We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, December 24, 2012

Obama proposes Social Security cuts

Click here to access article by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site

After destroying the dreams of lower income families owning their own homes and burdening students with a lifetime of debt servitude, the One Percent is now targeting the most vulnerable citizens in our nation. For the sake of appearances, the Obama administration will make it look like a grand bargain that was the best outcome he could obtain.

1935 Social Security poster


...what is being worked out in the talks between Obama and Boehner is nothing less than the terms of a social retrogression of unprecedented dimensions. Using the concocted threat of a December 31 “fiscal cliff,” when some $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts are scheduled to begin because of previous Washington agreements, the representatives of big business, Democratic and Republican, are proposing to begin the dismantling of the social reforms enacted in the 20th century.