It's mobilization time again, folks.

[Jackpine Radical]

Durbin & the White House seem intent on buying an end to the sequester by the proceeds they plan to gain by selling out the elderly. The Chained CPI is back on the table (actually, it was never removed; it just got covered over for a while by the fallout from the last crisis).

We kept the nation out of Syria, we got Summers dumped, and we helped Obama keep his spine stiff throughtout the Tea Prty hostage situation. Now we need to wind up the noise machine again and make sure the Administration knows how unhappy people are with the incipient plan to equate hamburger and catfood.

[calimary]

1. Updated TOLL FREE Capitol Hill Switchboard numbers here in my sig line for your convenience!

And the government is back open again. So all the offices are open, too.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Thank you Calimary!

(One of my favorite DU names, BTW, along with Loud Sue and Hegemony Cricket).

[BelgianMadCow]

4. Your sig line has to be the best on DU

and you're a treasure for always being there to post contact info! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I've been making some calls myself here, and got pretty high ups to call me back because I called them "no longer democrats" when they passed an administrative fine that's being used against protesters.

It really works.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Jack it never stops actually

and people need to start considering those walking shoes, even now that the weather starting to turn nasty. Which call me cynical, is perfect timing to push things.

One of these days I will have to share with you what our local crazee libertarian is saying these days. I am actually considering getting my grains somewhere else.

[Trekologer]

29. It really does never stop

The time to be engaged with your government representatives is ALWAYS. If you are only putting pressure on them when an issue bubbles to the top, it is often too late.

[ruffburr]

5. It IS Time-

All I can say to people is,For the folks that are astute enough to realize what's at stake , Vote and educate as much as you can.
All I can say to people who vote against their own self interest is, Please take your opinions to check with a non partisan Fact Check Site If you feel that you have the true facts Then and only Then make an informed decision. PLEASE.

[arely staircase]

6. chained cpi is a great idea

if you are independently wealthy and will never need social security.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Precisely.

It's sad to be living in times in which the political debate revolves around, not how best to improve the lot of the common people, but just what form the next raid on their financial well-being will take, in order that the wealthy might have a bit more.

[zeemike]

21. To paraphrase a famous speech.

And bring it up to date...
Ask not what the billionaires can do for you, but what you can do for the billionairs...

Cut the poor and elderly, and give the wealthy a tax cut...and while you are at it, privatize SS and let them play with your retirement money.

Thanks for keeping this front and center.

[arely staircase]

41. + 1

President Obama should not be willing to do this. I will be disapointed id he does.

[Downwinder]

8. Keep it on the table until the 2014 election, then we will bury it.

[WillyT]

9. K & R !!!

[socialist_n_TN]

10. Hell, I haven't "demobilized" in years now........

It's fucking exhausting. But with SS it's my ass and my friends and family's asses on the line.

Of course I'd mobilize for student debt relief too. My daughter's got a good bit of loans.

[chimpymustgo]

11. LIFT the CAP (on FICA taxes). Simple slogan, simple solution.

Let's go!

[Jackpine Radical]

12. You're right--

For once we have a cause that will fit on a bumper sticker.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

17. I agree to both of you, lets do it.

[marble falls]

13. We did it before and we can do it again.

[sulphurdunn]

14. Unfortunately,

some of the President's billionaire supporters and Third Way, Wall Street crooks want the CPI as a prelude to public austerity and private profit through privatization. Chief among them is Pete Peterson.

[KoKo]

15. Recommend! "Entitlements" or our Personal Insurance Policy we Paid Into for

All Our Lives...has ALWAYS been on the Table.

It's going to take a heck of a lot of work to GET IT OFF THE TABLE!

Thanks for your Post...Recommend!

[hue]

16. K&R!!! Thanks for posting Jackpine!!!

[nashville_brook]

18. spot on.

[kentuck]

19. I don't understand it?

What do they think the deficit and debt would be if not for Social Security? It would be even higher if they did not borrow from the trust fund.

It doesn't make sense to cut Social Security in the practical sense. Because we borrow from ourselves. If we have to borrow from foreign sources, instead of the SS Fund, then that would only make our debt and deficit worse, it seems to me?

[Jackpine Radical]

20. I suppose the ultimate goal is to privatize SS so Wall Street can have all that extra money

to play with. Their rationale doesn't have to make sense; they just need some excuse to replenish their supply of gambling money with our retirement funds.

[sabrina 1]

32. It makes sense if your goal is to keep a surplus in the fund so you can keep on borrowing

and never pay it back. Cutting benefits ensures holding on to as much of the fund as possible, for borrowing purposes. They got so used to dipping into the fund they can't let it go.

That is why I don't just support eliminating the Cap, I support increasing benefits so the money goes to those who own it, rather than sitting there waiting for the next hare-brained idea they will need a few trillion for to ensure they and their buddies continue to make obscene amounts of money.

