Wealth redistributor-in-chief: Hey, let’s spread around another $13 billion!
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me:
President Obama on Wednesday attempted to preempt the announcement that Social Security recipients will not get an increase in their benefit checks for the first time in three decades, encouraging Congress to provide a one-time payment of $250 to help seniors and disabled Americans weather the recession.
“One-time payment” my foot.
Reminder: There is no such thing as a temporary government entitlement.
Obama endorsed the idea, which is expected to cost at least $13 billion, as the administration gropes for ways to sustain an apparent economic rebound without the kind of massive spending package that critics could label a second stimulus act.”
“$13 billion” my foot.
Reminder: There is no such thing as a temporary entitlement that ever costs less than the government estimates.
An increase in benefit checks each January has been a yearly ritual since the mid-1970s, when the government moved to ensure that its subsidies to retirees, pension recipients and others who receive Social Security benefits kept pace with inflation. Thursday’s announcement by the Labor Department will mark the first time that the federal formula used since then, which is tied to the consumer price index, will translate into no increase at all. That is because consumer prices have remained stagnant in the weak economy — a sharp reversal from this past year, when Social Security checks grew by 5.8 percent, an unusually large amount.
Why bother with the charade of inflation-indexed COLAs if the government is going to redistribute wealth away from younger generations to the elderly whether there’s inflation or not?!
…Congress has already enacted a stimulus package that included a similar $250 payment to retirees and others who depend on Social Security, veterans’ benefits and federal pensions.
Repeat: Congress has already doled out payments to retirees and others.
This new round is a bailout for seniors who have lost money in the stock and housing markets. Obama said so:
The new payments would cost an estimated $14 billion, according to legislative sources, although the White House said the price tag would be $1 billion less than that.
In urging lawmakers to provide a second round of payments to older Americans, the president said the extra help would “not only make a difference for them, but for our economy as a whole,” adding that it would “be especially important in the coming months, as countless seniors and others have seen their retirement accounts and home values decline as a result of this economic crisis.”
This isn’t about compassion. It’s a naked $13-14 billion bribe for the seniors lobby during the contentious Obamacare debate at the expense of everyone else.
Shame.
***
The American Spectator’s Philip Klein reports:
“We generally think proposals should be paid for, but in this case, we’re providing temporary essential help to people as an extension to the Recovery Act,” the official said. “We plan to work with Congress to discuss financing, but the President is not going to go into those discussions insisting that this be paid for.”
The announcement comes a day before the Social Security Administration is set to announce its cost of living adjustment to beneficiaries. Last year, beneficiaries received a 5.8 percent boost because soaring energy costs pushed up consumer prices, but given the sagging prices in the currently weak economy, beneficiaries aren’t going to receive any raise this year. The proposed $250 payments would represent a 2 percent increase to the typical beneficiary.
The official was quick to push back against the suggestion that this proposal — likely to be financed through deficit spending — represented a second stimulus package. Instead, the official argued that it was merely extending a provision of the $787 billion stimulus bill that is scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
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No doubt this is a shameless payment for seniors support. Seniors are not stupid. It ain’t gonna work.
The $13 Billion will show up in the next continuing resolutions and the Dems will dare the Repubs to vote against it. However, Seniors will still oppose Medicare cuts.
Remember when “slowing the growth” of Medicare was an unconscionable attack on Seniors?
It’s only unconscionable if Republicans do it.
Maybe they gave him that NPP for just being a spending fool. That is all, ALL he has done, nothing else, zip, zero, nada. What flippin losers the morons are that voted for this dipstick. Geeze Louise.
A handout of $250 might enable a senior to hire an illegal to shovel global warming off his driveway, but it’s not going to create or save any perminent jobs. Why is this administration so adverse to doing anything that will stimulate job growth? Is it because they believe that keeping Americans barefoot and jobless makes them dependant on government and keeps democrats in power?
He’s buying the votes of the seniors he’s going to screw out of Medicare benefits.
Just say 500 billion in cuts to Medicare benefits and it will send chills down every politician’s spine.
Obama’s trying to soften the blow by paying off support but it won’t work. The die is already cast. The seniors are going to run him out of town because of what he does to Medicare. Mark it down, the worst political maneuver in history.
$250.00? WOW!
Can I get some of that Obama money? From his stash?
And, oh, by the way, it will be taxed as income.
