or u wanna call it the austerity bomb update the fiscal claire five-day
whatever everybody's got their own branding mechanism for this
so yesterday i mention that did dick durbin
and the reason why dick durbin is
such an important figure
in uh... this mix is because
there is very good reason to believe that dick guarantee durbin is
essentially
president obama's voice in the senate
and
we saw dick durbin sign on to parts of simpson bowls i think it was at the time
which uh... was
an eighteen percent commission
attempting to ratify recommendations they needed fourteen votes leading get
'em i don't know we've turbid voted for it or not
off the top of my head i i seem to think he did but uh...
regardless
he was talking about
so-called
entitlement to or social insurance reform
and by reform of course will we mean is
cuts
uh... back during the last uh... round of debt ceiling negotiations of
whatever ones
and he had he is now
singing or at least clocking it different too
so she carried you saying should be off the table
and apparently updated later he answered a
durban met with senate democrats he clarified it he is positions on social
security and on medicare and medicaid
and supposedly what he said is what i'm saying is what i'm talking about now is
the immediate
what takes us through the end of the year to avoid the fiscal cliff he said
adding that medicare and medicaid should not be part of those talks
but he said
when you're talking about long-term deficit reduction
four trillion worth entitlement reform needs to be a part of it
so at the very least he's punting on medicare and uh... medicaid
so security to no-shows security take off the table input in a separate
commission
now
that's good news
because
there is nothing
more shore
to end it
in
now things happening
then when you put something into a separate commission
blue-ribbon commission is washington speak
more often than not for
do-nothing commission
you also had
uh... christan holland
who is a uh... deputy to nancy pelosi in the house
on msnbc yesterday
saying that with respect so scary i agree with what the president said and
what uh... peter defazio said so scared it's not part of the deficit and debt
problem
this is
this is really good stuff
to the x_ and now we're back to what uh... ronald reagan said whatever was
nineteen eighty six where he said it's not part of the deficit there was eighty
four eighty i can't remember him running and said this
and so we are now back into sanity
into sort of at least when we talk about socially
into the world of
of
normal nests and sanity hood
i'm just corning words left and right today
when i can arrange social security in order to balance other parts of the
budget
there's plenty of time
between now and twenty thirty three
that if we decide
we want to pay out
a hundred percent of benefits do
retirees rather than
seventy eight percent of benefits
we simply raise the cap
get rid of the cap created donut hole does matter either one
provides solvency war-weary a into the future
onion talking seventy five-year cries and to the point where you know
at that point uh...
happen new york will be permanently underwater
and we will take how much income
soc security is did the tax is or income is subject to such kirti tax
from where traditionally been ninety percent
to where it is now at two eighty one percent back up to ninety percent
that's the way the system was designed right now we are not functioning the
system is not functioning as it was designed because of income disparity for
no other reason income disparity
yeah redid the regenerating there are new to me baby boomers
they are dealing with the ratio of workers to retirees all that was
known and noble
twenty five years ago
plots when
the maestro
greenspan was
chapter had a commission
by uh... reagan
to deal with this in the future
when they were raised the soc curitiba text yes rate increase taxes
then hall in also rejected cutting medicare benefits
um...
so what we're seeing it leads
is
and you know
to do with a grain of salt
we cannot stop pushing on this uh... front
we're seeing democrats talk about
different fixes for medicare which don't necessarily affect benefit
i can tell you one big one right off the top
two hundred fifty uh... billion dollars a year
in um...
you want i want you wanna reform something reform the patents that drug
companies get
the rent seeking that these pharmaceutical companies are getting
by
decree of the government
that they can't keep ah... into the
prices artificially inflated
for drugs you want a close
uh... you want allow medicare
to negotiate
in volume
with drug companies
to create savings
whole raft of of reforms that need to take place
not only have the benefit of
cutting medicare expenditures
but also have the benefit of driving prices down even in the private sector
on the cost of
of uh... medical care
and i understand it you know you here
democrats talk about where not allow for soc carry privatization
we're not going all-out for privatizing shin of medicare
when you talk about raising
the retirement age
or when you talk about raising the eligibility age for medicare
that is privatize issue
because those seniors are not gonna say like okay
i don't get my medicare as opposed to sixty five i don't get intel
sixty-seventh i'm gonna do without medical insurance for those two years
now they goin by it on a private market
after twenty fourteen they'll be able to do that
but it will increased the prices that everybody pays because they're gonna
affect the rest poor
it's just another way of saying privatize issue
you raise the retirement age
in which people are eligible shows scary your privatizing people's retirement
they want to retire at sixty-five or sixty seven when uh...
for someone like me
this just another way to say privatizing shit