Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The White House has announced a plan to give seniors and disabled veterans $250 each as part of a mini-economic stimulus plan to compensate them for the fact that there will be no cost of living adjustment (COLA) this year to Social Security benefits because there has been no inflation this past year. White House urges a 2nd $250 payout to seniors, veterans:
The money would go to all Social Security beneficiaries, regardless of their income, as well as disabled veterans, those eligible for railroad retirement payments and people who receive federal and state government pensions instead of Social Security.
Rep. Jeff Flake, who is opposed to all stimulus spending, issued this press release:
We’re Robbing Junior to Placate Grandpa
10.15.09
Washington, D.C., Oct 15 – Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today criticized a proposal by the Obama Administration to give senior citizens a payment of $250 because there is no cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) this year.
“I understand that these are tough economic times, but this money has to come from somewhere,” said Flake. “Future generations will have to pay off our deficits. We’re robbing Junior to placate Grandpa.”
That's right: "Screw you Grandma and Grandpa!"
For you seniors and disabled veterans living on a fixed income and seeing your purchasing power decline due largely to rapidly increasing medical costs, you may be interested to know what "Junior" Flake is doing with his time and your COLA money. From the right-wing blog Espresso Pundit: No Pork, But Plenty of Beef…
Here's a fun post from the Daily Beast.
How a 46-year-old Mormon congressman from Arizona became the hottest thing on Capitol Hill.
Look out, Aaron Schock, there’s a new hottest congressman in town. And like you and the president, he’s not afraid to take his top off for the benefit of the masses.
Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, a dirty-blond, ruddy-cheeked fifth-term Republican who represents the eastern suburbs of Phoenix, embarked last summer on a solitary seven-day vacation on a deserted island in the Pacific. Flake went the full Robinson Crusoe: sleeping in a hammock, spearing fish, and building fires without the aid of matches, lighters, or gasoline. And he brought a digital camera and a tripod to document his endeavors.
It's about time that the rest of the country discovered Jeff's manliness. Of course, I've been commenting on it for years. Check out this post from Cinco de mayo 2005
That's right. Seniors are being deserted while "Junior" Flake enjoys an island vacation on your COLA money. Be sure to call and write his congressional office to tell him how you really feel.
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P. J. O’Rourke does political satire. Michael Moore on a good day does satire. Peter Bagge does satire. Satire would require you to be witty. Wit would require you to have the capacity for analytic thought.
If I were to say “AZ Blue Meanie is a pederast”, that’s not satire. May or may not be a lie, but it ain’t even funny.
Cute.
Like many grad students, I’ve given a few “milk money” ideas a shot. Writing for Helium.com was one–it turns out that compared to Examiner.com or just regular ‘blogging it’s a low-paying gig.
I was also a candidate for Pima County Supe way back in 2004. Got talked into it late one night. Sat on ACLU-AZ’s Board of Directors for a few years, too.
Frustrated writer? Hardly. Get real! That’s almost as ridiculous as accusing Jeff Flake of graft. Overworked scientist who writes occasionally as a hobby is more like it.
But since I am not an anonymous coward, you could fairly easily find this information, and more. Or even show up at my doorstep and ask me. But it’s easier, I suppose, to construct a more convenient Ben Kalafut. That’s your modus operandi, really–perhaps I should be honored that as a mere “engaged citizen” I get the same treatment (douchebaggery?) you give the big shots.
I don’t know what they were thinking when they brought you on to this ‘blog. You’re a total discredit to your cause, blustery and nonanalytic, a sort of left-wing Roy Warden without the cojones to get arrested. And in such respectable company that becomes all the more clear.
You got me to thinking, just who is this delicate flower who is always clutching his pearls over something I wrote, and then getting all bitchy with personal insults to someone he does not even know? So I looked you up.
Turns out our delicate flower is “an overeducated doctoral student and amateur (in the amo, amas, amat sense) cook, photographer, and aquarist, who has strong political opinions” in Tucson, and posts articles at some “citizen journalist” web site I had never even heard of until now. http://www.helium.com/users/24253/show_articles
Your articles on cooking advice and aquariums are somewhat informative. Stick to what you know. Politics isn’t one of them.
