Eric Cantor Says Social Security "Cannot Exist" in his Vision for America

[jtown1123]

Wow, he must really hate everyone younger than 55, huh?

Democrats Rally To Support Social Security-NPR.

Rep. CANTOR: I mean, just from the very notion that it said that 50 percent of beneficiaries under the Social Security program use those moneys as their sole source of income. So we've got to protect today's seniors. But for the rest of us? For - you know, listen. We're going to have to come to grips with the fact that these programs cannot exist if we want America to be what we want America to be.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/29/134942260/democrats-rally-to-support-social-security

I'm starting to see a lot of Democrats spreading this quote around. It's definitely a stinker (but great for us).

[FiveGoodMen]

1. So much for all that third-rail talk, huh?

[ThomCat]

76. That idea that Republicans would "never dare" to do something

has always been a horrible weakness in our party. The Republicans have ALWAYS dared, and always done everything that the scoffers claimed they would never, ever dare to do.

Every single time, the have Republicans eventually got away with it too, so far.

You would think that the leadership in our party, or at least the paid strategists and consultants, would be smart enough to pay attention and learn from history. Republicans will Always push the envelope as far to the right as we think possible, and two steps farther than that.

They will Always push the envelop into that area we think is so absurd and offensive that we think, and hope, and expect that the public will be outraged! We expect mass turnouts against the Republicans. But we always underestimate the power of the right-wing controlled media to mollify people and keep them happy and content with right-wing slogans and talking points.

We forget that the media will steer people towards right-wing happy happy Bullshit and away from any real left-wing ideas, policies and solutions. The media will make sure we get ignored, or demonized, or ridiculed. That's what the people see. So the whole political spectrum keeps moving to the right despite everything, and those absurd, offensive ideas succeed in becoming mainstream ideas.

Those absurd, offensive ideas that we always think everyone will hate, and everyone will rise up against, well, everyone does hate them, except the rich few special interests. But the media protects the rich special interests and everything they value. They own the media, and advertise in the media, and control the media after all.

So even though we are right about how offensive their ideas are, our party never fights back hard enough, because we think that the offensiveness of their ideas is enough to prevent them from ever becoming mainstream. It's not. Not with the media, and the power of wealth behind them. Our party needs to learn to fight, every time, and fight as if our lives depend upon it. Because our lives Do Depend Upon It.

Our party has never learned that lesson. I don't think they want to learn that lesson, because they want that corporate money, and they want to be in that rich comfortable space that Republicans occupy instead. Our party can't do both; fight for us, and be the beneficiaries of the wealthiest corporate sponsors.

[FiveGoodMen]

84. "You would think that the leadership in our party...would be smart enough to...learn from history"

Yes, it's hard to believe they're that dense.

Sadly, that suggests that their real goals are not what we think they are.

[Gman]

2. I guess he's still carrying around that mouse in his pocket

talking about "we".

[brooklynite]

3. ONly if we remind people...

I have a guy from DCCC calling me to chat tomorrow; I'll be talking about messaging.

[supernova]

4. I heard that yesterday

I was listening when he said that.

:wtf:

Speaking of gov't largesse, if Eric Cantor is so all fired mad at gov't, what's he doing with a gov't job and all the gov't goodies that go with it?

[socialist_n_TN]

45. How can ANYONE who doesn't believe in government......

be expected to govern? Or at least, govern well? There's ONLY 3 reasons to be in government if you don't believe in government. To dismantle it, to benefit from it, or a combination of both.

[reformist2]

5. Is Ayn Rand the touchstone for their hatred of America as we know it?

We need to expose these people as cultists, who follow the teachings of a wacko priestess and treat the words of her most famous book "Atlas Shrugged" as gospel.

[Initech]

10. I think I've figured out a way for the conservative movement to end - same way disco did.

When disco ended they took every record they could gathered them in a huge stadium parking lot - and lit 'em on fire. I propose we do that with every conservative text we can find - the Coulters, Hannities, O'Reilly's, Ayn Rands, that sort of shit. They clearly don't speak for us.

[tblue37]

14. Nah, just torch Coulter, Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, etc. Forget their writings. nt

[louis-t]

17. Leave the writings behind as a reminder

to NEVER let this happen again.

