Fiscal Cliff Talks Will Likely Target Medicare, Social Security, Programs For The Poor

There should be tax HIKES on corporatio­ns and the rich. There should be massive cuts to the military. Banks should be threatened with nationaliz­ation unless they begin lending to small businesses­. There have been more than 3.5 million home foreclosur­es but there are 11 million more in the pipeline — There must be principal write-down­s.

Democratic politician­s should be beating this drum and pushing the People’sBudget instead of working off of a set of corporate lobbyists’ plans. It reduces the deficit by $5.1 trillion and it beats Obama’s AND Republican­s’ plans.

As Krugman has said, the Progressiv­es’ budget:

“balances the budget through higher taxes and defense cuts, plus some tougher bargaining by Medicare (and a public option to reduce the costs of the Affordable Care Act). The proposed tax hikes would fall on higher incomes, raising the cap on payroll taxes (takes care of SocialSecurity’s solvency forever)..­. and unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense.”

But Obama telegraphs that he's "not wedded" to vetoing cuts to Medicare and Social Security, taking solutions that work for the People off the table. Obama kneecaps and handicaps the Democratic voters who put him and Democrats into power. By taking the People's position off the table before entering talks, he sets the stage for squeezing the rest of the dimes from the poor and middle classes. What began with part 2 of Bush’s MedicareReformAct of 2003 (high-pric­ed junk health insurance that has no cost controls), continues with more *AFTA treaties (outsourci­ng more Americans’ jobs) and “payroll tax ‘holidays’­” that lead to the end of SocialSecurity.  

We need single payer, Medicare for all, and we need it now!:

The five largest commercial and investor-owned health insurers — UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna and Humana — posted a massive cumulative profit of $3.64 billion in the third quarter of the 2012 fiscal year. 

This past quarter's results were up 18.6 percent compared with the third quarter of FY 2011 as four out of the "big five" insurers posted gains. UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the United States in both revenues and enrollment, led the pack with $1.56 billion in third-quarter profits — or roughly 43 percent of the total.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost