‘Commission’ scam still very much alive

By Steve Kofahl

In the December Retiree Advocate, we warned that so-called fiscal conservatives in Congress from both political parties are pushing for a bipartisan commission to rein in spending on safety net entitlement programs such as Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Medicare and Medicaid. Commission recommendations would be voted up or down without amendments, and with little or no debate. Our elected representatives would deny us our democratic right to participate by making deals behind closed doors, and would dodge being held personally accountable for the results.


New reports make it clear that this bad idea is very much alive, and that we will need to watch what the senators do when they return from their holiday recess on January 20. On that date, a short-term extension of the debt ceiling will have nearly run out, and the Senate will meet to pass a longer extension needed to keep the Federal Government operating. Up to ten amendments will be in order, and the Conrad-Gregg entitlement commission proposal is expected to be one of them. As chairman and ranking member of the Budget Committee, Senators Conrad and Gregg would lead the effort to establish a commission as a condition for allowing the government to continue doing business after January 2010.
Billionaire Wall Street investment banker and former Nixon Commerce Secretary Peter G. Peterson has been personally bankrolling the campaign to end entitlements for at least two decades. He has the help of David M. Walker, who served from 1988-2008 as U.S. Comptroller General, and who is now President and CEO of the Peterson Foundation. You can be sure that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers are behind it as well. They fought to keep Social Security and Medicare from being established in the first place, and they are always involved when our social insurance programs are under attack.
Our current economic crisis was brought to us largely by Wall Street and the banking industry, and by the stateless corporations who have traveled the globe pursuing low-wage unorganized labor while wrecking the American middle class. The crisis was not caused by spending on entitlement programs. They are needed now more than ever, and they certainly should not be cut. In fact, compared to the rest of government, Social Security is in great shape, with a $2.5 trillion surplus that is still growing.
This is really all about greed and misplaced priorities. The enemies of our social safety net programs don’t want to pay future retirees, dependents and survivors the money they are due as a result of workers’ tax contributions over the years. Instead, they want to preserve the scandalous living standards of the rich, at the expense of the rest of us.
Of course, they are not real fiscal conservatives at all. They are Reverse Robin Hoods. They have no problem with trillions being spent on corporate welfare, war and bailouts of financial institutions and investment interests that have been deemed “too big to fail.” They will oppose removing the $106,800 cap on annual earnings subject to Social Security taxation – a step that would require the wealthiest Americans to pay the same percentage on their earnings as the rest of us. This one change would virtually eliminate any future shortfall.
What is likely to come out of any commission is a downward adjustment in the formula used to compute benefits and/or reductions in future cost of living adjustments. If we can’t stop the commission from being appointed – and we must certainly try – we must raise our voices in a demand that Congress vote its proposal down.

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(Steve Kofahl is president of Local 3937 of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO and a PSARA board member.)