PRESS RELEASE
Obama Declares Fascist Intent
Against Social Security
July 8, 2011 (EIRNS)—Obama announced July 6 that he planned to put not only Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block, but also Social Security, sending Democratic leaders a state of shock. Obama also said that his original plan for $2 trillion in cuts over the next decade was not adequate, doubling the figure to $4 trillion. As he said July 5, he sees the current total collapse of the real economy as "a unique opportunity to do something big to rebalance the nation's finances," by slashing the entitlements, doing something "big" in a "grand bargain" with the Republicans.
Obama did not consult, or even inform, the Democratic leadership of his plan to destroy the general welfare policies of the nation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has repeatedly insisted that Social Security could not be touched (and led the fight against George W. Bush's effort to privatize it), refused to answer reporters' questions about Obama's call, and got testy when reporters followed up on the issue. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was not informed, nor was Rep. Chris van Hollen, who had been part of the failed bipartisan team with Vice President Joe Biden working on a budget-cut plan. Van Hollen told CNN: "Congressional Democrats are not going to support something that seeks to balance the budget on the backs of Social Security beneficiaries."
While the official White House/Democratic line is that Obama is being forced to demand genocidal cuts against the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the U.S. population by hardline Republicans, Nobel economist Paul Krugman actually got it right. Krugman said in his July 8 column that "even Republicans weren't suggesting cuts to Social Security; this is something Mr. Obama and those he listens to apparently want for its own sake." He writes: "It's getting harder and harder to trust Mr. Obama's motives in the budget fight, given the way his economic rhetoric has veered to the right. In fact, if all you did was listen to his speeches, you might conclude that he basically shares the G.O.P.'s diagnosis of what ails our economy and what should be done to fix it. And maybe that's not a false impression; maybe it's the simple truth."
A similar point was made in the blog Firedoglake by editor Jane Hamsher. Want to know the source of fascist cuts? It's Obama. The question is whether the Democrats will have the guts to buck him.
