From the office of U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski:
U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) joined her Senate colleagues today in speaking out against the so-called House Republican Cut, Cap and Balance Act as an extreme piece of legislation that cuts Medicare and Social Security and provides constitutional protection for tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires and special interests.
“Once again, the radical Right is more worried about protecting their next election then protecting the greatest generation or investing in the next generation,” Senator Mikulski said. “What a sham, what a scam, I’d be tempted to just blow it off if it were not so cruel, stupid and dangerous. It’s cruel because it invents new rules how we’re going to calculate Social Security, what we’re going to do to Medicare. It’s stupid because it doesn’t solve our problems and it’s dangerous because it could bring our economy down. Republicans should end the shenanigans that are going on in the House, and we should vote it down in the United States Senate.”
The transcript of Senator Mikulski’s floor statement follows:
“This radical Republican program says it wants to cut, cap and balance. I agree with President Obama when he says: “This is duck, dodge and dismantle.” It ducks the real issues that we have to raise the debt ceiling and put ourselves on a sustained path. It dodges the programs that we really need to target by tax break earmarks and it dismantles the social contract.
“Once again, the Radical right is more worried about protecting their next election then protecting the greatest generation or investing in the next generation.
“What a sham, what a scam, I’d be tempted to just blow it off if it were not so cruel, stupid and dangerous. It’s cruel because it invents new rules how we’re going to calculate Social Security, what we’re going to do to Medicare. It’s stupid because it doesn’t solve our problems and it’s dangerous because it could bring our economy down. It does cut, cap, and kill Medicare, but it could very well kill the future of our country.
“What are the plain facts: It cuts spending to 1965 levels. That was forty- six years ago. Forty- six years ago. When making $8000 a year was considered a fantastic salary. Would you want to go back and make $8000 a year? I don’t think so.
“When you think about what the average social security benefit was at that time which was about $1200 a year, I don’t think we want to go back to that. Do we really want to go back to not having Medicare? Sure we need to reform and refresh Medicare, but do we want to end Medicare? I don’t think so.
“Under the Republican rules they would substitute Medicare as a guaranteed benefit when your 65 to a guaranteed profits for an insurance companies. It eliminates social security and Medicare as we know it. But at the same time in their Constitutional Amendment they would protect tax earmarks, tax earmarks: for the pampered, the prosperous and the billionaires. This is why we oppose it.
“Let’s talk about specifics. The average social security benefit is $15,000 a year a 20 percent cut means a cut of $3000 a year. Now that’s not the way it ought to be. Social security was always meant to be a guaranteed, inflation-proof, lifetime benefit: a guaranteed benefit, not a guaranteed gamble.
“Seniors are now facing the bear of the market, should they have to face to bull of these political shenanigans? You know when you’re old and you’re sick you should be able to count on social security, you should be able to count on Medicare, and you should count on the Federal Government and a Congress that acts responsibly.
“I believe we shouldn’t end Social Security and Medicare as we know it. We should end the shenanigan that are going on in the House, and vote it down in the United States Senate.”
Video of Senator Mikulski’s statement is available at:
HD Version – http://gp1d.senate.gov/sdmc/Mikulski/072011_MIKULSKI_1_FTP.M2T
SD Version – http://gp1d.senate.gov/sdmc/Mikulski/072011_MIKULSKI_1_FTP.MPG
Audio of Senator Mikulski’s statement is available at:
http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/mikulski/072011_MIKULSKI_1_RADIO.mp3
Maybe if politicians didn’t squander our money we wouldn’t be facing this problem. Maybe if congress didn’t raid social security for years we wouldn’t have this problem. Maybe if we didn’t have democrats kill industry in Baltimore to build an inner harbor we wouldn’t have this problem. Maybe we can go down to hood lawn and fire a bunch of the lazy sacks of crap that do nothing but suck social security dry and take up desk space at the social security building. Maybe if social security was like railroad retirement and invested in the stock market and such we wouldn’t be in this problem. We need to out these career politician like Bab’s and bring in average Joe’s and Jane’s who have actually worked a day in there life. Eliminate lifetime medical and pension benefits to politicians, make them work for a living and get reimbursed at a comparative rate to there missed salary when they actually serve us.
what a funny old senile woman. i we need deeper cuts all the way around and a balanced budget amendment.
The problem with a balanced budget ammendment is that either it includes a “war exception” or it doesn’t. If it does, then it’s really not a balanced budget anyway, and clearly the military industrial complex will find ways to get their slice. If it does include one, we are either going to have to raise taxes to go to war, or we are never going to war. War is fundamentally expensive and can’t be a regular line item in your balanced budget.
So I see no point the political posturing that seeks a balanced budget ammendment. In reality we are going to take money from people who need it and keep giving it to rich defense contractors. That’s not reform.
Cut, cap and balance is “cruel, stupid and dangerous” only to career politicians who would no longer be able to buy our votes with our own money. I don’t recall the source of the quote, but I put a lot of stock in the quote that the day we lost the republic was the day “politician” became a career choice.
Barbara M. – You are the sham . . . you have been all along.
She failed to mention that when Social Security was first enacted the average lifespan of a male born in 1930 was FIFTY-EIGHT! For a female it was SIXTY-TWO! With people now regularly living well into their 80’s, how can one expect to provide that level of coverage for an additional 20+ years?
Furthermore, the number of people age 65 and greater in 1940 was 9 million. In 2000 it was over 34 million! The numbers are all available at the Social Security website.
So, Babs….what’s your solution to the massive hole we’ve manage to dig ourselves into?
Exactly. Heaven forbid a politician committ to anything specfic.
There are no good solutions left. Everything is going to have to either be cut off, reduced, or reformed, to save money. Sure we could increase some taxes, but that’s not going to solve anything by itself, just as only cutting capping and balancing isn’t going to really solve any problems.
I work with many of the elderly who get Social Security and it is absolutely not enough to live on, and for many of them, still not enough with their pensions (which nobody now has anymore), and savings. About 50% of the people who federal housing assistance are elderly or disabled. If you cut all these programs to the bone (without reforming them) you are going to push even more people into moving in and being care for by their families, which is only going to reduce disposable income and further slow the economy.
If cutting is the goal, it needs to start somewhere before it comes to those programs.
The gang of six bill is a real bill that saves more than the republican plan — and doesn’t attempt to rape and pillage senior citizens and the already unemployed in the process securing bigger tax breaks and profits for Wall Street. There is no moral high ground claimed by the passage of the shameful House Republican tripe. Just more plundering and pandering of the US to benefit Wall Street. Why a pseudo-intellectual like yourself can’t see the truth is beyond me. Guess you give yourself more credit than you deserve.
Are you talking to me? I agree with you. The gang of six plan, Obama’s original plan, and 2 or 3 other Republican plans are better than the pile of crap that came out of the House.
The bill, the vote, the press release, they are just part of the game of trying make sure that your core, motivated constituents know that you “tried” to do it, when in reality you know there’s not chance in hell it will ever pass. Congress proposes so many of these “let us cover our backs for election time” bills it’s pathetic.
And people fall for it.
Ms. Mikulski needs to go. She has not answered letters, phone calls or emails to non-democrat citizens. She either cannot or will not respond when asked what she plans to substitute for the republican plan. She refused to attend any of the Campaign for Liberty events throughout the state of MD. She refused to attend the bridge toll increase meetings, (yes, I know they were state issues, but she does live here…),she refuses to present any other viable plan for a budget. Ms. Mikulski, put up or shut up, please.
What exactly are they proposing to cut to levels of 46 years ago? These Republicans surely are not as radical as Mikulski paints them to be.
It’s funny though, because the latest Union/Democrat talking point is how the 1950s were so great– High union wages all around, prosperity, and low debt.
I agree with them. We should try to get back to that time. By eliminating the Federal Departments of Education, the EPA, the Homeland Security, and every other one created since Kennedy. Let’s see what happens.
Senator Mikulski does indeed need to go. She helped to create the problem so we certainly can’t expect her to be able to fix it. She doesn’t really want to fix it. She likes it just the way it is. She is one of the many politicians who use our money to shower us with entitlements that we can’t afford so we favor her with our vote. Maryland can’t afford her or O’Malley or any of the tax and spend Democrats. We can’t afford the tax and spend Republicans either. Vote them all out.
You would think someone with all of her experience in Congress could provide a more substantive speech on the chamber floor with less rhetoric. I don’t for one second take any of her “plain facts” and figures at face value.
She has done a lot of good for the people of Maryland in her stay in DC, but she is the definition of the problem of career politicians.
I love Sen. Mikulski. With his vote for this bill, Rep Andy Harris is a bigger threat to this great nation and the American way of life than the Chinese.
The fact that House Republicans know that they lost with a loser bill that less than a third of Americans are willing to stomach yet have decided to let the Market crash for a few days before they’ll even consider coming around and voting in favor of the preferred Gang of Six bill is deplorable.
How many Senior Citizen’s retirement accounts have to be wiped out by these Wall Street Fat Cat panderers masquerading as Campaigners for Liberty before enough is enough???
I can’t believe the Senator got voted back in AGAIN but she did. Maryland has spoked. Now we have the DEMS doing what they always do. Borrow more from China, print more money and raise taxes.I feel sorry for our kids and grandkids. Shouldn’t we bite the bullet instead of them? Here’s my plan: Send a couple of smooth talkers to China (Bernie Madoff and Rob Balogovich will do). Tell the Chineese we’re to big to fail. They’ll give us trillions for free. Obama and Congress can divide up the money and put the rest of the country on welfare. Problem solved.
This senator has long ago outlived her usefulness.One would think that she and her friends in the senate and house would tire of trying to scare seniors. The proposal for amending social security won’t effect those 55 and older and extending the retirement age makes sense for the longer lives of our citizens{I’m 65}. She is the kind of career politician that cries for term limits.Four years for senate and house and you’re out,with no pension.That way people would have to work hard with each other and not be bullied by others with seniority and would like many state bodies have to come home and go back to making a “REAL” living like thre majority of Americans.