I loathe this man. I’ve loathed him since he emerged from the swamps of Chicago Democrat politics.
Go back to Hell, Obama, where you came from!
***
I would rather have Comrade Obama (PBUH) keep my $250 in the treasury and would rather have him get his hands off my Medicare and off my wallet.
***
Hope and Change my A**!
***
John Bibb
***
The problem for Obama is that Seniors actually learned math in school and understand that a so-called one time payment of $250 amounts to roughly .69 a day.
On another note, anyone who believes that Congress will actual cut Medicare by the $500 billion that is in the obamacare bill are just fooling themselves. That provision was placed in there to help create the
deficeit netrality of the bill before the CBO scored it. It will be written in a way that will require Congress to vote to approve the cuts sometime down the line which of course will never come.
Pop quiz. Who said the following last year:
Yep, it is a bad idea on many levels. Isn’t it a good thing that Social Security was not privatized?
Hmmm, may be a good time to make sure the grandkids are on the Grandparent’s Christmas gift list.
If only they’d stay put long enough between their constant trips to actually be able to contact them — we’re still waiting for them to figure out how to turn on the cell phones we got them.
kbiel – I know! It was Michelle Odumbo!
What is my prize? I want my free stuff!
First seniors are supposed to forego medical procedures and take pills so Obamacare is affordable. Now we are just handing them $250, just because. Did we pull the seniors from under the bus so they can ride the bus again? Or are we just letting them hang off the side of the bus till the next bump comes along to shake them off again? This is getting hard to keep up with and I am loosing track of who we are supposed to be hating on this month.
The GOP should call his bluff. Demand that it be increased to at least $1000, expanded to all taxpayers, and made a permanent annual benefit. They could call it a “tax cut” for short.
Ms. Malkin, the AP just reported on the lower-than-estimated death toll in Iraq.
This means that by my calculations, George W. Bush saved 750,000 Iraqi lives.
I’ll take the money.
I still wouldn’t vote for a Dimocrat.
It’s just a diversion to take people’s minds off of the fact that the Democrats intend to kill them to save Social Security.
$250 doesn’t even come close to what I’ve lost in my investment portfolio owing to Obamanomics!
Exactly.
I hope a lot of senior citizens caught Dick Morris on O’Reilly last night, with his accurate and dire warnings about what ObamaCare is going to do to our life spans and quality of life. Barry is bribing seniors as if they were Venezuelan peasants so they can die sooner, or live with bum hips for the few remaining years the government bureaucrats will permit them to
enjoysuffer through.This spending is just wasteful.
See:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pressroom/fhwa0930.htm
I have driven in this area and though there are a couple of lights there is NO real good reason to spend a 130 million plus. It is simply a make work project. I think if we have to spend that money somewhere it may be best as a loan to a business or something.
It’s a bribe. He thinks that seniors who happen to be a big part of those who are against Obamacare will suddenly love him for 250 bucks.
It’s just a slightly more generous bribe than Ahmadinijead’s vote-getting scheme to hand out potatoes.
Bluedogs are probably banging their heads against the wall right now. They just got an earful at their townhalls over healthcare. I’m sure this will make them even more popular with the folks in their districts.
I’m just hoping that the election results in VA and especially NJ will make them see reason.
There is certainly a lack of creative thinking on the parts of this administration when it comes to addressing the issues we are facing in this country. They are a one hit wonder – Throw money at the problem and then walk away and pretend to work on the next problem, which you will throw money at.
The one thing the government can do that private business can’t is just throw money at a problem instead of figuring out how to solve the problem.
Soon, they will run out of money, and when they do they will be out of ideas too.
It is going to be interesting to see if any media organizations report it this way.
A B S O L U T E L Y !!!
Only for those seniors willing enough to be purchased at that price. Political prostitues, they be.
A complete bribe. Unfortunately, a significant portion of our senior citizens will buy into it.
As someone not too far away from “elder statesman” status, I am disgusted with out current seniors who consistently grab all the goodies they can from government and scream bloody murder if anyone tries to take their candy away. Some of them earned their money, a lot did not.
Step right up and get your Obamabucks! BHO will just print more if he needs it.