[FiveGoodMen]

32. Seconded

[Initech]

51. Human sacrifice? Hmmm...

[tblue37]

53. Who said anything about humans? I mentioned only Coulter, Hannity, Beck,

Limbaugh, and their ilk.

[Initech]

54. True there'd be no innocent life lost there.

:rofl:

[Enthusiast]

75. God would find them

an unworthy sacrifice. A sacrifice must have value.

[HubertHeaver]

47. It wasn't the parking lot. It was center field between games.

Home had to forfeit the second game because the field wasn't playable.

[RandomKoolzip]

91. Oh for chrissakes...

That's NOT how "Disco ended." A lot of people think Steve Dahl's "Disco Sucks" rally at Chicago's Comiskey Park in 1979 was the "End" of disco. It wasn't.

For one thing, Disco never ended. In 1983, New York discos like the Paradise Garage, DJed by Larry Levan, were still going strong. The synth-based dance music that permeated the airwaves in the early-mid 1980s.owed just as much to the technological innovations of Brian Eno, Robert Moog, and other synthesizer pioneers as it did to Donna Summer or KC an the Sunshine Band. Former New Wavers such as New Order were also getting on board the disco train at that time. Just because it was no longer the dominant marketplace music, and didn't sound EXACTLY like "I Will Survive" didn't mean that it died. The music was shifting and growing - by the mid-1980s, disco was simply no longer called "disco" - it was called dance music, and superstars such as Janet Jackson, Taylor Dayne, and others were having massive hits with it. Over the years, disco transmuted into rarified new genres such as House, Garage, Drum n' Bass, Trance, Techno, etc. In other words, the same aesthetic impulse that drove disco was still extant, it just went by different names.

Aesthetically, when we're talking about disco, what we're talking about is a 120-beats-per-minute (or higher) four-on-the-floor drumbeat, with a hit on an open hi-hat in between the 1 and the 2, overlaid with a thumping, rubbery bassline, often playing octaves in rapid eighth-notes. Latin percussion is often a significant feature in the rhythm section. Sweeping, syrupy string arrangements and operatic, "diva"-esque singers also figure prominently. These features, originally played by session musicians in the mid-1970s, eventually began to be played by programmers, producers, and synthesizer manipulators, but it was basically the same aesthetic at work.

If people are referring to the "end" of disco, what they are really talking about is the "end" of disco CULTURE as it existed in the media. There is a significant difference between the two (music and culture) and they should not be confused. The end of disco CULTURE occurred because the cultural trappings became fads and trends rather than signifiers of "underground" subcultures (predominantly black, Latin, and gay). The underground went above ground, in other words, and in the process, lost its "specialness;" instead, the mainstream culture saturated the marketplace (movies, radio, magazines, tv) with baubles and signifiers of disco culture, lying the groundwork for a backlash, which inevitably happened when racist/homophobic suburbanites began to become weary with it. Around late-1979, a cultural shift towards conservatism was afoot, triggered by the oppressively omnipresence of disco culture dovetailing with the Iranian hostage situation and another energy crisis. THAT'S why disco "ended" - a turn toward a reactionary cultural conservatism, which of course, led to Reagan's electoral victory a year later.

Plus, book and record burning is anti-1st amendment and I think it's bullshit to see book burning advocated on a liberal website.

[hifiguy]

102. I hated "disco" with an undying passion

mainly because it became harder and harder for the bands I was playing in to find gigs as more and more clubs abandoned live bands and went to (cheaper) DJs. The mindless repetition of the music was pretty heinous, too. Not to mention all of those goofballs in the white Pierre Cardin suits popularized by Travolta.

OTOH, I am now a big fan of trance, electro-pop Asian girl-groups/singers (like Ayumi Hamasaki and Korea's now-gone Sugar), chill, downtempo and related genres, the roots of many of which can be traced back to disco. It must be said that the vast majority of the modern Asian electro-pop stuff is a direct outgrowth of the brilliant Yellow Magic Orchestra, who took the Kraftwerk aesthetic and transliterated it into something uniquely Japanese. They were (and still are) arguably more interesting and influential than even Kraftwerk because modern Asian synth-pop - and there is a monsoon of the stuff - would not exist without them. Eurotrance's debt to disco is obvious, but the likes of Armin van Buuren take it to places and depths never imagined by the 1970s-80s disco bunnies.

