CNN: Social Security privatization 'off the table': Senator Baucus: "Don't waste our time."

[DeepModem Mom]

Social Security privatization called 'off the table'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The incoming chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said Thursday he wants to hold hearings on looming insolvencies in the Medicare and Social Security programs but said President Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security is
dead.

"Don't waste our time," said Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana. "It's off the table."

He said the rising cost of Medicare and other health costs is a priority for the committee, though he did not detail how the committee would approach those problems. He said he will hold "vigorous" hearings on the issue.

Baucus said he will propose legislation to simplify the Medicare prescription drug program by streamlining the number of plans available and making it easier for people to choose one....

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/index.html

[babylonsister]

1. Allright! Lots of good stuff coming from the Dems today! Don't

waste our time indeed! :applause: :applause:

[rocktivity]

2. Don't waste ANYBODY'S time on Social Security

just raise or eliminate the salary cap--crisis solved.

:headbang:
rocknation

[LonelyLRLiberal]

4. You got it.

Kick ass!

[sugapablo]

5. Actually....

..some sort of means testing after retirement would also be advisable.

[w4rma]

8. Keep it simple. (nt)

[jwirr]

13. Yes, a reasonable max payment.

[papau]

29. Exact opposite is needed - no wage caps and million dollar benefit checks to the rich will

save the system.

The math is in the Actuaries Report to the Trustees of the Social Security System.

It saves the equivalent of about a 1% payroll tax increase on the worker, and a 1% increase on the employer - or about 2% (actually more "exactly" 1.75%).

Indeed the Dems could proposed a no wage cap bill and call it a TAX CUT Bill - cutting the payroll tax say a half percent for each (for both the employer and employee) and still have a bill that improves the long term financing of the system.

[Jim Sagle]

22. Only if the goal is to kill the program by making it non-universal.

[papau]

27. Means testing has been a GOP goal for 70 years - to make it "welfare" -not "earned" so it

can more easily be cut and then eliminated in the future.

Just who did you vote for in the last election?

[Jackpine Radical]

19. Aw, shit. Just when I was about to get my income above the cap

and for the first time in my life not pay FICA on a few bucks of my income.

[EVDebs]

24. Second that. Up to even $120,000 I've heard does the trick.

Time to end the oligopoly (spelled oliGOPoly).

[habitual]

3. hahaha bush, take THAT! n/t

[Cha]

18. A couple of months ago..

boehner was all, "Next year we've going to privatize Social Security"..paraphrasing, but he was so damn sure.

[Straight Shooter]

6. "Don't waste our time."

That should be the Dem retort to a lot of crap the Repubs have been trying to get away with.

:dem:

[0rganism]

11. I wish Rep. Ellington had said that to Idiot Glenn Beck

"...prove to me you're not working with our enemies."

"You want me to prove a negative for your partisan pleasure? Don't waste my time. Interview over."

[Nite Owl]

7. Love it! n/t

[mom cat]

9. Single payor system that cuts out the insurance companies 30%

overhead would be a good start. Then bargain with big Pharma for reasonable prices. The money is there. Just spend it wisely!

[OhioChick]

10. Good!

:applause:

[jwirr]

12. I have been thinking about saving all the "paper" that I receive

from the various programs: Medicaid, Medicare, Humana, Blue Cross, and all the ones trying to get me to change. When I get enough, in about 6 months, I am going to send it all to my congress person. I am going to ask him/her to read it for me and tell me what it all says. Most of us do not read it and even when we do we do not understand it. These health care companies certainly believe in advertising but they should consider who they are talking to. If I cannot understand the bull, how can the woman or man with some form of dementia even hope to know.

I would suggest that other dissatisfied users also save their "paper" and see that it gets to congress through media mail at the PO as a sign of our disapproval. Kind of a silent protest. When his/her mail box is so full that he/she no longer can ignore it maybe they will stop ignoring us.

[TaleWgnDg]

21. great idea . . . n/t

[kineneb]

33. never mind sending the papers out

save it to heat your (or someone with a woodstove's) house. Take picture of you and friend shoveling the paperwork into the stove and mail that to the Congresscritter. At least you would get something out of the crap- heat!

[choie]

14. OMG, I love it!

Okay, I'm not a huge Baucus fan, but holy freakin' cow, does it feel SWEET to hear a Democratic politician crushing Bush and his bootlicking Republican lawmakers like the foul little bloodsucking vermin they are.

Good for him for doling out a portion of the rude, impatient superiority that piggy repugs have been forcefeeding down our throats. Remember them turning off the lights in the middle of an important debate? Not allowing Conyers to hold the Downing Street memo hearings in a proper room? Hiding legislation from the Democratic congresscritters until the last minute so they wouldn't be able to read it?

So how does it taste being on the other side now, Republicans? Too bad -- EAT IT, you bastards!

Yes, I'm feeling rather vindictive, why do you ask? :)

[Cha]

15. KNR~ My Pet Issue!

That's why I finally got into politics in 2000 was to get active and make sure Social Security was there for us..well, it went waaaaaay beyond Social Security but turns out I wasn't just being paronoid.

Like it's Full Circle, right now.

[Hekate]

16. To all the folks complaining about the "conservative" Dems just elected: they're still Dems.

A Congressional majority means Dems as committee heads. It means subpoena power. It means everything to overturning these conscienceless Repub bastards.

Hekate

[PassingFair]

17. Wonder if they drew straws for the headline?

Who wouldn't LOVE to have that quote!

[VegasWolf]

20. Excellent!! nt

[Triana]

23. YESSS! Go Dems GO! Give 'em Hell Out There!

THIS is why I vote Dem. I've seen several articles here on our beloved DU today that made me feel proud and happy for that!

:applause:

[FernBell]

25. k&r

[earth mom]

26. Great News...

but am I the only one to feel that * won't let em get away with this? :scared:

[Danger Mouse]

28. "Don't waste our time."

That's great =)

[Daphne08]

30. Ha-Ha. n/t

[PurityOfEssence]

31. How about a cap on profits?

Medicine for money is murder, but it's mass murder when HMOs, insurance companies and other providers are allowed to make as much sacred profit as they damn well please.

Medicine for profit simply doesn't work; it's destroying society. Over half of personal bankruptcies have a major component of a medical emergency. This is literally disrupting our economic system to the point of calamity.

Conservatives bitch about evil trial lawyers causing malpractice costs to go up, but they never complain about the saintly insurance brigands who routinely make obscene profits from this misfortune.

Free market capitalism simply isn't the solution for everything, and ideologues need to be confronted with this in a big way.

[msmcghee]

32. This is good policy . . and good politics IMO.

But, be careful. We will have a puke executive branch for the next two years.

It would be great to attack a broad range of issues that desperately need fixing. The problem with that is that for some issues more than others - Bush won't suffer much from using his veto. Two years from now some independents will be subject to switching back to the puke column - if we are not focused and smart between now and then.

The best way to assure complete a Dem victory in 2008 - is to focus now on those issues, and produce legislation on those issues - that will vividly expose Bush as the RW extremest conservative neo-con fool that he is - if he were to veto them.

This is a perfect example, IMO. We can do a lot of good in the next two years but it should focused or we create some risk.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

34. Perhaps it would help if they stopped stealing all the money

from it... just a thought... :shrug:

[lovuian]

35. Another Win for the Workers of America

and another failure for Bush to crush them