Obama and his fellow socialists are not redistributing wealth, they’re redistributing poverty. There has to be an end to this constant spending or China and the rest of the world will end it for us by no longer buying our debt and allowing our dollar to inflate to Weimar Republic proportions. Then this country will collapse and the Constitution will be lost along with our individual freedoms. Ever wonder how Obama and the left will suggest we pay for all the entitlements he’s heaping on us? The defense budget, of course. They’ll tell us we just can’t afford to support the military the way we have, and we won’t need to, once the UN is in charge of keeping the peace around the world. It’s coming, folks.
I’m a seasoned citizen and I will not accept this $250 theft from my grandchildren, great grandchildren whom I was lucky enough to live long enough to see. They will get my check back.
Wish I would have thought of that quote! Great!
Get your 250 health care bribe right here, come one come all, free 250 for support the KILL GRANNY BILL …
The first of many attempts to buy votes for the 2010 mid-terms.
I’m confused. Shouldn’t this payout be delayed until next November, right before midterm elections? Or will another payoff to seasoned citizens be coming then anyway?
No.
Besides it being a taxable income, they will increase our cost for the medicare premium and they will reduce our benefits (the ObamaCare rouse). Don’t get over 65, you will become expendable!
If you give them a lump sum of $250 rather than spread it out over the course of the year with a COLA unpate, you can withhold more money and keep it from the one check.
Welcome to the old shell game.
Just like, OBTW the $4500 you got for Cash for Clunkers is actually taxable income, so your $4,500 is only $3,510.
The problem with socialism is, you eventually run out of other peoples money.
Democracy will last until the Government learns they can bribe the people with their own money.
Constitutional reform is the only solution. Take/reduce the power of the purse, and all the excesses and lawlessness are neutralized. A balanced and limited federal budget funded by a flat or sales tax only.
Enforce that and they can throw tantrums to their heart’s content and it won’t matter a whit.
I am a senior citizen and I cannot be “bought”. Or fooled. I will take any SS money they offer, because I paid in for 40 years. But change my mind about these crapweasels in DC? Never! They think we are so stupid that we will cave in to them when we see a few dollars flash in front of us. I would rather be stone broke than give in to these immoral, Constitution trashing, lying, corrupt, disgusting excuses for human beings. I hope someday God will allow me a glimpse into what their final judgement will be.
No look…just read: Rev 20:11-15
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2020:11-15&version=NIV
Exactly.
Amen! But Democratic Socialists know no shame.
Thanks!
Happyscrapper,
If you want to understand what is going on simply read 1st Samuel 8:4-18 or the whole chapter if you wish.
Why don’t they just stand on the street and hand out money!
This isn’t about compassion. It’s a naked $13-14 billion bribe for the seniors lobby during the contentious Obamacare debate at the expense of everyone else.
Shame.
I understand where you’re coming from MM, but the thing is just how do you “compassionately” dispute/argue this to an average elderly couple on the street that you’re “depriving” their survival of funds? Obama and libs know we out sounding callous and heartless if we do!
James Greenidge
Queens NY
What’s the problem? We were screwed no matter who won the 08 election.
They were just as bad.
Didn’t make any difference.
None at all – could have been Obama, could have been McCain, both were equally bad for America. Flip a coin, vote for Bob Barr, write in ‘The Lizard People,’ or even more idiotic – vote for the constitution party to send a message.
“We’re screwed ’08″ - You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me
Those of us who made this decision after the republican primary was over to take this action, to trash the man who was up against Barack Obama and was the only one who could beat him and was 100% dependent on our votes and our support … Those of us who did this and more have a hell of a lot of nerve being outraged at this and every thing that Obama has done and will yet to do while president. Thanks to the people who passively aggressively helped to put him into office because of their hatred of McCain.
250 dollars will do almost nothing to help anyone…
My 90 year old mother is not stupid, despite being a life-long democrat. This is the first year ever that she is voting Republican. She and all her friends at the senior center know the contempt the current president has for her.
Despite living a healthy lifestyle and paying into medicare most of her adult life, she knows Obama will pull any medical care just as she needs it.
No doubt it would go instead to someone here illegally.
Are they sending out Obama PILLS with the checks?
O/T by eye poping
Cute bunny rabits, a renewable power source.
http://www.thelocal.se/22610/20091012/
Agreed.
You beat me to it!
HEY OBAMA LOVERS. . .HOW DO YOU LIKE THE FOOL NOW?
$250 for a vote from the seniors, not bad.
