This sounds like complete and utter failure of the Catfood Commission: and it certainly blows a hole in the side of Pete Peterson’s Commission regatta planned for the coming month.

Why do this while the president is away if not to allow the Chairmen to slink home in total defeat?

kee-rist, does my “bleeding heart” even have the stomach for this ?

here we go

I’m still getting the “off air” message

“Will NO one rid me of these meddlesome politicians?”

And I make NO mistake that the Catfood Commission is fully staffed by politicians, fully bought and paid for to do the bidding of the corporate oligarchs and Koch, Inc. Brand USA.

Nobody but Bowles and Simpson endorses this

And probably Obama. He’ll be pushing for this quietly behind the scenes. The Big Money People have spoken, Obama will go along with it.

I don’t want to get banned so I won’t use the words I’m thinking but I think there’s a special place in hell just waiting for Simpson.

Sam Stein tweets:

multiple sources tell me deficit comm headers will call for SS retirement age raised, Medicare cut, 70% cuts in benefits expected

Nice call Teddy . . . this is so phreakin off the hook OUT there as to be unbelievable.

Is there A SINGLE MEMBER of either House or Senate that thinks fucking with Boomer Entitlements is a good idea? Do ANY of them actually think they can get re-elected on these reforms?

Which leads me to, WTF is this Commission doing , anyway? No Congress Critter, no matter HOW bought off they are, could be persuaded to attack SS and Medicare.

Why haven’t Congress simply FOUGHT Obama on this and demanded the Commission be disbanded?

11ty Dim Chess again? I sure don’t get it . . . it’s like a civil war between the corporate oligarchs who want to privatize everything and our elected offals who are bought and paid for by the oligarchs but KNOW they can’t get re-elected if they DO support these ‘reforms’ . . . .

LeSigh.

…from the post:

Update: Alex Lawson was thrown out of the press conference because he’s not “press,” so there will be no livestream.

There’s a stream going on, but I can’t hear anything.

Can’t understand a thing being said.

inthis case, I give Simpson a pass, he is running true to form – it’s the guys who take our votes and our money then turn around and pull this shit that deserve their own ring

omg, Bowles just repeated Obama’s “this debt is a cancer” crap

thanks ! and thanks for the twitter links

now getting a thready stream

now the yummy bipartisany porn – jeebus

Well, now it’s gone again.

Obama is a roll!

Great Depression Number 2 and with Great Depression Number 3 on the way Obama has done the following

1st pass a republican health care bill that everybody hates

2nd he is working on his on NAFTA plan for S. Korea

3RD NOW HE WANTS TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

DAVID PLOUFFE CAN SEE THE WRITING ON THE WALL, OBAMA HAS NO CHANCE OF WINNING in 2012

Unfair. We are the press now if they won’t report the whole truth.

Why haven’t Congress simply FOUGHT Obama on this and demanded the Commission be disbanded?

they’ve been promised extra goodies in their 2012 stocking

And it’s back! And it’s gone. Very spotty.

Alex Lawson was thrown out of the press conference because he’s not “press,” so there will be no livestream.

Don’t anybody tell me we don’t live in a fascist frigging state.

Alex Lawson was thrown out of the press conference because he’s not “press,” so there will be no livestream.

Ah the new Oh Bummah! transparency in gummint is in action again…these people make me fuckin sick.

Of course the Great Appeaser is pissing around in Indonesia bringing happiness, joy and guns to the jackbooted para military while his deficit commission is doing everything but suggesting cutting the vast war department spending. Things are going along nicely in DC, no change there, no hope there.

I have a good friend who lives on…*lives on*…less than $6,000 in Social Security per year. I don’t know how she does it. But Congresscritters, who I believe make around $172,000 per year think it’s okay to take money away from people like her? The 2% will not be content until they’ve reduced the bulk of the population to something below serfdom.

Heh, so if this really is the beginning of the end of the catfood commission (and good riddance), I’m wondering how much further the federal government went into debt to fund this commission that won’t be producing any reports?

Oh wait, nevermind. I’m pretty sure the right wing will tell me soon enough. They’ve told me down to the last penny what Obama’s trip to Asia was costing…

He’s in, but it’s livestreaming from an iphone, so it’s spotty but you can hear it.

Just read the Bloomberg link Mz. Hamsher offered up top . . . very interesting.

We either got an internal war goin on (rich v. Congress) or this is a VERY sophisticated kabuki dance to set us up for less grim but equally painful legislation to come . . . like the PO had some of us proggy’s hanging on till we realized it WAS all kabuki and we got rolled . . . . . . for a fucking mandate.

bless y’all

p.s. Josh’s minion Beutler is there – Press ?

They’re part of team obama that has nothing to do with the little people.

Who ever said obama was a genius was right if they were talking about ways to stab you in the back while smiling and saying it’s all good.