I’m tired of the Birther / Tea Bagger / Klan for Liberty terrorists greedily looking to plunder grandma’s retirement while lying to the majority of Americans on what their true aims are. I look forward to Obama schooling them on the full text of the 14th Amendment and believe an old fashioned steamroll is exactly what they need to be put these extremists back in their place.
Social Security adds nothing to the deficit and should not even be part of this discussion. It is self-funded by a dedicated payroll tax, and was set up to take into account the fact that expenditures would begin to exceed revenues when the baby boomers start to retire.
For decades the system deliberately ran a surplus, with the excess forming the Social Security Trust Fund. And when the boomers retire, and expenses start to exceed revenues, the purpose of this trust fund is to make up the difference. The trust fund is expected to last for decades to come, and it can last even longer with minor changes in the payroll tax. (Currently, people with very high incomes pay a smaller percentage in payroll taxes than the rest of us do.)
And no, the trust fund has not been raided, it’s not been spent, it’s not “worthless IOU’s”. It has been invested in treasury bonds, one of the safest investments in the world. And that’s why partisans can say that the government has borrowed it– it has, in exactly the same way the government borrows money from you when you buy treasury bonds yourself.
The only way the government can borrow money from me is if I want to bay treasury bonds. The government did spend the Social Security Trust fund money. Started by the Democrats. If the I O U,s can be sold before 8/3 rd then there would be no need to raise the debt limit since it would not be part of the us treasury. What is the pan the Democrats have to pay Soc. Sec when it runs out in 2024. I am retired and receive Soc Sec and Medicare and I think somthing has to be done. If Observer thinks Treasury Bonds are safe how many do you have. If the government has to buy them back, you will get 72 cents for each dollar worth.
Of course the government spent the money it borrowed from the Social Security system; the reason for any money borrowing program is to spend it. But when they spent it, they spent money of the general fund that was generated by sale of treasury bonds. The trust fund, in the form of bonds bearing full faith and credit, remains intact.
If our politicians are recklessness enough to allow for the first time in history a default on our obligations, we will have problems much greater than the Social Security program, which would be only one of many victims. Individuals, firms, and governments all over the world are invested in treasury bonds and other obligations of the United States.
As to plans of the Democrats to strengthen the trust fund, I have no idea. (They seem to be almost as beholden to the wealthy and the corporations as the Republicans are.) My idea would be to remove the cap on income subject to the payroll tax. Then we would all be paying the same rate and the trust fund would be sufficient to pay full benefits well beyond 2024. And Social Security, entirely funded by the dedicated payroll tax, would continue to contribute exactly zero to the deficit.
the Tea Party and their good for nothing tea baggers are trying to bring down American to third world status. Not only are we a debtor nation, now they want us to become a deadbeat country that doesn’t pay its debts or protect the middle class or poor. Instead they would have ordinary americans believe that tax breaks for the rich equal jobs for the rest of us.
Frankly Speaking is speaking stupid . . .
@FRANKLY SPEAKING -You ignorant liberal scumbagger.
USA Today puts the increase for Medicare at $1.8 trillion. Social Security wasn’t far behind with $1.4 trillion increase.
When the $61.6 trillion is broken down per household, that equals $534,000 — a figure “more than five times what Americans have borrowed for everything else,” according to USA Today. By program, it looks like this:
– Medicare: $24.8 trillion
– Social Security: $21.4 trillion
– Federal debt: $9.4 trillion
– Military retirement/disability benefits: $3.6 trillion
– Federal employee retirement benefits: $2 trillion
– State, local government obligations: $5.2 trillion
Dagger in the Heartless Feckless Libaggers
Currently every man, woman and child in the U.S. owes $46,578 each of the National Debt. We can not sustain the spending levels that are happening. $.46 of each dollar spent by the federal government is borrowed. For each additional TRILLION dollars of debt $3,206 is added to what each citizen owes.
Why is Ms. Mikulski afraid of a balanced budget amendment? Because she is a sham and a scam and does not know how to do her job. She is only a social worker after all. It is “cruel, stupid and dangerous” to continue on this path. I am afraid for my grandchildren, that we will leave them the United Socialist States formerly known as U.S.A.
Ms. Mikulski it’s about time you threw in the towel. You’ve become dated, repetive predictable and offensive. Step down and hand the ball off to Marty O’ as agreed.
@DaggerInTheHeart – Not sure what you’re hoping to prove by breaking down where the debt inflation is. Glad to see that you’re worried now about the debt inflation of Medicare which is out of control vs other nations that have better insurance provisions. Hopefully by the end of Obama’s second term when Obama Care is successfully implemented we’ll have that inflation bubble popped. It is by far the better approach than hoping that all senior citizens die early by witholding medical care which is the Klan for Liberty’s fascist plan in a nutshell.
Thank you Sen. Mikulski for recognizing that a plan to balance the budget by killing off senior citizens and leaving kids hungry and uneducated is beneath this great nation.
Anonymous – Your KoolAid is ready.
If you would think for your self instead of listening to lies from the White House you should realize that the Tea Party members you are talking about would be killing their own mother. how about the billions of dollars Mr. Obama has cut from medicare in his Obamacare.