On Monday, December 13, the US Senate will vote on a bill that represents the destruction of Social Security. The measure reduces the employee payroll tax by 33% (from 6.2 to 4.2%). Social Security is in good shape right now but this reduction will starve the Trust Fund and give the excuse to say - "Look, it's broke. We have to privatize it."

Save Social Security - call or write your US Senators and tell them to vote no on reducing funding for Social Security - period. No compromises at all.

United States Senate Email/Web and Phone contact.

UPDATE: The Senate passed a cloture resolution limiting debate on the presidents proposal (aka sell out) to give millionaires huge tax breaks and hammer the people by putting Social Security at risk. That assures passage of the legislation in the Senate. Sen. Bernie Sanders has a Show Filibuster last Friday but it wasn't for real. Today - before the "cloture vote" - would have been the time. Bernie benched himself and his gal pal, Sen. Mary Landrieu, who helped last Friday, said that filibuster was only for the tax cuts for millionaires, not the entire package." We are nothing to them.

Michael Collins

We are at a unique moment in our history. The decadence of those in charge has reached menacing proportions.

(Washington, Dec 10) Bill Clinton showed up at the White House for an "impromptu" press conference to discuss the president's tax compromise with the Republicans. Clinton disclosed that "I make a lot of money now" and, as a result, he would benefit from the program. Then he endorsed the compromise calling it the best deal Obama could make. Clinton was particularly high on the Social Security payroll tax reduction. "According to all economic analysis, [this is] the single most effective tax cut you can do to support economic activity. This will actually create a fair number of jobs. I expect it to lower the unemployment rate and keep us going." (Image)

Across town, United States Senator Bernie Sanders was telling the simple truth that Obama and Clinton avoided.

Michael Collins

Previously, Economic Populist brought the internet the startling news - Obama to Change Party. That was satire, at least on November 14. Just three weeks later, satire becomes reality. In the past few days, President Obama has traded away $620 billion in tax revenues in order to get a $56 billion, 13 month extension of unemployment benefits. Of course, the lost $620 billion will make any further unemployment benefits, or for that matter, any other productive social programs pipe dreams as the deficit explodes over the next two years. (Image: Banksy)

The Obama deal is a long way from the original position of ending Bush tax cuts for the highest earners and simply extending unemployment benefits, as called for by economic and social circumstances.

It started when President Obama sent his vice president to negotiate with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. Since the president still has a majority in both chambers of Congress, you might wonder why he's negotiating. The House Democrats are ready to rock to show that they're not to blame for the past two years of inaction. There are enough Democratic Senators with either the inclination or the compromised background to strong arm a majority.

Note: this is a cross-post from The Realignment Project. Follow us on Facebook!

Introduction:

Following the on-going drama of the Deficit Commission - which just adjourned without even voting on its own proposal, and which never came close to getting the necessary votes to trigger an up-or-down vote in the Senate - has been rather painful. Especially in light of the Republican takeover of the House and the ongoing dispute over extending the Bush tax cuts and raising the debt ceiling, the grip of austerity thinking seems paradoxically strong and weak at the same time, pervasive enough to be omnipresent within the media yet not actually persuasive enough to get anyone to vote for anything they dislike.

However, there is one point that needs to be cleared up - behind the banalities of "living within our means" and other balanced-budget platitudes, there is ideology at work. The budget is not just a technical issue, but a moral document - it is a choice between a high road or a low road to the future.

A new study by the Hackett Group, Acceleration of Offshoring Trend Driving Loss of Millions of Finance and IT Jobs in U.S. and Europe is something everyone should read if you're wondering where the jobs are.

On top of 2.8 million jobs lost from 2000 to 2010 in finance, IT, HR and procurement, The Hackett Group projects that another 1.0 million will disappear by 2014 in North America and Europe, representing a total reduction of 46% of jobs in these functions since 2000.

Michael Collins

What do you get when you cross Tim Geithner and Peter Peterson?

Barack Obama; who would rather help the big banks and "balance" the budget than offer a helping hand for struggling homeowners. (Image)

The president demonstrated new heights of indifference toward the people in his handling of the mortgage relief program made a part of the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP). Citizens paid the full share for TARP and were to get a modest proportion. That's not the case. The November 2010 Congressional Budget Office Report on TARP was just issued. It showed that the funds for home mortgage assistance programs would be reduced from $50 billion to $12 billion, as reported in the Huffington Post.

Reading the details of the report, we find that the take back from homeowner relief through TARP funds is even more outrageous. The actual funds spent so far for homeowner relief is only $710 million.