From his Meetthe Press interview withHouse Speaker John Boehner (2/13/11): On entitlements, like Social Security, you said the retirement age should be raised, but you said you don't want to get into negotiating how that happens just now until the problem is better defined. Again, when it comes to leadership, when it comes to the need to, you know, have no limit on cutting, don't you think Americans understand what the problem with Social Security is? What will it take for you to join with the White House to make real reform to deal with this piece of the budget? [...]
Feb
14
2011
David Gregory's Social Security Challenge
Filed Under: NBC, Social Security Tagged With: David Gregory, John Boehner
Jan
25
2011
Bob Herbert Slams Social Security Dishonesty; Times Reporters, on the Other Hand…
Bob Herbert, today in the New York Times (1/25/11): There has always been feverish opposition on the right to Social Security. What is happening now, in a period of deficit hysteria, is that this crucial retirement program is being dishonestly lumped together with Medicare as an entitlement program that is driving federal deficits. He's right. Where did I last readsomeone trying to pull off thatdishonest accounting? Oh yeah–it was in yesterday's New York Times. Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported on a poll that found people unwilling to support cuts to Medicare and Social Security, the programs that directly touch millions of [...]
Filed Under: New York Times, Social Security Tagged With: Bob Herbert, Medicare, Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Jan
24
2011
NYT Disappears Public Support for Military Spending Cuts
Today the New York Times reports on the debate over spending, deficits and the State of the Union (1/24/11): The public itself seems split, or perhaps confused. Americans overwhelmingly say that in general, they prefer cutting government spending to paying higher taxes, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published last week. Yet their preference for spending cuts, even in programs that benefit them, dissolves when they are presented with specific options related to Medicare and Social Security, the programs that directly touch millions of lives and are the biggest drivers of the long-term deficit. Social Security is not [...]
Filed Under: New York Times, Polling, Social Security Tagged With: Medicare, military budget, Social Security
Jan
21
2011
NYT Hits Deficit Panic Button (Again)
Big news in the New York Times today (1/21/11): According to their new poll, Americans overwhelmingly support slashing military spending. Wait–that's not the news. According to the story by Jackie Calmes and Dalia Sussman (headlined "Poll Finds Willingness to Cut Spending, Just Not Medicare or Social Security"), the real story is that people don't like the idea of cutting these entitlement programs, but arereally worried about the budget deficit: While Americans are near-unanimous in calling deficits a problem–a "very serious" problem, say 7 out of 10–a majority believes it should not be necessary for them to pay higher taxes to [...]
Filed Under: New York Times, Polling, Social Security, Taxes Tagged With: Dalia Sussman, Jackie Calmes
Nov
15
2010
Douthat's Tales of the Shocking Parallel Universe Pelosi Calls Home
The New York Times' Ross Douthat (11/15/10) warns us about the nightmare world that "Nancy Pelosi and her compatriots" live in: It's a world where the Social Security retirement age never budges, no matter how high average life expectancy climbs. Shudder! Luckily, Pelosi and co.'s world seems to have diverged from ours around 2003, when the normal retirement age budged up two months, further budging by the same amount until 2008, when it reached 66 years. It's currently scheduled to begin budging again in 2021, until it budges up to 67 in 2026. In sharp contrast to Pelosi's horrifying dystopia, [...]
Filed Under: New York Times, Social Security Tagged With: Nancy Pelosi, Ross Douthat
Nov
15
2010
NBC's Sunday Morning Austerity Program
You got a sense from some of the coverage of the Simpson/Bowles deficit commission report that their right-leaning prescription was exactly the kind of solution the corporatemedia could get behind. Charlie Rose could apparently only find two panelists who wished the commissionhad gone further with its spending cuts. On NBC's Meet the Press (11/14/10), the panel discussion featured former Fed chair (and Ayn Rand devotee) Alan Greenspan and far right former Republican politician Newt Gingrich. On the "other" side was Harold Ford, currently thechair of theright-leaning Democratic Leadership Council. A debate from thenear-right to the far-right, inother words.Vanity Fair journalist [...]
Filed Under: Economy, Media Criticism, NBC, Social Security Tagged With: Alan Greenspan, David Gregory, deficit commission, Harold Ford, Meet the Press
Nov
12
2010
Charlie Rose's Debt Commission Non-Debate
As you may have gathered by now, the deficit reduction plan offered by debt commission chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles is pretty unpopular, particularly on the left. But one place it was well-received: The Charlie Rose Show, a comfortable place for CEOs and insiders to pontificate. The fact that this show is a staple of public television stations around the country is part of the problem FAIR identified inour new report, "Taking the Public Out of Public TV." The Rose show presented a discussion of the Simpson/Bowles plan on November 11.One guest, Harvard's Martin Feldstein, had this to say: [...]