Considering the hit Medicare is going to take, Obama needs seniors in his corner.
$250.00 = 30 pieces of silver
Does she know this?
actualy 30 peices of silver would cost arround 600 dollars assuming they are 1 ounce each.
Oh you meant the biblical thing. Never mind…
Errah, the administration has figured out how to devalue the dollar so it is on strategy to be worth as much as the peso. Unfortunately now the Canadians need to drive their economy into the toilet to make the Mexomerican Union a fact. We may be asking the Canadians for aid once the Dollar isn’t the reserve currency anymore. Start saving now for your loaf of bread because the $2.50 a loaf you pay today will be $2500 next year.
Why, no?
Had Social Security been privatized, what would prevent the Government from bailing out those people who lost their retirement investments? There would have been a far greater number of people that would have lost money than lost money with Bernie Madoff.
They would all be clamoring for a bailout.
Hey! I see a post from Thomas! I wonder what he has to say?
Why isn’t this a big deal today? This represents the biggest bait and switch at the expense of diverting funds away from our troops in battle in history. This is so cynical that words fail me. Not a peep from anyone… yet.
I think it was about how toasted he likes his marshmallows… or something.
The rest of us think she’s priceless!
The $250 does a couple things that are interesting;
1) It does not add directly to the base pay of a social security recipient. Therefore the amount does not compound, or add to future COLAS.
2) Not adding to SS base means that Medicare premiums are locked at last years rate. So Medicare falls further into debt.
3) Its primary purpose however is to purchase votes.
There is no money in Social Security. Hasn’t been for decades, it is full of worthless IOUs. It is insolvent.
The collapse (when it can longer be pretended that everything is okeydokie) is only a couple years away.
Those who refuse to learn from their history are doomed to repeat it.
Go bury your head in the sand if you want, “John Deaux.”
As for me, I would rather we not repeat the 08 election. Because the Obama presidency could have been prevented.
The Spender-In-Thief and his flunkies are out to buy some popularity with us old folks. It will not work with a vast majority of us.
Oh Screw it! Just fire up the presses 24/7 and print as much money as you like Odumbo. Or maybe you can just plant a nice green money tree farm. We’re screwed……
John Deaux,
…and apparently he prefers dark chocolate for his s’mores.
LOL!
Aww. Gee, thanks!
Yeah, this is really funny, Salt. Until Obama’s actions to make the world safe from nuclear weapons, making us weaker in the process and doing nothing as others acquire their own nuclear programs … murder Israelis. Or Europeans. Or the South Koreans. Or our military overseas. Or Americans at home. It’s bad enough that Obama is spending us into oblivion. But he’s not done yet.
Yeah, big laugh salt.
Man, if O-BOZO thinks he can buy me and my lovely wife for 250 bucks each, is he in for a shock… Just one more reason (as if we needed one more) to hope 2010 comes real quick, with 2012 right behind… This country is broke, and getting more broke by the day, mmm, mmm, mmm…
I’m 63 and would have liked my COLA.
BUT, what kind of asinine thought processes came up with THIS idea? My God the stupidity is unbelievable. Maybe not stupid, just trying to bankrupt us on purpose? If you dumb-asses have the money for a $250.00 payment, why not just pay out the COLA?
Hell, who needs any of it now? They just sold us out to the Commies!
And by the way BO, if you think this offering will make us any more agreeable to your raping of the health care industry, you are oh so wrong! Take your health care and shove it! You’re a boil on the butt of humanity!
Drunk with power and our money. Dems are traitors to the Constitution and everything American. They will pay for all of this in the next 2 election cycles. Hopefully by then, there will still be an America to save. I just hope our children and our grandchildren don’t hate us too much for what we have left them with. But if they did, I surely wouldn’t blame them.
You got it. This was know a month or more ago, that there would be no COLA for 2 years. Next year about this time expect to be dazzled again by Congressional magnanimity.
As much $ as Obama is giving away, most people are finally understanding what this means. $ doesn’t grow on trees. You can’t be giving away $ willy-nilly.
There’s a difference between learning from history and living in the past.
How exactly is focusing on 2010 instead of 2008 burying my head in the past?
Then what ever would you post about?
Yeah, we got that already.
$250 won’t go very far especially a one-time payment…it’ll be gone in a couple of months if that….one could only hope congress will ignore him but with the dimocraps in charge I ain’t holding my breath….