I have never been on a dance floor in my life, and would choose being shot at sunrise to ever being on one, but I paradoxically find a lot of today's dance-oriented music to be excellent for serious listening.

It's strange and ironic how things work themselves out, together and through over the long run...

[HERVEPA]

94. Uh, book burning. No thanks.

[hifiguy]

43. For the ones that can read, yes

and the money quote about Rand is as follows: "Nietzsche for stupid people." Saw it somewhere here on the intertubes.

[cascadiance]

62. Perhaps we need to do something like an "uncut" protest of the new "Atlas Shrugged" movie later...

... when it comes out to theaters.

Since these people are so dead set against a collective and for "individual rights", perhaps we can all go in to see that movie with very distracting clothes, signs, etc. that would upset THEIR "collective" (even though they don't want to call themselves that) in watching the film. And we can say it is our "individual right" to see the movie the way we want, and we're just trying to follow Ayn Rand's principles! Throw their f'ing Libertarian CRAP back in their faces!

[LibertyLover]

89. And who accepted Social Security payments without any qualms-

IIRC.

[Seedersandleechers]

6. How can anyone vote for this POS

I mean really...

[dhill926]

7. his vision sucks.....n/t

[cascadiance]

8. And Eric Cantor CANNOT EXIST in power in OUR vision for democracy in America!

F that B*stard!

[Cascadian]

26. Eric Cantor......Today's worst person in the World! N/T

John

(The Cascadian is back!)

[bluesmail]

9. His so-called vision for America is a fascist one. eom

[The Magistrate]

11. Whom The Gods Would Destroy, Ma'am, They First Make Mad

What manner of rabid weasel delivered him up for this sound-bite had to be the ace of the breed....

[HughBeaumont]

12. Eric, thankfully your vision will extend NO FURTHER than your desk. Bitch.

What is it about nerdish wipers like Cavuto, Cantor and Stephen Moore than you just want to drop kick them in the balls?

[Owlet]

13. Huh?

these programs cannot exist if we want America to be what we want America to be.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? This guy is about as articulate as a fart.

[atreides1]

19. Cantor gave a speech at the Hoover Institution

The Hoover Institution is influential in the American conservative and libertarian movements. The Institution has long been a place of scholarship for high-profile conservatives with government experience. A number of Hoover Institution fellows had connections to or held positions in the Bush administration and other Republican administrations. High-profile conservatives Edwin Meese, Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Amy Zegart are all Hoover Institution fellows. Retired U.S. Army General John P. Abizaid, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, was recently named the Institution's first Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow.

[TicketyBoo]

30. I think you give him too much credit.

At least if you hear a fart, you can assume someone feels relief when you hear it.

A fart is more articulate than Cantor.

[FiveGoodMen]

33. Well, he can't just come out and say "Thousand Year Reich"

Not yet, anyway.

Tune in next week.

[KamaAina]

39. Apparently "we" want America to slide down to developing nation status

in which case he's right. :sarcasm: Social safety net programs like SS are a hallmark of developed nations.

[jtown1123]

78. Freudian slip

[Armstead]

15. Yeah..Wipe out their pensions, wipe out their SS safety net......Let em eat cat food

[exboyfil]

29. Cat food is too expensive

Beans and rice maybe.

Funny the hysteria happens once S.S. starts to cash in its bonds. S.S. is not an issue so long as the federal government honors its debt. Most of the shortfall projected 20 years from now can be covered by not capping the income on withholding. Anyone making between about $50-$105K are already subsidizing the system - why should those making more than $105K escape the pain.

[reformist2]

16. We need to expose their freakish adulation of Ayn Rand. Seriously.

[PA Democrat]

18. "these programs cannot exist if we want America to be what we want America to be"

Cantor wants an America where people who are no longer able to work starve? What a guy!

[opihimoimoi]

22. A Wannabe smart guy but fail.....not enough Realms under his belt

Not experienced enough to make good decisions...L O R's lack of realms

People with weak backgrounds often mask their LORs with silly statements...not realizing its a gaffe of Ignorance...

Good leaders have a positive view of challenges and issues...