Howabout the department of offense and torture ? Any cutting there?

Must be one of those who drive Lexus and live in gated communities./s

Slide show with proposals available here:

Catfood Commission proposals PDF file

I an going to enjoy the GOP quest to impeach OBAMA!

Obama is going to become a very lonely man.

He is about to find out he has no friends

Last night KO said something that Obama can’t grasp
Obama bails out Banks
Banks screws Obama and Dems in 2010

Thanks FDL for being there to put the kleig lights on this failure and record that Kodak moment for all posterity just in case the Legacy Media later attempts to rewrite history or shove it down the memory hole. I am a constituent and I approve this documentation!

Yeah, gotta admit the audio is too low for me to understand any of what’s being said . . . I can wait for the analysis after I guess . SHOULD be a blogosphere full of thoughts on THIS one!

Thanks again Mz. Hamsher for the heads up on this one!!!

yes, today is about what they call the Chairman’s Mark – what thing1 and thing2 are proposing – IOW, the Bad Cops in our Good Cop/Bad Cop passion play

And their suggestions for cutting $200 billion (another PDF file).

I thought the report was coming out on December 1st.
Is this the same report, or a preview, or something else?

per Jane on twitter – Co Chair Simpson’s recommendations – coming attractions as it were. the comm itself is sched to submit their rec’s (those supported by 14 of the 18) to WH by 12/1

It’s like a Chairman’s Mark in congressional committees. This is their starting point for the endgame in their commission.

Slight off topic, but did any of you get an e-mail from the Dems yesterday saying that they needed another $100,000 and could I donate? I almost threw my computer out of the window.

Why doesn’t Durbin want and up and down vote on this? Wouldn’t a straight vote on the whole package be easier for us to kill?

Mods – getting a “page not found” message on the PDF Jane just linked in her latest update

Why do this while the president is away if not to allow the Chairmen to slink home in total defeat?

It may be wishful thinking on my part, but maybe Obama is rethinking his connection to this whole farce? And the implications for 2012. Nah, that’s too much to hope for.

No but I bet a Dem consultant moved your email and who knows how many others to the big donors list and charged the Dems tons of cash for every name on the list.

Thanks . . . up to page 16 it’s the usual claptrap . . . feel good phrases, etc.

But then the shit begins to be unveiled from 17-22 or so . . . . wow.

Lotta TALK about military/defense cuts . . . but MORE ugly stuff in terms of further privatizing military work to civvies . . . and cutting federal work force and freezing salaries and more . . . .

I’ll let professionals wade in deeper than my understanding of all this goes. But that PDF is a bookmarked keeper, thanks again for posting that!

the exact opposite is more likely, they are protecting ‘the good cop’ by doing this while he’s out of the country so as not to taint him with it and allow him to come storming back with his Good Cop hat on

70% SS cuts????
Good Goddess!
They, unlike Obama start with their highest cards, don’t they?

What happened to our “Ultra-Liberal” Preisdent?

This fool is barely a Democrat!!!!!!

And don’t give me the usual load of crap that “OH things would have been SO much better with Hillary!” Forget your (Edited by Mod: there are some terms just too coarse to use at this site.) lady Bountiful fantasies. She and barry are two peas in a giant Invasion of the Body Snatchers seed pod.

Funny no mention of ending 2 wars or taxing the rich instead lets take from the middle class their SS and make them poor.

Yeah, while he’s off selling US out to India and Korea

Because they don’t want to kill it, that’s just the point. They’ve got their orders from Wall Street and they’ll obey, as always.

Seconded! if this passes the Left might have to start buying guns. What other choice do we have if our leaders won’t do the will of the majority of the people?
Unlike the Tea baggers on the issues voters care about the most jobs and homes we are the majority.

The first step will be for the Catfood Commission to recommened cuts so draconian that no sane person would vote to implement them. Of course, the proponents know this. The Democrats will be outraged. They will pare down the cuts to something they consider more reasonable, but will be significant cuts nonetheless. The Democrats will go along with those of course, since the more draconian cuts are now off the table. Of course, the proponents wanted the compromised cuts all along, which is why they started with the draconian cuts. THAT’S negotiation in the Democrats world. THAT’S what will be considered success in the Democrats world.

In the end, the people will lose. It’s yet another boot down on the head of the average American.

Use Head Phones: Those of you who have said that you can’t hear what is being said, head phones help a great deal. So if you’ve gottem, smoke ‘em.

Purina Cat Cheow, Cheow, Cheow, Cheow!!!!

Just wanted that fact confirmed :)

Yeah, that’s from pages 17-22 of your first linky . . . I see a glass half full and being drained rapidly behind all the fuzzy phrasing . . . damn but these people are evil.

70% SS cuts????

