Deficit panel leaders propose curbs on Social Security

It's interesting when you read the Washington Post that the Deficit Panel is described as:

The chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission on Wednesday offered an aggressive plan to rebalance the federal budget by curbing increases in Social Security benefits, slashing spending at the Pentagon and other agencies, and wiping out more than $100 billion a year in popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses.

The blueprint drafted by former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) would slice more than $3.8 trillion from deficits over the next decade, reversing a rapid run-up in the national debt that many fear has the country headed for crisis.

It's clear Democrats are a part of this process, yet according to Democracy for America:

We knew this day was coming -- Today, the co-chairs of the Deficit Commission declared war on Social Security.

And it's not just Social Security they're going after. They're declaring war on Medicare, the National Park Service and PBS, too.

Well, the Deficit Commission doesn't speak for me -- or the vast majority of Americans -- and Congress needs to know it. Join me today and sign our pledge to Congress rejecting the Deficit Commission's right-wing attacks on Social Security.

Add your name now

The Co-Chairs of the Commission released their proposal today. One member of the commission referred to the plan as "a good start". It's our job to make sure they know it's Dead on Arrival. Here's a quick sample of just some of what they're calling for:
Cut Social Security benefits
Raise the retirement age
Cut funding to the National Park Service
Cut funding to PBS
When we say that the Deficit Commission doesn't speak for the vast majority of Americans, we have the numbers to back it up.

On Election Day, Democracy for America polled voters nationwide and when asked about Social Security only four percent supported making cuts to Social Security. Over half support eliminating the Social Security tax cap for income over $106,000 a year and 31 percent said they wouldn't change anything at all.

Let me say that again so Congress gets the message -- We polled the exact same people who voted to put Republicans in charge of the House of Representatives and 85 percent of voters don't want any cuts to Social Security.

This might be the only thing that 85 percent of Americans can agree on. Help make sure Congress gets the message.

You'd never know in their e-mail to solicit donations that Democrats were involved...

Fed workers over or under paid?

It depends on who you believe and which facts are cited. This Washington Post article presents some of the information from both sides.

Critics cite data that compare all public and private jobs: Federal workers averaged$123,049 in pay and benefits last year, while private workers totaled $61,051.

Because the government workforce is more skilled on the whole than labor used by private companies that include McDonald's and Wal-Mart, comparing all jobs skews private-sector salaries down, government officials say. The government sets pay scales based on what private employers in different regions pay for comparable levels of work and experience.

A government lawyer generally earns less than a corporate one. When the same work levels are compared, private pay comes out ahead 22 percent, government officials say.

Data released by Berry's office do not offer a government average. But the figures show that a novice government nurse earns $46,148, more than a private one at $39,215. More experienced government nurses trail behind the private sector - $84,652 compared with $124,239.

Bloomberg's donations may end...

Bloomberg Is Quietly Ending a Charitable Program is the focus of the New York Times, link is creating some concern in the New York area.

Since he was first elected mayor in 2001, Mr. Bloomberg has provided money to hundreds of mostly small neighborhood, arts and cultural groups through the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic trust, in a process that was remarkably informal and closely coordinated with City Hall.

The gifts reflect the often blurred roles Mr. Bloomberg plays in the city as mayor, tycoon and philanthropist. And while the donations earned him praise from grateful recipients, who regarded him as an enlightened billionaire, they also drew rebukes from elected leaders who argued that he bought political acquiescence with his checkbook.

That tension was heightened during the mayor’s 2008 push to rewrite the city’s term limits law. His aides asked several groups that had received Carnegie grants to lobby for the change publicly, which allowed him to remain in office for four more years.

Even the RNC has massive layoffs

Even the world of politics has been impacted with the news from the Washington Post that the RNC has done a massive staff elimination:

One week after Michael Steele won a hotly contested race to be the chairman of the Republican National Committee, he has cleaned house and laid off almost the entire RNC staff.

Steele met with the full staff on Tuesday and word of the mass layoffs came shortly after that. According to sources familiar with the move, all of the communications and political staffers are being let go.