Bad leaders hoard their power for special interests and themselves.

[Hubert Flottz]

72. Eric has a deep seated hatred for his Mother, Father, Uncle, Aunt

Sister, Brother and everyone else in America besides himself. His outlook is bound to always be grim and ugly because his head is buried about as far up his ass, as I am from the foot of the cross.

That mother?ucker couldn't carry my tool belt till morning break. An entire day in the trench would do that louse in big time. He wants to steal what we paid for all our lives and I'll bet he don't pay any more taxes than GE himself. He needs to go on back to that bondage bar and take up pole dancing or toilet tending.

In Summation, his "Vision" is a totally shitty one, because his head is so far up his ass!

[Bozita]

20. Wondering if there's a video of Cantor saying that.

Audio's good. Video's better.

[NCarolinawoman]

37. I was thinking the same thing. It would be a great ad to run against him.

;)

[jtown1123]

79. not sure if there's video. It's worth looking into. A commerical can use his pic and lay audio over

[creon]

21. Nihilist

Cantor is a nihilist: no beliefs, no ideas; no values.

cantor is fully capable of destroying the country for spite's sake.


The philosophy of the "Scorpion and the Frog".

[Cascadian]

23. I will take all my Social Security savings then please!

There will be no bloody way I will take part in a privatized version of Social Security! If it happens then give me all my money! Obama and the Dems better not back down on this one!



John

(The Cascadian is back!)

[tomp]

63. you're kidding, right?

you still have faith that obama is not as behind the dismantling of of SS as cantor? and you think they will give you your money back?

dangerously naive.

[Xicano]

24. "These programs cannot exist if we want America to be what we want America to be."

Ahhh, hey Eric what is this "WE" shit? Don't invoke my name to push your American hating fascist utopian agenda. And there's nothing wrong with social security if thieves like you would keep your grubby hands off of it.

[kentuck]

25. A lot of people cannot exist or survive in Cantor's vision...

for America. That is why he must be stopped.

[bullwinkle428]

27. This needs to be tatooed on his fucking forehead during the next campaign.

[hifiguy]

46. I'd vote for

"ASSWIPE" being tattooed on his forehead meself.

[white_wolf]

28. Dear Eric Cantor:

First of all please change your name, I'm ashamed to have the first name as you. It's even worse than sharing a name with Eric Cartmann. Secondly, go to hell! I fucking people hate like you. My signature describes my feelings on people like you perfectly.

[Taverner]

31. "...and what I want America to be is a banana republic, with me as supreme GOD"

[malaise]

34. His vision?

Who the fuck cares about his vision?

[high density]

35. Our country

1. Corporations offshore all of the decent-paying jobs
2. If you have a job that they can't offshore and isn't executive management, the corporation wants you to work for nothing.
3. Members of the government, owned by these corporations, want to force people into working for nothing until death

Great system 'we' have going on here, Cantor.

[Change Happens]

36. He can go live in Somalia, they don't have one there...

:)

[SteveG]

38. His vision of America

is to take it back to 1880-90, when the vast majority lived in poverty, had no access to health care and corporations could kill consumers and employees with impunity.

[KamaAina]

40. Are senior citizens this week's public employee unions?

This comes out the same day the 'pukes try to sic the IRS on AARP. :eyes:

[Arkana]

42. Between going after Social Security and the AARP, they're apparently

trying to alienate the last block of voters that like them.

Although some older voters are clueless, apparently--I saw editorials in my local paper today that were attacking Obama for "trying to abolish the AARP". I shit you not.

Of course it's not limited to older voters, either--some of the worst people I know are College Republicans, and they have the most eminently punchable faces...

[kiranon]

87. Looks like it. Expect more to come in Republican inciting of

generational wars. Won't work because younger people with their electronic connectedness are too wise to these kinds of tactics. And, the Republicans will lose the senior vote in the process.

[Arkana]

41. Cantor's like a fart, only not as satisfying.

[hifiguy]

44. The America Cantor wants to see

is a lot like Somalia - utter chaos and squalor with the wealthiest living in gated communities that are carefully patrolled by well-paid Xe mercenaries.

[socialist_n_TN]

48. Well I'm tired of talking about it...........

What do we do about it?