That lets Prez O come in and “save” the system with only 50% cuts.

I wonder what even a 10% cut in SS would translate into as far as increased deaths of senior citizens?

I think you are right, pure Kabuki Theatre.
Obama will swoop in and save the day, recommended only half the cuts.
The Veal Pen will go wild with how pragmatic he is.

You need to read pages 17-22 hoss, fo that link Bolo has up there. Defense cuts are interesting . . . including 1/3 of all bases overseas being closed . . . it ain’t an end to war, but it’s more talk about cutting defense spending than I’ve ever seen . . .

Obama, Axelrod, Gibbs and David Plouffe fear what Michael Moore and other are saying and whispering

in 2012 everyone expects the GOP to implode
you may have Romney run as the GOP candidate
Palin and Paul may run on the Tea Party Ticket

if this happens, why not make it a 4 way race

Obama runs as the phony Dem or Neo-Liberal
another Candidate runs to Obama left as the real democrat

in a 4 way race the liberal democrat has a great chance of winning.

some think this how 2012, plays out

the catfood commission put this in play for the democrats.

cut Social Security, Medicare, the pillars of FDR, and you will poor more gas on the civil war taking place in the Dem party

Put me down for 10% SS cuts and Obama yelling Victory I saved SS!

As the earth opens and sucks us all into the enthusiasm gap…

Hey, folks. Remember: it’s all in the name of deficit reduction, so it’s all good. /s

As I suggested in comments up above, JUST like the Public Option kabuki rolled on us proggy’s before . . . same pattern . . . and I fully agree with your posit.

I guess this is just the beginning of the staging . . . LeSigh.

this will be the KABUKI played here

they will try to say the left is not reasonable

the left must e-mail all their family members and friends the truth!

the MSM will play it just how you wrote it

Put me down for 10% SS cuts and Obama yelling Victory I saved SS!

Don’t forget raising of the retirement age to 70, another 20% cut.

I just read a piece at HuffPost. The proposed cuts, apparently, come only from the two co-chairs, and the votes may not be there in the rest of the commission.

oh a little more bread to go with those circuses -

if they follow Diamond/Orszag Plan, they will kick a few bucks more down to those below the poverty line – so all the apologists will be running around screaming how their President actually “increased” SS benefits

That’s what I meant :-)

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post ready: Cat Food Commission Co-Chairs Release Benefit-Slashing Report to Pressure Commission Members

Good start but why can’t we cut further and go to the levels Russia spends on its army? Unlike Russia who has a very strong China on it border we don’t need a large army to protect us from our neighbors.

just like all those votes ‘weren’t there’ for the War Supplementals

and yes, I’m looking at you Congresswoman Schakowsky

and look at Durbin trying to distance himself from the up or down flim flammery as reported here at the Lake when Pelosi did it

sorry. I’m a little geeked up at the moment

Ah, you have got to love this. This is beyond funny, even hysterical. The American people vote for rightwing extremists who hate SOCIALISTIC entitlement programs for the masses, and then when these said rightwingers propose reductions to the benefits of or outright abolition of these SOCIALISTIC entitlement programs, said “Mericans” then get upset and cry foul. Anyone on this site stupid enough to vote for Obama in 2012 when he proposes doing away with Social Security as we know it in 2010, will rightfully get the “Austerity” measures that are thus rammed down their throats………………..

The evil of OBAMA and the current dems is listed above in a lot of post

OBAMA and his followers consider most americans to be complete MORONS.

Obama knows this catfood commission report is insane! he wants it presented this way so it will look like he saves the day

Progressives must get ahead of this KABUKI train and play the game before OBAMA plays it.

Obama is laughing at all of US!!! Obama is saying once the CON is played they will love me

Bush was just DUMB

Obama is a lot more dangerous

the HOPE a DOPE continues

The commission does know that bridges, roads, water treatment plants billions of dollars worth of work need to be fixed now right?
Or else the bill for fixing them goes from the cost of an oil change to the cost of replacing a seized engine.
No oil in the engine causes the engine to seize for the non car junkies here a siezed engine must be replaced entirely.

At least the report will show that spending cuts – without tax increases – makes a minimal dent in the deficit.

But the proposal does cut BOTH domestic and military spending starting in 2012, and does an overhaul of the tax code to raise revenue, for about $4 trillion – about the same deficit reduction as we would get from doing None of the Bush tax cuts for the rich and corporate.

They cover up the 40% reduction in Social Security (20% from age 70, 20% from changing wage history indexing to date of retirement to the gov’s “special inflation index for urban workers”) via a minor improvement for very low income people would get a higher benefit — as DOES NOT END WAGE CAP – just lifts it a bit higher – all this to save a system that pays 75% of scheduled benefits if nothing is done.

