (or a lot of) value in your investments, including your 401(K). And you want to trust these people to handle your retirement?

Here's an update from Bill Luckett at the Wyoming Democratic Party:

In April, Congressional candidate Cynthia Lummis said that on her first day in Congress, she would try to privatize Social Security. Lummis also said she would try to raise the age at which Wyoming’s seniors and people with disabilities are eligible for the guaranteed Social Security benefits on which they depend.

This week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 800 points, or more than 7 percent of its value. Privatization replaces the guaranteed floor of economic security with the uncertainty of the stock market. Individuals are free, of course, to invest their personal savings in the stock market – but Social Security guarantees a floor beneath which their fortunes will not fall and in Wyoming, 84,022 count on their earned Social Security benefit every month.

Social Security privatization would cut guaranteed benefits for thousands of future retirees in Wyoming by thousands of dollars, according to a new report released in August by the research arm of the Campaign for America’s Future. The report shows that more than 18,000 older people living in Wyoming would have a greater risk of falling into poverty, each losing more than $130,000 over the course of their lifetimes, by the time a privatization plan is fully implemented.

In addition to the benefits that Social Security provides to Wyoming families, it also provides a stable level of individual income that fuels Wyoming’s economy. Thousands of businesses, and the state government, also depend on the Social Security guarantee. Fully $1 billion in individual income flows into Wyoming’s economy from Social Security each year – roughly $84 million every month.

Again today, Bill Luckett asked Cynthia Lummis a simple question: “Why do you support privatizing Social Security and raising the Social Security retirement age?”

Background:

Planet Jackson Hole: “If you could put one law into effect on your first day of office, with zero opposition, what would it be? Why?

Cynthia Lummis: “I would restrict domestic non-defense discretionary federal spending to inflation minus 1 percent, make the Bush tax cuts permanent, raise the age of social security eligibility for post-draft era Americans, stop raids on the social security trust fund, limit federal Medicaid dollars to current amounts plus 4 percent per year allowing states discretion in crafting their programs, and authorize voluntary personal social security accounts.”
[“In the Hot Seat,” Planet Jackson Hole, 4/09/08]

McCain a hypocrite on Social Security

MSNBC (and other media outlets) reported this on July 17:

Although Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called Social Security "a disgrace," he still cashes his own retirement check every month.

"I'm receiving the benefits, the system is broken and, unfortunately, my children and grandchildren, according to the trustees of the Social Security system, will not have the same benefits the present retirees have," McCain told reporters Thursday on his campaign bus.

McCain's 2007 tax return shows Social Security benefits of $23,157 for the year, an average of $1,929.75 a month. He said he started receiving the payments "whenever I was eligible."

It's a good thing that John McCain receives a Social Security check. He paid into the system for 40-some years, so he should receive the same guaranteed payment that I expect in 2015. It's a safety net for all American workers.

However, McCain says the system is "a disgrace" and that it is "broken." If it is broken, blame it on him and his fellow Republicans. George W. Bush poisoned the term "Social Security reform" when he attempted to privatize it during his first term. For most of us, "privatize" translates into a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the corporate entities (Bush's pals) that would handle the privatization. Remember who made the money when Bush jobbed out some functions of the military? Halliburton and friends (e.g., Dick Cheney).

So, if John McCain has a plan for Social Security reform that doesn't include a windfall for his Republican pals, I'll listen to it. But it has to include a rollback of the tax cuts for the rich that the Republicans initiated in Bush's first term (such mischief they got away with in the early part of this century). Those tax cuts have funneled more money to the wealthy and left less funding for domestic programs such as Social Security. If they're going to get Social Security checks to ease their retirement, make them pay their fair share into the system.