[jtown1123]

99. Fight back. For starters, send this E-Card to the Gang of Six Senators

http://www.ncpssm.org/sendcard/sendcard.php

I've also been tweeting his nasty quote and posting it all over Facebook. People need to see these assholes aren't fooling around.

[Canuckistanian]

49. Are there NO Republican voters on SS?

Do they just sit there passively and listen to this crap without a peep?

[Patiod]

85. He's not threatening CURRENT SS recipients - just future ones

And Republicans are all either rolling in dough or are under the delusion that they MIGHT be one day, and so they won't need no stinkin' "entitlements".

[cliffordu]

50. I'm thinking he cannot exist in MY vision for america.

The eliminated the social net in Somalia.

Maybe he'd like to run for something over there....

[starroute]

52. Maybe I'm dumb, but I don't even know what he thinks he's saying

It doesn't help that his first sentence is actually a sentence fragment. He starts off with "just from the very notion" but doesn't give a conclusion to go with it.

But besides that, what does he mean? Is he saying that it breaks his heart that half of the elderly have no other source of income and that America should be a country where every old person is independently wealthy?

Is he saying that some seniors have other sources of income and it's a crime that somebody who can draw, say, $10,000 or $20,000 a year from investment income should be leaching off the government as well?

Or is he saying that "today's seniors" were conned into paying into Social Security but we have to act fast to make sure that nobody under the age of 55 is cheated the same way?

It's obvious that he wants to destroy the system, but the rest is totally opaque.

Anybody got any clues?

[steelmania75]

55. Cantor's vision is a third world country for the rest of us while his corporate masters...

in the Forbes 400 control everything.

[mstinamotorcity]

56. Yes, what Mr. Cantor wants it to be!!!

A country full of ignorant robots who he can fuck over including John Boehner for his job as Speaker of the House. Mr. Cantor is aligning himself with the Tea Party and the Koch Brothers because they see him as the future for Conservatism.

[SDuderstadt]

57. That's funny...

there is no place for Eric Cantor in MY vision of America.

[underpants]

58. What if he suddenly adopts a Southern accent?

He does that in local media (Richmond) and when he is in trouble.

His district (I live in it) is gerrymandered more than Bobby Scott's is. It is dominated by the "think they are richer than they are" and "look at how fabulous MY life is" suburbs west of Richmond. The rest of the district is empty mostly.

Cantor was hand picked from Bliley's staff to succeed him so long as tobacco agreed. They did.

[SDuderstadt]

59. My condolences...

Who draws the districts?

[underpants]

60. The General Assembly - our legislature

I heard today that the Dems who run the Senate have redraw 4 Repub districts to cut out 2 Senators

Dick Cranwell, who was the Senate majority leader at the time, was redistricted out of his district because the line was moved across the street from his house in the last redistricting. He went on to be the DNC State Chair. Family friend.

[white_wolf]

90. Wow. We agree on something.

Maybe those religious nuts are right and the world will end in on 5/21/11

[howaboutme]

61. Boehner had better watch his back

Not that I have any special affection for Boehner, I do trust him more than Cantor not to screw America. Cantor wants to be third in line of succession and he'd do anything to get it.

[demwing]

69. Here starts the whisper campaign

Cantor is gunning for Boehner, spread it, add a toss out line to your LTTE, include it in your blogs, call it in on your favorite radio show, let's get these asshats busy fucking each other and maybe they'll leave us alone

[bindelh]

92. Cantor wants to be third in line of succession

2nd if you are implying he wants to be Speaker of the House.

Pres

Vice Pres ~ 1st in line

Speaker ~ 2nd in line

Geeeeeeez

[howaboutme]

96. You are correct and that makes it even worse.

Can you even imagine having another smirking (or would it be sneering) monkey in the WH? Looks are generally not that important, but there is something that is mildly irritating about Cantor's perpetual sneer and that only accentuates the BS that he says.

[Hannah Bell]

64. "these programs cannot exist if we want America to be what we want America to be...."

an impoverished hellish corporate dictatorship run by us!

[SpiralHawk]

65. As one citizen, I'd like America to be an honest and decent place to live

...that sort of automatically eliminates the corporate-totalitarian vision of the Republicons...I don't want to be no steenkin prole in service to the Republicon billionaire Sucker-PuppetMaster 'Eeeleetes.'

