Dan Froomkin/presswatchers.org
This Washington Post editorial, calling for benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare(!!), represents the thinking of almost no one in America except for a few extremists and billionaires, like their owner Jeff @bezos. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/05/social-security-medicare-entitlements-reform/
Yes, Social Security and Medicare still need to be reformed — and soon

It's good news that entitlements won't be part of debt ceiling negotiations, but that doesn't mean the looming insolvency crisis shouldn't be addressed.

The Washington Post
Feb 6, 2023 at 7:07pmWeb
Show threadEn Buen Ora 🆗Feb 6, 2023

@froomkin FWIW, my entire life, the sophisticated news media & commentator attitude has *always* been that Social Security & Medicare are bloated and must be cut, and that those vowing to do so are somehow the mature and responsible leaders we need.

I don't know why this has been the attitude.

My assumption is that these programs feel too grossly blue collar & New Dealish to a lot of these types of people.

Show threadDarrel PlantFeb 6, 2023
@enbuenora @froomkin
The moral panic about those programs has been going on so long all the calamity dates people predicted 40, 50, 60 years ago are ancient history, like so many doomsday cult predictions.
Show threadKevin KolkFeb 6, 2023
@froomkin Most simple solution to Social Security is to just uncap the social security tax. It's crazy to me that the highest paid folks in the country see the social security tax drop off their paychecks partway through the year.
Show threadCatherine is not complacentFeb 7, 2023
@Siberian @froomkin CEO covers it with their first paycheck.
Show threadPeat BogFeb 6, 2023

@froomkin
How come they never mention the idea of FICA taxes on income over $160,000 per year? How come everybody making less has to carry rich folks on their back?

You know Jesus is not happy about this bullshit.

Show threadCwnidogFeb 6, 2023
@froomkin @hannu_ikonen : I read that this morning and my comment was that the Editorial Board and the rest of the high earners should pay FICA on 100% of their earnings. A solution they seem to have overlooked.
Show threadShar_sharFeb 6, 2023
@cwnidog
... overlooked or more likely ignored. Why find a realative painless solution when you can keep the population in perpetual fear.
Show threadJR 🏳️‍🌈Feb 6, 2023
@cwnidog @froomkin @hannu_ikonen Id be happy if they closed some of the loopholes that get them out of paying the same income tax rates as middle and lower class. They said trickle down, trickle up is really what we have. Social security was fiscally sound before Regan raided its accounts.
Show threadParanoid FactoidFeb 6, 2023

@froomkin Cancel your subscriptions.

It's time to shun them. Turn your back. Shun the oligarchs and their enablers. Boycott until they're impoverished. And VOTE the motherfuckers out who would be so callous with our lives.

Show threadEmergencyJoeFeb 6, 2023

@froomkin Benefit? What benefit? I have been paying into social security for over 40 years!

Enough is enough! Just because bezos won't rely on social security doesn't mean that most of us will need it to retire if we ever get to retire.

Show threadHankobrienFeb 6, 2023
@froomkin they can fuck right off.
Show threadnedhamsonFeb 7, 2023
@froomkin WaPo STFU!
Show threadAllyson Williams ✅Feb 7, 2023
@froomkin Aah. Cuts will occur, but those who can afford it Will NEVER BE CHARGED FOR IT.
Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Feb 7, 2023

@froomkin

Hardly, if ever, have I said this: while #BookBurning is #DarkAges, however BOYCOTTING certain #journalists obviously (at least on the policy side) on the #BadBillionaire"s payroll as they R out for #brainwashing,is sensible

"Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board. The board includes: David Shipley, Karen Tumulty, Stephen Stromberg, Lee Hockstader, David E. Hoffman, James Hohmann."

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Feb 7, 2023

@froomkin

Maybe it is time to stop calling them (prepaid) social "benefits" but insurance services?
They are no handouts.

Change starts with a change in thinking.

This thinking is so antiquated and #SocialDarwinist.

I am not in favor of #Marxism, as it was destined to fail in human society, but #capitalists should remember the last time when #capital became all powerful: the rise if #Marxism and #Fascism.

Show threadLeRoy WesterlingFeb 7, 2023
@froomkin I want back all the $ I put in, plus interest. We had a deal man
Show threadToxteth O'GradyFeb 7, 2023
@froomkin They also want to mandate that Federal workers go back to their offices 5 days a week. They apparently don't realize how much more productive the Feds are when they don't have to spend 2+ hours each day in traffic...
Show threadJim E-H 🇺🇦Feb 7, 2023
@froomkin
I can remember WaPo editorials twenty years ago warning that insolvency was only a few years off. Weird how it's still ten years or more away, almost as if the danger is *not* actually growing closer, and the argument that it demands immediate action is bunk.
Show threadMartha HowellFeb 7, 2023
@froomkin
I was born in 1960 and I'm ALREADY ELIGIBLE for benefits, so this idiot can't do the math.
Show threadMark TisdaleFeb 7, 2023
@froomkin amazing when people are hoping for some form of Medicare for all these asses think the answer is to raise the f'ing bar even higher. So maybe more of the "excess population" will die without ever getting a dime of what they paid in. This makes me livid! 🤬
Show threadKansas GrantFeb 7, 2023
@froomkin Just curious: what's your thinking on how to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent in the coming years, with people living longer and the worker population not growing as fast as the retiree population?
Show threadMs AB ☕Feb 7, 2023
@froomkin Hmmm. Once upon a time, not that long ago, the WaPo was a decent reporter of news, not a propaganda rag.
Show threadJim SnowdenFeb 7, 2023
@froomkin “The potential trade-offs aren’t painless, but since we’re a coalition of people who won’t be hurt and people who get their jollies from the suffering of others, we either don’t care or are salivating at the possibilities.”
Show threadVoronFeb 8, 2023
@froomkin It represents the thinking of the top 10% of the wealthiest Americans who own 70% of the value of the stock market, and also basically own the media & our policy makers 🤷‍♂️
Show threadNoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️‍🌈Feb 9, 2023

@froomkin

‘Cannibal Country’ makes its case for ‘eating’ its population.