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jtuck004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 02:51 PM
Original message
Throwing away 31 million people...

Got this in the mail today. This is the group that the White House may have outsourced the staffing of the Catfood Commission to - part of the slow, rolling drumbeat of wealthy voices who tell us it is more important that they preserve their wealth by cutting the deficit than investing in the people of this country. Screw the 31 million unemployed and underemployed.

The only deficit we have is in the imagination it would take to put everyone back to work after selling out their jobs.
____________________________________________________________________________________

AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy - The National Town Meeting
Be part of the discussion about solutions to America's fiscal challenges
National Town Meeting Locations

On Saturday, June 26, thousands of Americans across the country will participate in a national discussion about our economy. And if you live near one of the 19 cities hosting these events, you can be a part of the conversation.

Learn more about the upcoming National Town Meeting.

All across the country, thousands of Americans will be connected live via satellite video, webcast and interactive technologies to find common ground on tough choices about our federal budget. The meeting is organized by AmericaSpeaks, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with the mission to reinvigorate American democracy.

The National Town Meeting is made possible by generous contributions from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

A town meeting may not be near your home town, but check out the meeting locations in case you are visiting or plan to travel to one. Participation is free and refreshments will be provided at Town Meeting locations, but space is limited.

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JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 02:54 PM
Response to Original message
1. "the group that the White House may have outsourced"
Life is too short for "may have" thinking... imho.
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DJ13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. No, jtuck is right
Pete Peterson is on the commission, and he's been trying to kill Social Security for twenty years.
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jtuck004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. I actually read that first here...

http://www.correntewire.com/can_it_be_true_obama_outsourced_staffing_his_socical_security_gutting_commission_pete_peterson

but it sure looks likes they were heavily involved. White house officials and others have had meetings with these people to decide how to go forward.

I suspect there is no real way to know unless the WH issues a statement saying they did this, but who did it really is much less important than what they are trying to do.

They want to cut the deficit rather than invest in our country, and they see social security as evil. This is the only lifeline millions of Americans will have since their housing prices have tanked, and it's the wrong road to follow.





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sinkingfeeling Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 03:07 PM
Response to Original message
3. Why in the world are you getting invites from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, et al?
That's the group funding the elimination of Social Security.
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jtuck004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 03:09 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Know your enemy...

I get invites from Repub stuff as well - might as well help them use up their postage dollars, and I gotta have somethin' to light the woodstove with... ;)
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offog Donating Member (263 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 03:25 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. "Know your enemy ..."
:yourock: Good attitude, jtuck004. I like to read the business pages when I read the paper, for just that purpose. It's given me a lot of insight into what makes conservatives tick, which is why I will never ever vote for them. Those people are scary! It's useful to see what they say to each other when they think the unwashed aren't paying attention.
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offog Donating Member (263 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
6. Good post.
"... wealthy voices who tell us it is more important that they preserve their wealth by cutting the deficit than investing in the people of this country. Screw the 31 million unemployed and underemployed."

Writing off the people at the bottom is an integral part of conservatism. It's part of that whole social-darwinist, law-of-the-jungle mentality; if you can't hack it in the "real world", you don't deserve to survive. And helping the unemployed and underemployed is just treating them like children; compassion is for wimps and losers.

I'm not just being paranoid here. If you really want to see how the other half lives, you have to go beyond the PR and look at what they say to each other when they think the unwashed aren't paying attention. So I always check out the business pages when I read the paper. Sometimes I'll even read the National Post, Canada's conservative newspaper. The contempt and hostility toward poor and working class people is thick enough to cut with a knife.
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Kat45 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 07:16 PM
Response to Original message
8. How do we get invited to this National Town Meeting?
I'd certainly have plenty to say, though I doubt I'd be invited.
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jtuck004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 10:13 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Here's the invite page...
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jtuck004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-16-10 10:23 PM
Response to Original message
10. The 149th richest man in America thinks we don't need Social Security


This guy has millions, and seems to have made it his mission to yank the safety net out from under the most vulnerable of our neighbors. And then all will be better. For him

__________________________________________________
Pete Peterson’s Anti-Entitlement Juggernaut

<snip>


Peterson, according to Forbes, was the 149th richest man in America last year, with $2.8 billion in assets. During his long career he has been, among other things, CEO of Bell & Howell, head of Lehman Brothers, a co-founder of the Blackstone Group, and head of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was Nixon’s Secretary of Commerce, and in 1994 served on a Clinton bipartisan commission on entitlements and tax reform. He launched his own Peter G. Peterson Foundation with a grant of $1 billion.

A fiscal conservative, Peterson has long been issuing dire warnings about the the nation’s skyrocketing debt. The key cause of the problem, in his analysis, is that entitlement programs–primarily Social Security and Medicare, but Medicaid as well–are out of control; the only solution is to cut them. Peterson is the self-appointed head of what some people have begun to call the “granny bashers,” who argue that greedy geezers are ruining the lives of younger generations with their unconscionable demands for basic healthcare and a hedge against destitution. (Peterson himself is in his eighties–but of course he’s too rich to worry about such things.)

<snip>

http://unsilentgeneration.com/2010/04/27/petersons-anti-entitlement-juggernaut/
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