Some senior staff members -- in expectation of being let go -- submitted their resignations shortly after Steele won the chairmanship last Friday. Others have already found new jobs, most notably RNC political director Rich Beeson who will return to his post at FLS Direct, and Amber Wilkerson who will serve as national spokeswoman at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In this scenario it's not just related to economics, it's a desire to clean house so that Steele can start anew with people he wants in place. Though one wonders where do out of work Republican political communication and staffers go...

How the media covers Apple

As a political blogger I already knew that many times the media doesn't report on stories that we should know for a variety of reasons. As this article in Newsweek points out, The media's coverage of Apple bites. Here's why. it's not just political reporters who engage in a position of bias.

For the past six months Steve Jobs has been looking terribly ill. But only this week did Apple finally acknowledge that Jobs isn't doing well, when the company announced that Jobs would take a leave for six months. Some suggest the company has misled investors; shareholder lawsuits seem likely. But how did the company manage to carry on this charade for so long? The sad fact is they had help from the media.

The worst thing about the coverage of the Steve Jobs health fiasco at Apple is not only that much of the media failed to pursue the story. A lot of us feel uneasy about prying into someone's health. We'd just rather not go there. But in this case the media went beyond just ignoring the story and actually helped Apple tamp down the story, which kept bubbling up, usually on blogs.

Here's an additional interesting comparison:

The fact is, in the eyes of the media, Apple is the corporate equivalent of Barack Obama—a company that can do no wrong. Even in Silicon Valley, where much of the press corps are pretty much glorified cheerleaders (think of all those slobbering cover stories about the Google guys) Apple's kid-gloves treatment stands out. Reporters don't just overlook Apple's faults; they'll actually apologize for them, or rationalize them away. Ever seen reporters clapping and cheering at a press conference? Happens all the time at Apple events.

The problem is of course that few people will point out the truth, and those who do? Have a hard time getting others to see it...

Incompetence all around

Recommended piece, Paulson, Bernanke, and Congress on the Bailout: Incompetence All Around that I recommend reading in full but one part that I really agreed with:

Incompetence all around. The general practice when you have a closely divided Senate and a controlled House is to have the Senate pass a bipartisan measure and the House a leadership measure, and then resolve them in conference. But when the speaker announces she must have bipartisan support (in this case so that politically marginal members of her party can vote against the measure), then the House minority must be brought into the discussions. Suddenly, the House minority, which ordinarily has no leverage to produce legislative results, has a great deal—a concession Pelosi in effect made on September 23. But she did not bring in the House Republicans, nor did the House Republican leadership authorize anyone (including Spencer Bachus, ranking minority member on Financial Services) to negotiate for them.

Bailing on the Bailout?

It doesn't look as though things are going well:

But according to Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, who attended the meeting, "we will not have a deal."

And Dodd picks McCain to blame out of all of those present:

The meeting included the following key players: Bush flanked at the table by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Obama and McCain on opposite ends of the table, House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also between the two presidential candidates and Vice President Dick Cheney across from Bush.

Pointing the fingers of blame...

While American's worry about their financial future, political parties play the blame game hoping that you won't remember who did what, when, and where. That's evidenced in articles like this one, McCain, Obama camps point fingers in banking deregulation, mortgage messes and for those who want to go back even before The 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to 1993 the answer is clear for those who are willing to take off the partisan blinders.

Both parties are to blame...It'd be nice if the effort was more on how do we fix it than how do we point fingers...

Automakers seek $50 billion in low-interest loans

The automakers have deployed what one industry official describes as a "surge" of lobbyists and executives at both the Democratic and Republican party's political conventions. The Big Three's hope is that if they can win speedy passage of the loan package, they can move more quickly to retool their plants to produce more smaller cars.

The $50 billion loan package, first proposed by the auto industry last month, has won the support of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain as their campaigns eye key votes in Michigan and Ohio.

Interesting that the Obama campaign is supposedly "anti-lobbyist" yet they have agreed with McCain on this issue.