A frustrated writer who doesn’t get any traffic at his web site trolling the comments section of this web site for attention is a pathetic cry for attention. This is the last time you get it from me.
I don’t think the $250 payment is necessarily a good idea either. It’s not just that there was no inflation. Overall cost of living has decreased in the past year even when you factor in medical costs. Social Security isn’t designed around dealing with medical costs, Medicare and the VA are. Any increases for medical costs should come through those systems, and not SS. Providing an additional $250 coverage inside the “donut hole” would probably be a better solution.
@ “Meanie”
I can’t define satire, but I know it when I see it, and false accusations of graft or embezzlement, at least written in your style, are not it.
But writing something stupid and hiding behind the claim that it was supposed to be satire, now that looks like self-parody.
Maybe you should hang it up–your co-‘bloggers are running what looks to me like a respectable and honest operation which you discredit with this wild nonsense.
Empathy and compassion in my book are the province of those who want there to be doctors who can afford to accept Medicare as well as an economy where there just might be enough wealth left to fund Medicare A/B/C/D.
Presuming that the federal deficit doesn’t, to a certain point, matter is a prescription for a severe financial wake up call. The federal government cannot and should not borrow and spend with no regard as to the future problems that will result. Just because prior administration imprudently borrowed doesn’t mean that the current Democratic congress and Obama should follow their lead.
I realize that blaming the Republicans is very stylish but there are plenty of Democrats who had their fingers in building the US financial Eiffel Tower over many years.
As for Herbert Hoover, I will admit I haven’t read much about him but he hardly sounds like he believed in a do nothing approach given this quote:
“We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead we met the situation with proposals to private business and to Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic.”
http://mises.org/story/2902
Government is the foundation upon which the financial system is currently tottering. If government could solve the problem we wouldn’t be where we are now. If government was the solution we could thank the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the CFTC for the great job they have done.
Borrowing more and spending more (the pay off the senior demographic) isn’t a good idea.
Excessive US government borrowing and spending will extend the current depression.
I believe that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake as is the continued occupation by the US armed forces and paid for mercenary soldiers. What is the solution – I believe the US Army should leave Iraq as soon as possible.
Thane: You must suffer under the misconception that Medicare covers all medical needs, that it is somehow “free” medical care. It is not. Medicare does not cover all medical costs.
Medicare generally covers 80% of a medical procedure, and you pay 20%. Many seniors have a supplemental Medicare insurance policy to cover this cost – these are the Medicare Advantage Plans from private insurers, whose premiums, deductibles and co-pays are increasing every year.
Medicare Parts A and B do not cover a whole host of medical needs or procedures including dental care and dentures, routine eye exams and eyeglasses, hearing aids, routine foot care and orthopedic shoes, custodial care in the home and long-term care, etc. (See the publication “Medicare and You 2009” at p.38).
Then there is Medicare Part D, the prescription drug “benefit” to pharmaceutical companies. You must enroll in a prescription drug coverage plan. There is a tiered coverage and “donut hole” of no coverage at all. In 2009, the first $295 is out-of-pocket with no Medicare coverage. From $295 to $2,700, you pay 25% out-of-pocket. From $2,700 to $6,154 is the “donut hole” – no Medicare coverage. Over $6,154, Medicare will cover 95% of the cost.
I would encourage you to volunteer to work with the elderly to learn first hand from them what Medicare does and does not do, and what it is like for them to live on a fixed income with rising medical costs. Some empathy and compassion would help.
As for the lack of a COLA this year, I have long objected to the formulation of what is included/excluded in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is used to calculate COLA. That is the subject for a scholarly paper.
As for the federal deficit, it was Dick Cheney who proclaimed that “Deficits don’t matter” and up to a certain point he is correct. http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/03/27/deficits/index.html 90% of the $11 trillion federal deficit Barack Obama inherited in January 2009 is attributable to three Republican presidents: Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush (who doubled the deficit in his 8 years). Where were the deficit hawks during their presidencies?
Barack Obama also inherited a non-functioning financial system and a collapsing economy. This required a massive infusion of federal money to stabilize the financial system (the jury is still out) and to arrest the economic slide into a global depression. There is at least some evidence that we have pulled back from the abyss. As everyone knows, employment is a lagging economic indicator as the economy recovers and confidence returns. (I would argue, and correctly so, that the deficit spending the current administration is incurring was necessitated by and is directly attributable to the failed Republican economic policies of the past 30 years. We are digging out of a very deep hole.)
