Don't be on the wrong side of history

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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Today it would be hard to find one member of Congress who openly advocates the abolition of Medicare or Social Security. It's true that during the Bush Presidency, right-wing Republicans tried to weaken, dilute and privatize both. But their proposals were always passed off as attempts to "strengthen" these programs that have become two of the most popular and widely respected institutions of government.

Of course it wasn't always so. Both Social Security and Medicare were incredibly controversial when they were passed - the first in 1937 and the second in 1964. In fact, their opponents sounded very much like today's Republicans as they denounced them for being "big government takeovers" - or, in the case of Medicare, "socialized medicine."

But it wasn't long after they were enacted that Social Security and Medicare became "third rails" in American politics. Former Senator Bob Dole once made a speech where he said: "I was there, fighting against Medicare." The TV spot reprising that speech during his 1996 campaign against Bill Clinton helped seal Dole's defeat.

The view shared by most Americans - and all senior citizens - was summed up in the slogan for the 2005 campaign to defeat Bush's privatization program: "Hands off my Social Security."

No one brags that their father or grandfather lead the fight to oppose Social Security or Medicare - any more than they brag that their forbearer lead the fight against civil rights. But of course in the 1960's, civil rights did not have the universal acclaim it has today.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had many detractors who thought his agitation for justice was downright subversive. Others thought that he wanted to move too fast. That extended to the Pastors - many men of good will - who asked him to call off his protests in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. It was to those Pastors that he wrote his famous letter from the Birmingham jail: "Why We Can't Wait."

In 1963 most people would not have dreamed that just a few decades hence, a national holiday would be named after the young organizer and agitator, Martin Luther King.

Every major social advance is surrounded by controversy and conflict. That's because every time there is change in the status quo there are winners and losers. The controversy over President Obama's health care reform does not center mainly on "differences in approach" or academic disagreements over the way that health care systems should be designed in some ideal world. They center instead on battles over wealth and power - just as they did when the Congress created Social Security or Medicare, or passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Robert Creamer: Memo to Members of Congress: Don't Be on the Wrong Side of History
 
The bankrupt and Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in! :lol:

Social Security and Medicare has taken care of my father and my mother for years and is not bankrupt.

Nice try, though.
 
Irrelevant to the fact that those programs are both headed for a financial train wreck.

But you're always disregarding facts that don't fit into your collectivist authoritarian dogma, so the non sequitur deflection isn't surprising.
 
The bankrupt and Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in! :lol:

Social Security and Medicare has taken care of my father and my mother for years and is not bankrupt.

Nice try, though.

Nice antecdotal evidence......

The numbers, not only its stupid inception, are unsustainable with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. Might be doing fine for YOUR mother and father.....but will not work well for you.

BTW, where is health care and retirement benefits a right under the Constitution?
 
The bankrupt and Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in! :lol:

Social Security and Medicare has taken care of my father and my mother for years and is not bankrupt.

Nice try, though.

Nice antecdotal evidence......

The numbers, not only its stupid inception, are unsustainable with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. Might be doing fine for YOUR mother and father.....but will not work well for you.

BTW, where is health care and retirement benefits a right under the Constitution?

Where is the CDC in the Constitution? Really freakin' stupid point!
 
Irrelevant to the fact that those programs are both headed for a financial train wreck.

But you're always disregarding facts that don't fit into your collectivist authoritarian dogma, so the non sequitur deflection isn't surprising.

Not at all. We will just make the personal part of SS go right up the scale on all earnings:lol:
 
Social Security and Medicare has taken care of my father and my mother for years and is not bankrupt.

Nice try, though.

Nice antecdotal evidence......

The numbers, not only its stupid inception, are unsustainable with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. Might be doing fine for YOUR mother and father.....but will not work well for you.

BTW, where is health care and retirement benefits a right under the Constitution?

Where is the CDC in the Constitution? Really freakin' stupid point!

Where did I say I advocated the CDC. What is a more freakin' stupid point? Me pointing out no Constitutional backing, or you assuming I support other non-Constitutional programs? Hmmmm....:think:
 
Let's see, if nothing changes, Social Security will have to reduce benefits by 25% in 2040. I will be 97 that year. Damn, am I ever worried! In the meantime, just work real hard, and pay all your taxes, I really enjoy that SS check coming in every month!:lol:
 
LOL. Worked enough at high enough wages to get nearly the max amount of SS. And I am still working at said wages. Just keep flippin' burgers, Dude, and paying your taxes.:razz:
 

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