Increasing benefits would also be the equivalent of a stimulus package except it would not cost the Central Fund anything.

Mostly though, the SS Fund was never supposed to accumulate huge surpluses, and now I understand why.

And as someone else said, they want to Privatize all public funds so they can gamble with them on Wall St. We all know how well that worked out for many people whose pension funds were invested in Wall St.

[jeff47]

35. You don't understand it because the people involved are lying.

Social Security has no effect on the deficit or debt. It's budgeted completely independently from the general budget.

Yes, the Social Security trust fund buys US debt with any extra money it has, but that doesn't make more debt. You could argue that it results in lower interest rates on our debt, but it's not clear that interest rates would go up much if Social Security wasn't buying debt.

Add to this the predictions about Social Security's solvency: It's been 20 years from running out of money for the last 30 years or so. Turns out the people predicting doom are relying on things like US GDP growing far slower than it has over the last 100 years.

However, the people who claim to be concerned about debt are lying about that concern. What they're concerned about is their political philosophy. In their mind, the government can never do any social good. Programs like Social Security and Medicare demonstrate this philosophy is wrong. So they desperately need to dismantle those programs.

They can't dismantle them through the front door - the programs are too popular. So the plan is to chip away pieces from each programs until they can claim they are entitlements for the poor. That will make the programs unpopular enough that they can destroy them to preserve their political philosophy.

Some Democrats propose giving an inch in order to take the programs "off the table". This is moronic. The programs will never be "off the table" until the Republicans destroy these programs. Republican political philosophy demands it.

[Zorra]

22. I am sooo tired of having to fight conservatism, even in our party.

yeh, *sigh* I'm in.

[indepat]

23. We can all take comfort that once the chained CPI is implemented to lower all future social security

benefits et al, no politician of either party will hereinafter ever propose to lower benefits in any way: it's as good as money in the bank.

[JHB]

24. You sound like just the sort of sharp cookie who can see an opportunity

Thanks to a short-term cash flow problem, I have to give up a real gem of a property on short notice, which means below market rate. Choice waterfront properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn, linked by a scenic span. It's a bit old and needs a little fixing up, but has easy access to some of the toniest up & coming neighborhoods in NYC.

A real bargain, if you act quickly...

[indepat]

25. Was transferred by my Federal agency to Columbus, OH, in 1979 and later learned

that, had I been transferred to NY, NY, in 1979, a small apartment on the east side of Central Park could have been bought in the $80,000 range. Though we loved Columbus, I rue the day that transfer had not been to NY, NY.

[pa28]

26. Don't bother de-mobilizing.

We've got the TPP and tax reform waiting on deck after we (hopefully) shoot down SS cuts.

[Jackpine Radical]

28. Yeah, I know. And Keystone.

[TBF]

31. With Keystone we need to publicize

how much money the Koch Bros. are making off that ... they showed their hand a bit during the gov't showdown by telling us they didn't like what their out-of-control tea party was doing. Obviously they are sensitive to criticism so I think it's time to dig and publish as much as we can find. Ordinary cockroaches scurry from the light and these 2 are no exception.

[WillyT]

27. Richard Eskow Agrees...

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023892116

[TBF]

30. Seniors vote. We need some memes for FB -

we can shut this down fast.

[sabrina 1]

33. We need to create a Twitter hashtag also, or a few of them.

'Hands off Social Security' eg, and 'Raise The Cap' and 'Stop Lying about SS'.

A lot of people are not aware they are planning these cuts. That is why they used language like 'Chained CPI' which the average person, especially Seniors, does not relate to SS at all.

This will have to be a huge campaign as big as the one that started when Bush began his ill-conceived '50 state' tour to try to convince people that Privatizing SS was the way to go. That campaign was so successful, I think he had to go home after only about three states.

[TBF]

36. Definitely for Twitter too -

I think dems did a good job during the shutdown of placing blame with the GOP - where it belonged. Obama needs to say "no" and we need to talk about raising the cap because that is the answer.

[Jackpine Radical]

38. We need a bumper sticker. Here's a first try--

DON'T FEED US CRAP--
RAISE THE CAP!

[TBF]

40. I love that - and you are correct about raising that cap

that is the correct answer. Just another give-away to the very wealthy.

[grahamhgreen]

34. Just called Durbins office - no starving granny with chained CPI, please 1 [phone]

[sabrina 1]

39. Thanks I just called also. Told them we expect Republicans to try

cutting SS, Medicare etc but expect Democrats to fight them, no Chained CPI or any other cuts. She was polite and 'will pass it along'.

[CrispyQ]

37. Have written twice to my three on this issue in the past two weeks.

Will send something again this week.

Yesterday my husband glanced at my inbox & asked why I had three messages from Udall & Bennet.