Rethugs plan on decimating SSI in the fall session

[TayTay]

This fall we face:
Another effort by the Rethugs to destroy Social Security by trickery and subterfuge. They plan on bypassing the SenFinComm in getting an SSI bill to the floor. They know the Senate will not pass a bill with Private Accounts in it, so they will get any old bill they can passed on the floor by trickery and by forbidding amendments. Then the House will obey the orders of the little dictator Delay and pass a bill with Private Accounts in it. (Leaving the vote open for three hours, as the Rethug House did during the Medicare Drug bill and the ConfComm thing as they recently did with the Energy Bill that pissed Kerry off no end.)

The Rethug leadership will forbid Dems on the conference committee from having any say whatsoever with what comes out of ConfComm. They will then bring the ConfComm bill to the floor, possibly invoke the 'nukular opshun' to forbid a filibuster and ram this bill through.

You better believe that a certain tall Senator from MA who serves on FinComm is going to scream bloody blue murder on this one. The Rethugs may try and do this under cover of the Roberts hearings or during national debate on Iraq when they think attention is elsewhere. Pay attention to this one. We must save Social SEcurity. Be prepared to write LTTE, call Rethugs and Repubs on the Hill (like the Maine girls, who are reasonable.) This is critical. (Any, may I say, that I believe both my Senators will fight like hell on this. Teddy will be tied up in the Roberts hearings, doing his job. So my Jr. Senator has to carry water on this one. It's vital that he and other Dems do so. Vital. We need the Avenger and the Warrior side to come out, big time.)

[karynnj]

1. I wonder if it will work for Bush this time

It is a little over a year before they next run for election. Social Security AS IT IS is enormously popular. I think Bush may have more defections then he is used to. I think many Republicans representing middle class people may balk at this if their district is not 100% safe.

I will be interested in my representatives vote. His district is heavily Republican and he is from a family that has been politically involved since the revolution. As many people have seen their stock based 401Ks lose money quickly and have seen their defined benefit pensions changed to something closer to the 401ks, they should be very reluctant for social security to change.

Kerry was great the last time it came out. He really was able to explain why it was an awful idea very well. So, I think you're right - your senators will be quite busy. I hope they still have the name of the elderly guy who was talking with Senator Lautenberg at the NYC stop of the SS effort. He was fantastic.

[TayTay]

3. So was Lautenberg! I love him. He has so much spunk.

Lautenberg and that elderly man at the NYC SSI Town Meeting were just hilarious and poignant, a difficult trick to pull off. They had been through the times that created Social Security and knew whereof they spoke. (And that elderly man, I'll have to look up his name, had that great line where he said it was so great to be on the side of the good guys. LOL! Yes, it is.)

I thought everyone was great that day and on-message. Sadly, we will have to do that again. And yes, I did think Sen. Kerry was great that day. His dialogue with the nervous young college girl was great, as was the odd moment when she said she had moved to PA and stopped and kind of nodded at Kerry and he laughed at the "I voted for you in a close state" way. Again, LOL! And that was one of those moments when I really noticed how much he had grown as a public speaker. He just walked out and owned the stage. Wow! Boy oh boy did he ever get more practice and get way better at that. Way better.

[karynnj]

4. I can't believe I forgot to include Lautenberg

He was a good senator years ago, but he has been incredible since he stepped in to help avoid an unnecessary loss of a Senate seat in 2002. (It would have been a stupid loss and the Republican made his fortune from issuing drug cards - He is now running against Corzine for Governor and it is already an extremely dirty campaign and it's a year away.) So, I think Lautenberg feels free to say whatever he wants and he is a very witty person. (I was surprised though that he was willing to express near-grief that Kerry wasn't President.)

I was more impressed with the other man because I already knew Lautenberg was good, as a team, they should be sent across the country.

I agree with you that Kerry really has gotten better since October when he was already much better than earlier in the year. I wonder if part of it is that he filters out less of his reaction to things maybe because he trusts himself more than he did. I thought Kerry had the hardest person to draw out in that event - she had an important story to tell but she was so nervous. His questions really helped get her to help in making the point needed about survivor's benefits.

[whometense]

2. Did you see this

Peter Canellos column in today's Globe?

Many chose to believe that the Bush team had simply looked up north and had seen a solid bloc of states that voted for John F. Kerry. . . .

. . . . To many, the panel's reversal -- based on its determination that national security would suffer with the closures -- was also seen as evidence that the Pentagon had tried to tip the scales against the Northeast.

Perhaps. But those who believe that the so-called blue states are going to be made to suffer for the sharp regional split in last year's election are about to have an even better test case. The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has been meeting since January. Among the many proposals swirling around the panel is one that is especially feared by the more liberal states -- preventing people from deducting their state income taxes on their federal filings.

Such a move would raise taxes on anyone whose state has an income tax. People living in states with no income tax would be untouched.

Among the seven states without income taxes -- six of which supported President Bush in last year's election -- are the president's home state of Texas, Vice President Dick Cheney's home state of Wyoming, and Governor Jeb Bush's home state of Florida.