And it proves that it does this out of love and is not trying to end the deficit on the backs of seniors by not “counting” any savings from Social Security toward meeting the overall deficit-reduction goal set by Obama.

And as to “simplification of the tax code” we get modification or repeal of various tax breaks – including ending/modufying the deductibility of mortgage interest payments and ending the exemption from taxes for employees’ health benefits— so as to do another tax rate reduction (again how does this help the deficit you ask – well that mortgage deduction and health deduction are a lot of money).

The new gift of lower tax rates is a 10% bracket that goes to 8%, with a 23% bracket as the highest rate – replacing the current 35 percent that will go to 39% if Clinton rates start next year. We also reduce corporate tax rate, now 35 percent, to 26 percent.

But through the magic of a lost mortgage deduction we get additional tax income of $80 billion in 2015.

Obama knows the proposals will fail, but as usual he is giving away the store before he starts to bargain with the GOP on deficit reduction – you know that these proposals are the Obama STARTING POINT for the next 2 years – and the deficit commission commission made him agree with the GOP – he will have had no choice.

There will be other groups giving other deficit reports – and budget deficit reduction via spending cuts alone has yet to be put to bed – and Club for Growth will want the tax cuts and screw the spending cuts because we will use “dynamic scoring” that shows how dropping the tax rate to 5% yields 10 times more than keeping it at 35%.

And remember – this is all caused by Baby Boom generation retirees and all those federal benefits and non-defense discretionary spending. And please do not ask about road and bridge repair.

How exactly does Social Security increase the deficit? How would cutting Social Security decrease the debt?

Only one problem.

Obama won’t be running. He’ll DO the Catfood Commission bidding, the oligarch bidding. As has been said, Obama comes in screaming and instead of 70% he orchestrates 50% or 40% or what ever and STILL kills we the people.

N that’s the end of his term, after that he CAN’T run, and the Party KNOWS it. Never MIND the damage the Dim Party is also doing to its Congressional Folks, who will ALSO be unelectable for dumping on the masses . . .

At that point Dim Party props up a ticket of a war hawk with political experience (HRC) & A General.

At which point, war spending goes thru the roof for any number of reasons. False flag ops, shit going to hell in Iraq/Af/Pak, Iran comes into play, Israel forces military action . . . the list is endless . . . .

I agree fully, I’m 100% anti war and anti empire building.

I’m sure Obama and the GOP want to privatize roads, bridges, water, sewage etc but private means profit and that means even more skimping on needed repairs to keep profits going.

It’s a good one!

Cool I hope the High Command leads the charge on this one. We have solutions better solutions we just need to get them on tv.

Put the money spent on war to fix our infrastructure pay the workers a good wage then watch SS trust fund fill up from contributions.

Very weird that the PDF link won’t work.

OK, here’s how I got to it in the first place. Go to the News page at the Debt Commission’s website. Both links will be right at the top, but when you click them, you will have to change the links from edit.debtcommission.gov to http://www.debtcommission.gov. Then the PDFs will come up.

Raise cash for SS by putting up tariffs this way we create American jobs and raise cash.

check out Dean Baker. He’s written about this
and will answer you way better than I could.
short answer: it doesn’t.

OH, the link for the PDF in the OP has a period at the end of the link that shouldn’t be there! Just take the period off the end of the .pdf and the file should come up.

Sorry to comment “out of thread” but I just watched Van Jones on MSNBC with Cenk, apologizing for Obama’s actions in regard to the Catfood Commission. He even took exception with Cenk saying he (Jones)was thrown under the bus by the Obama administration. Jane(or someone)please write about this clown. Are all the prominent “progressive” activist in the Veal pen?

DEMiserepubilkans didn’t Waste a WEEK for US to CATch our breath, before pouncing on our Sunken CHE$T$!

When you realize that the staggering wealth of the lords and masters can buy any set of politicians to take take a dive in any given election you will understand what we are fighting.

At least we seem to be mostly past the reflexive exclamations of “They can’t do that! They won’t do that!”…

… mostly….

They can do that and they will do that.

Reelection will not matter.

And the ever-so-convenient usual dupes will be subjected to a media campaign specifically designed to gin up their levels of autoreflexive fear and loathing to the max in order to generate noisy cover for the pols while those pols finish the job they were ordered to do.

How exactly does Social Security increase the deficit? How would cutting Social Security decrease the debt?

The theory is that cutting SS benefits will eliminate the need to ever pay the SS Trust Fund back for all the money borrowed from it. With the current budget, Treasury would have to borrow money to pay the SS trust Fund back. It is the borrowing of money to pay SS back that would increase the debt, not SS itself.

These rats would never think of reneging on other creditors such as China, Japan, Goldman, Citi, etc… Americans who have paid into SS all their lives will be ripped-off in a heartbeat and by the Dems to boot.