[hobbit709]

66. so when will he announce that he's giving up his government pension.

[old mark]

67. K&R- I want to see this quote on every TV news program in the US

till after the election in 2012.

So far, I have seen nothing on it anywhere but NPR...no wonder the GOP hates them. Truth is the republicans' enemy.

mark

[mikeytherat]

68. Translation:

"For 50% of current SS recipients, that money is their sole source of income, so we have to protect them. And since that is unlikely to change anytime soon, especially given the state of our economy, and we will likely have even more people relying on that money, well, those people can all go fuck themselves. Repeatedly."

mikey_the_rat

[Hubert Flottz]

70. Eric the Rad is too stupid to govern.

He needs to try his hand at gator catching, or rodeo clown.

[Hubert Flottz]

71. Eric the Rad

Why do you hate your mother?

[Art_from_Ark]

73. Or bear rasslin'

I bet he could be a top-notch bear-rassler.

[Hubert Flottz]

74. A mother hating bear-rassler.

How dumb would you have to be to elect a piece of shit like Eric the Rad?

[eppur_se_muova]

77. What's this "we" business?

America doesn't want to be what the Regressive leadership wants. Time for Cantor to stop lying about that.

[Vinca]

80. Guess he's planning on bringing back the poor farms . . . if we're lucky.

[Jack Rabbit]

81. That is one good reason why we don't want America to be what Cantor wants America to be

Mr. Cantor, what is the upper one or two percent going to survive on after the lower 98 starve to death?

[elleng]

82. Eric Cantor also says if the House passes a bill it becomes law.

So much for HIM!

[TwilightGardener]

83. "So we've got to protect today's seniors..." Tomorrow's seniors...go fuck yourselves.

[bluethruandthru]

86. So when there is no more Social Security

because everyone should take care of themselves and invest their money wisely (too bad if Wall Street steals your money)...what happens to all those seniors who have nothing? They just live (die) on the streets? Is that Cantors "Vision for America"? Desitute and dying old people on every street corner?

[Iris]

88. What, pray tell, does he want it to be? And actually, he saws " what we want America to be"

who's the "we"?

[Uncle Joe]

93. The nation has already experienced Cantor's vision, during the 1930s.

Thanks for the thread, jtown.

[louslobbs]

95. He really should see an eye doctor and have his vision checked, Can'tor is an ass with bad eyes.

Lou

[Bluenorthwest]

97. Cantor is an ignorant liar who does not even know how a bill

becomes law. The fact that he is in Congress is a shame to the Congress. He is stupid and selfish even by the extreme measures usual in his Party. He rises to the Bachmann level. Perhaps surpasses her. He's a pip, that Eric.

[abelenkpe]

98. My grammy

(may she rest in peace) worked her whole life and raised three children on her own. She was one of those who after retiring was one of the "...50 percent of beneficiaries under the Social Security program use those moneys as their sole source of income." She lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment and had a very frugal life. What is he trying to say? That she was a deadbeat? A drain on society? Personally I'd like to slap his ugly little face for such a disgraceful comment....


:grr:

[neoralme]

100. Oh, I'm so mad I'm going to email Bernie Sanders. That'll show

Cantor how upset I am about my daughter probably never collecting Social Security.

[blackspade]

101. So Cantor wants an America that is

an impoverished hell hole for everyone but the top 2% of the country.
Talk about death panels....
He should be hammered at every interview about this.

[The Wizard]

103. Cantor gives his people a bad name

His foreskin should be reattached with rusty staples.

[brightertomorrow]

104. His pension is an "entitlement" so lets start with that

But no mention of that of course. Even some people in their 40's have paid into social security for over 30 years so is he going to give all that money back to everyone who paid in?? And if they were to quit taking social security out of working people's checks who would pay for the people on social security now? Sounds like a good way though for him to make sure another republican never gets elected in FL. If they even mention doing away with social security, I think the seniors would be out in the streets protesting big time.

[Wait Wut]

105. Frat Boy better be careful...

...or his future failure as a Presidential candidate will be derailed before it leaves the station.

[wickerwoman]

106. Eric Cantor's vision for America:

Bring out your dead!