Filed Under: Economy, PBS, Social Security Tagged With: Charlie Rose, David Walker, Martin Feldstein
Nov
12
2010
Hey, NYT: What Exactly Is 'Centrism'?
Reportingontheproposalfrom debt commission chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, a New York Times article (11/11/10) by Jackie Calmes framed the discussion this way: Mr. Obama created the commission last February in the hope it would provide political cover for bold action against deficits in 2011. His stance now, in the wake of his party's drubbing, will go a long way toward telling whether he tacks to the political center– by embracing such proposals–or shifts to the left and leaves them on a shelf. The duo's proposal is a remarkablyregressive plan to cut Social Security benefits and tax rates for the [...]
Filed Under: New York Times, Social Security, Taxes Tagged With: centrism, David Axelrod, Jackie Calmes
Nov
05
2010
Can They Pull David Brooks' Pundit License?
New York Times columnist David Brooks is a regular on TV talk shows–including his weekly appearance on the PBS NewsHour (allowing the public to hear regularly from a widely syndicated columnist and commercial TV pundit, just aspublic TV was intended to do!). On a NewsHour midterm election post-mortem discussion (11/3/10), Brooks made this point about the supposed economic ignorance of some voters: If you looked at the exit polls, the independents were more likely than other voters to really be alarmed about the deficits. They were also more likely than other voters to want to protect Social Security, Medicare and [...]
Filed Under: Media Criticism, PBS, Social Security Tagged With: David Brooks, NewsHour
Oct
26
2010
NYT Back on the Deficit Train
On today's front page, under the headline "Deficit Divisions Likely to Grow After Election," New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes writes this lead: WASHINGTON — A midterm campaign that has turned heavily on the issue of the mounting federal debt is likely to yield a government even more split over what to do about it, people in both parties say, with diminished Democrats and reinforced Republicans confronting internal divisions even as they dig in against the other side. It is difficult to know what to make of this; the Times recently noted that the public doesn't spend much time thinking [...]
Filed Under: Election, New York Times, Social Security Tagged With: Jackie Calmes
Oct
26
2010
On Austerity, USA Today Allows Only One View
USA Today typically pairs an editorial today with an opposing view–as it did with its recent editorials on redistricting and NFL rules. When it editorializedyesterday (10/25/10) on the need for the United States to adopt austerity measures similar to those of France and Britain, however, only one view was allowed: "The French are addressing their problems. So are the British. American leaders are not." It's not that other credible views aren't out there–see Mark Weisbrot (Huffington Post, 10/21/10) questioning the need for France's retirement rollbacks, and Dean Baker (Guardian, 10/25/10) and Paul Krugman (New York Times, 10/22/10) on the economic [...]
Filed Under: Europe, Social Security, USA Today
Oct
21
2010
At WPost, Everyone's a 'High Earner'–When It Comes to Benefit Cuts
Rep. Paul Ryan is the Republican leader most often touted as a seriouspolicy wonk.His plan to "fix" Social Security was recently evaluated by the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration. As the Washington Post notes inan article today (10/21/10), Ryan's plan"would slice initial benefits by about a quarter for middle-income Americans who turn 65 in 2050." So why is the Post's headline "Republican Rep. Ryan's Social Security Plan Would Cut Benefits for High Earners"? While it is true that the wealthy would see benefit cuts,it would seem moreimportant to notehow his plan wouldaffect most people. Economist Dean Baker (Beat [...]
Filed Under: Social Security, Washington Post Tagged With: Dean Baker, Lori Montgomery
Sep
27
2010
How Not to Have a Debate on Obama's Economic Team
Two things that are true: –The discussion of Larry Summers leaving his job as director of the White House Economic Council often failed to provide any sense of progressive criticism of his tenure, or of White House policy. (Republican criticism was well-represented, though.) –The Washington Post's "Topic A" op-ed features are often terrible. On Sunday (9/26/10) it all came together, with a Post "Topic A" discussion about the performance of Obama's economic team. The Post got responses from former Bush economic adviser N. Gregory Mankiw andMcCain economics adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who are both unsurprisingly critical. The paper also sought comment [...]
Filed Under: Barack Obama, Economy, Social Security Tagged With: Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Gregory Mankiw, Mark Zandi, Sebastian Mallaby