For all those who bitch and moan about the deficit spending we are incurring to rescue the economy and to restore economic growth, and suggest that we should have employed the laissez-faire “free market” do nothing approach of Herbert Hoover, history has discredited and disproven your “free market” economic ideology on a grand scale twice in the last century. This belief in an invisible hand of the market place making rational decisions is pure fantasy. It’s time to put such childish thoughts aside. It’s time for some adult supervision.
Ben: The post is intended to be provocative in the same way that George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Jonah Goldberg and an entire stable of conservative commentators use this very same technique in their writing. This blog is political commentary – sometimes informational, sometimes analytical, and sometimes political satire. I use a variety of writing styles and techniques. I am not writing a dry analytical paper for PoliSci peer review. It is meant to be at least somewhat entertaining. If you don’t like it, too damn bad. You are but one small fish in the sea (with a huge ego). And your getting the vapors and hyperventilating about “slander” and “libel” is pure nonsense. Save that for Ann Coulter. That you don’t get political satire is your problem.
Excuse me, but I am sick and tired of the obfuscation of where the deficit came from and one way – you never hear mentioned (heaven forfend) for fixing it. George Bush started his administration with a surplus from the (Democratic) Clinton administraton. ““I understand that these are tough economic times, but this money has to come from somewhere,” said Flake. Future generations will have to pay off our deficits. We’re robbing Junior to placate Grandpa.”
Eight years of wrong-headed economic ideology built on the large tax cuts to those earning the most was voted in by the majority of Republicans – not the 60 votes we hear talked about as a “must” to bring about health care reform. The misguided war in Iraq cost us dearly, both in human treasure, worldwide respect and $$$$$. So, let’s get down to reality and decide to right that wrong and do it now!!! There is a sense of entitlement that Republicans express about being “conservatives”. Well, nothing is conserved when you spend at a dizzying rate on a misguided war which is not paid for by those best able to pay. Don’t tell me this is capitalism, as described by Adam Smith. Go read Adam Smith and see just how far we have strayed from his principles of free enterprise.
As for COLA’s for Social Security beneficiaries, it is piss-poor charity dispensed as largesse of the wealthy. “Intergenerational transfer”, my foot! Republicans have engaged in the largest transfer of wealth in the history of this country and they hide their greed and rapaciousness behind their intentional (or worse yet, totally ignorant) misunderstanding of what is “real” free enterprise.
For shame!!!!!
Let me get this straight:
(1) There’s no cost-of-living adjustment in Social Security benefits (etc) because there’s no increase in the cost of living.
(2) Some would like nevertheless to give Social Security benefit recipients a “bonus” to somehow “make up for” this.
(3) Jeff Flake opposes this sort of intergenerational transfer
Therefore
(4) Jeff Flake is taking vacations using money that belonged to seniors.
What? How?
We have words for that sort of thing. Dishonest, and slanderous. The accusation you are making is that Flake took his vacation not spending his salary or other wealth but rather from something extra from the public purse and that somehow that’s why seniors didn’t get COLA. That’s what that “your COLA money” bit means.
I’ve noticed here that the real people–Safier, Bryan–tend to make better, more analytic posts than the anonymous coward “Meanie”. But maybe hiding from libel suits will become another reason, in addition to not being associated with epic analytic thinking fails, that “Meanie” is hiding behind a pseudonym.
Oh yea, no reason to be concerned that the US government deficit is $1 point something trillion dollars this year. There is plenty of borrowed money to be had to hand out to retired people – isn’t there? All that borrowed money doesn’t really need to be paid back with interest does it?
http://news.google.com/news?q=deficit
As for increasing medical costs for retired Americans, I thought that was all handled by Medicare.. why should that be increasing?? I thought government could cut the overhead and reduce costs..
http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/ad-local-doctors-support-health-care-reform.html
From the ad: “Pay less and cover all, or pay more and not cover all. Not difficult to understand.”
I’m coming out of the closet: I don’t understand.