Public Employee Press

Part of a series on the attacks on government
THE WORLD OF WORK
Deficit plan would gut working class benefits
Mortgage deductions, Social Security and Medicare are on the chopping block.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The co-chairs of President Obama's deficit reduction commission have launched an attack on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, tax deductions for mortgage interest and other benefits that working-class, middle-class and poor Americans depend on.

The proposal to cut the deficit by $3.8 trillion - unlikely to pass as issued - was a bold thrust toward setting the terms of the debate on the commission. It ran into sharp criticism as soon as the co-chairs floated it Nov. 10, but it also provided ammunition for conservative deficit hawks hell-bent on gutting government services and entitlements.

The plan "tells working Americans to drop dead," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "Especially in these tough times, it is unconscionable to cut the critical economic lifelines for working people, Social Security and Medicare," Trumka said

"The proposal is part of the ongoing assault against middle-class Americans. Why is it that these millionaires always look for cuts instead of revenues?" asked Gerald W. McEntee, president of DC 37's parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We will not rest until we defeat these unnecessary and dangerous proposals."

If the United States has enough resources to consider extending tax cuts for the rich, asked McEntee, "Why can't we find the resources to protect the retirement and health security of America's working men and women?"

Biased and elitist co-chairs

The commission was scheduled to release a plan Dec. 1 for an up or down vote in Congress, but it was unclear whether the leaders' proposal could muster the support of 14 of the 18 members necessary for approval. The co-chairs are Alan Simpson, former Republican senator of Wyoming, and Democrat Erskine Bowles, chief of staff for Bill Clinton, who gets about $700,000 a year - 50 times the average worker's Social Security - as a director of bailed out Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley and General Motors.

The attack on Social Security, which faces no shortfalls for three decades and provides over half the income of two-thirds of American retirees, was no surprise considering that Simpson calls Social Security "a milk cow with 310 million tits."

The plan would raise the normal Social Security retirement age from 67 to 69 and reduce the Social Security COLA, cutting expected benefits for current and future retirees, disabled workers and their families, widows and widowers.

Other key recommendations include:

• Freezing U.S. government and military salaries for three years, chopping the federal workforce by 10 percent and reducing military spending.
• Reducing the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 26 percent and ending taxes on overseas profits of U.S. corporations.
• Taxing employee health benefits and ending the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit.
• Raising taxes by $751 billion over 10 years, including a 15-cent increase in the gas tax that would start in 2013, and
• Slashing federal "discretionary" spending by $1.4 trillion over 10 years, the largest such cut in several decades, and reducing Social Security, Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor by $733 billion.