Ending Social Security As We Know It

The RADICAL REPUBLICANS want to take us back to the early 1800s before there was Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Dsiability Insurance, Aid To Families With Dependent Children, Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps, Pension Plans, Child Labor Laws, and a 40 Hour Work Week. They want the worker to live and die in poverty, to live in misery, in plain, in illness until they meet death.

The Constitution says that “the Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes… to provide for the… general Welfare of the United States.” But I noticed that when you quoted this section on page 116, you left “general welfare” out and put an ellipsis in its place. Progressives would say that “general welfare” includes things like Social Security or Medicare—that it gives the government the flexibility to tackle more than just the basic responsibilities laid out explicitly in our founding document. What does “general welfare” mean to you? [PERRY:] I don’t think our founding fathers when they were putting the term “general welfare” in there were thinking about a federally operated program of pensions nor a federally operated program of health care. What they clearly said was that those were issues that the states need to address. Not the federal government. I stand very clear on that. From my perspective, the states could substantially better operate those programs if that’s what those states decided to do. So in your view those things fall outside of general welfare. But what falls inside of it? What did the Founders mean by “general welfare”? [PERRY:] I don’t know if I’m going to sit here and parse down to what the Founding Fathers thought general welfare meant. But you just said what you thought they didn’t mean by general welfare. So isn’t it fair to ask what they did mean? It’s in the Constitution. [Silence.]

The Social Security Act was past in 1935 and signed into law by then President Franklin D., Roosevelt to help a dispread nation sunk deep into the "GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930s." Europe had long had a safety-net to help its citizens who were too old to work, the disabled, and families with dependent children.

Why is privatizing Social Security such a turkey? Because retirees shouldn't have to depend on the market's vagaries for survival money. More than half of married couples over 65 and 72% of singles get more than half their income from Social Security, according to the Social Security Administration. For 20% of 65-and-up couples and 41% of singles, Social Security is 90% or more of their income. That isn't projected to change.

Prizating Social Security will put many seniors and the disabled on the streets living in poverty homeless. Furthermore, the economy will tail spin downward into a deep depression. To destroy these will destroy democracy in the United Stated, and small businbess will disapear.

President Obama making recess appointments to labor board, again braving GOP outrage

Obama is set to appoint Sharon Block, Terence Flynn, and Richard Grifin to the board — something unions have made a big priority for them in the new year. Senate Republicans have opposed the recess appointments to the NLRB on constitutional grounds, but unions charge that Republicans are only interested in rendering the agency inoperative.

In a statement, Obama said that:

The American people deserve to have qualified public servants fighting for them every day - whether it is to enforce new consumer protections or uphold the rights of working Americans. We can’t wait to act to strengthen the economy and restore security for our middle class and those trying to get in it, and that’s why I am proud to appoint these fine individuals to get to work for the American people.

This is huge: Without these appointments, the NLRB would have been down to two members; it cannot make decisions without a three-member quorum. Republicans were determined to block Obama's NLRB nominations to shut down the board and prevent it from being able to pass rules like its recent moves streamlining union elections and requiring employers to put up posters informing workers of their existing legal rights.
Obama's decision to recess appoint both these NLRB members and Cordray to the CFPB doesn't just put qualified people into the government—it enables the government agencies themselves to function. That functioning, not the specific individuals, was what Republicans hoped to obstruct. It goes without saying that the GOP will be outraged all over again, despite the fact that the last three Republican presidents all made recess appointments to the NLRB. Kudos to Obama for braving the outrage and doing what needs to be done to keep government working.
12:27 PM PT: Send an email to thank President Obama for this important step to protect workers, as well as for appointing Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Originally posted to Daily Kos Labor on Wed Jan 04, 2012 at 12:20 PM PST.

Also republished by Occupy Virtual America: OCCUPY BEYOND WALLSTREET, Occupy our homes! and Daily Kos.

President Obama making recess appointments to labor board, again braving GOP outrage

Minnesota Voters Should Be Ashamed To Have Voted For Congresswoman Michelle Bachman

“It’s your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world, you are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard,” Bachmann said.
Bachmann’s geographic mix-up prompted derision among some New Hampshire Republicans.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51179.html#ixzz1H01F5yEI

Michelle Bachmann She's Unqualified To Be A Congress Member