Why not toss around another $13 billion? “Just put it on my tab.”
There is no difference between what Hope-a-Dope and the donks are doing to this country’s finances and what a credit-card addict does when he knows that the jig is almost up: max-out every card he has, apply for as many more as he can get, and when the banks finally wise up and say “No” declare bankruptcy.
The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said that “The 1980s will be remembered as the decade when we borrowed a trillion dollars from Japan and threw a party.”
To paraphrase him today, it’s “The Era of Hopenchange will be remembered for when we tried to borrow ten trillion dollars from the Chinese to stage an orgy, but instead they foreclosed on our sorry asses.”
If they were kidding us, this blog and every other outlet that advocates for the truth would wind up either shutting down or finding something else to post about …
For me, I suppose it would be Technology or US History. Yes, I do believe it would be US History.
I do so love what the Founders did. We must fight tooth and nail to keep it from slipping away.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
I have said this before, and I will say it again.
Barack Obama may very well be the best thing to happen to America in a very long time.
America has needed something along the lines of the Tea Party movement for a long time now, and thanks to Barack Obama, we now have one. John McCain could NEVER have delivered that.
The threat posed to this government by an educated populace is immeasurable, and what is happening now is EXACTLY what the Founding Fathers wanted to have happen when corruption is the order of the day. In fact, they believed ARMED resistance would at some point be necessary.
Yet another reason to defend the Second Amendment as well.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
grr … RWR, the Preview button is your friend …
Either “A Tea Party movement”, or “we now have IT”.
**** WATCHING OUT FOR THE NUNS WITH THE RULERS ****
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
More like 10 minutes. Most the retired folks I know have lost 40% of their retirement investments and are fighting to survive each month. $250 is like giving them a band aid for a broken neck. Maybe one electric bill.
Some of them are able and willing to work but can not compete with the massive number of unemployed in the area. In our area there are a minimum of 15 people lined up for even a menial job opening.
Having lived and worked in Asia, I admired Asian culture’s deep respect and sense of responsibility for their elders. It is a cultural value that we sadly lack, I believe to our shame.
Yes, it will work for redistribution. I am a senior and I don’t want it, nor did I ask for it. The Republicans have to go along or lose the senior vote. Another win for socialism! This Obama is one smart socialist.
See my post above re: Barack Obama’s contribution to America.
However, that is not to say that I disagree with Thomas at all about the fact that Barack Obama is not someone we really want in the WH. I just wanted to point out that there has been a substantial unexpected benefit to his taking office.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
And BTW Obama, you can’t buy my vote!!!!
My wife and I are already planning to donate our $500 to our favorite conservative candidate(s). How’s that for stimulus?
That’s EXACTLY right Michelle. Another bribe for his agenda using OUR MONEY.
Hey Ziggy(as in Stardust)…Is that all you can say to this bribe? Duh…Glad they didn’t privatize SS…That’s another argument which I would love to debate the actual facts of what the proposals were but instead I will change the subject on you this time because I didn’t get to respond yesterday…
Which you said that the Chrysler bailout was a success. Oh really? Tell that to the people who Chrysler owed money to. They got 10cents on the $ while Bambi, in a Chavez like move, gave the Union control of the company. Yeah…That worked out great if you are a Marxist. You need to go ask Bowie to quit feedin you those drugs dude.
250 won’t cover the natural gas bill for one month, in the case of those who don’t get their bills paid for & still keep the temperature in their PJ homes set at 80.
No. At least I’d have all that money that’s been taken from me in an account earning interest.
Z, never take up chess. You cannot see more than one move ahead.
Waahoo…..I get 250 bucks…I could keep afford to keep my NFL package…Oh wait a minute…they just gave me the finger and told me they don’t need no stinkin conservatives around their football teams….so I guess I don’t need it
What’s next? Nickels for kindergartners?
don’t know if this has been mentioned yet, but those seniors could send the $250 to the Joe Wilson for president campaign fund, or the nearest conservative in their own district running for office…
I’m ready to start a letter writing/e-mail/or fax campaign to implore the Chinese not to buy any more worthless paper of ours until this regime understands 2nd grade math! Madness.
The O’s grandparents were, perhaps, so enthralled with him that he thinks anyone will believe anything he says. He’s a user and abuser.