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BERNANKE SAYS SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE NOT MANDATORY
Ryan Grim, Huffington Post - In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today, where he's seeking re-appointment as the Fed's chairman, Bernanke called for cutbacks in Medicare and Social Security even as unemployment rises and the middle class is endangered.
Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) sympathized with Bernanke, saying that, because of entitlement spending, 'you're going to be looking at a situation where the Congress will be unable to provide any kind of fiscal discipline because of the mandatory spending. That puts an enormous burden on your plate.'
"Well, Senator, I was about to address entitlements," Bernanke replied. 'I think you can't tackle the problem in the medium term without doing something about getting entitlements under control and reducing the costs, particularly of health care.'
Bernanke reminded Congress that it has the power to repeal Social Security and Medicare.
"It's only mandatory until Congress says it's not mandatory. And we have no option but to address those costs at some point or else we will have an unsustainable situation," said Bernank.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) followed Bennett and pointed out that "there's only really two ways you can deflect this deficit, and that's either by cutting expenditures or raising income taxes or other forms of taxes."
Reed asked him if he could think of other ways, but Bernanke returned to entitlement money as the way to balance the budget.
"Willie Sutton robbed banks because that's where the money is, as he put it," Bernanke said. "The money in this case is in entitlements."
Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) sympathized with Bernanke, saying that, because of entitlement spending, 'you're going to be looking at a situation where the Congress will be unable to provide any kind of fiscal discipline because of the mandatory spending. That puts an enormous burden on your plate.'
"Well, Senator, I was about to address entitlements," Bernanke replied. 'I think you can't tackle the problem in the medium term without doing something about getting entitlements under control and reducing the costs, particularly of health care.'
Bernanke reminded Congress that it has the power to repeal Social Security and Medicare.
"It's only mandatory until Congress says it's not mandatory. And we have no option but to address those costs at some point or else we will have an unsustainable situation," said Bernank.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) followed Bennett and pointed out that "there's only really two ways you can deflect this deficit, and that's either by cutting expenditures or raising income taxes or other forms of taxes."
Reed asked him if he could think of other ways, but Bernanke returned to entitlement money as the way to balance the budget.
"Willie Sutton robbed banks because that's where the money is, as he put it," Bernanke said. "The money in this case is in entitlements."
6 Comments:
Kind of strange that people in charge of the financial community see bank robbers as their model. But if the Willie Sutton model really applied to Social Security it would be more like Willie was simply trying to withdraw money that he had already deposited, not trying to rob anyone. It's not robbery if it's your own money, even if you have to pull a gun to get the bank to give it back to you.
The facts are that Social Security and Medicare are the only federal programs that have paid their own way, unlike our President and congressmen who've sold out and betrayed their constituents at every turn. These are programs that have galled the bastards who are stealing our country and our democracy and our lives from their very inception. If congress (in the distinctly nonsexual sense) thinks the veterans of this country will stand for the destruction of Social Security they're biting a big bear on the ass.
I think in this case when Bernanke referred to bank robber Sutton and "where the money is" that he was not referring to retirees collecting their benefits but instead to the government and banking institutions. They need money to balance the deficit but there is no money... They don't want to raise taxes on their own class but the lower and middle classes cannot be squeezed any further... Where to get the money?
Well, here is all this money that John Q Public has being taken from their pay to insure they have a retirement income, this is the "bank" that Bernanke is telling Congress they need to rob.
This man is a despicable scumbag, but what is even worse are the Sheople that think this could be a good idea.
This man is Obama's choice.
Yes, he's a despicable scumbag that would steal food money from senior citizens and give it to his Wall Street cronies.
But, he's now Obama's despicable scumbag.
Remember, Obama started the Dem primary campaign back in 2007 by talking about privatizing Social Security. Don't be surprised when that's re-presented to us as a way out of the depression.
If people keep voting Democrat, they'll keep getting more and more of this.
Of course, what Bernake (and the Democrats) really don't want anyone to think about is that the money really is in Wall Street.
Want to reduce the deficit?
a) Get back all the money Wall Street stole
b) Get back all the money that Wall Street got to bail themselves out after all the money they stole went missing.
c) Go get more money from Wall Street, because as Willie Sutton did say, you go where the money is.
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