Strong majorities of Colorado voters oppose three specific proposals that would cut Social Security benefits by:- Raising the retirement age: 56% oppose
- Changing the COLA formula in a way that reduces the amount beneficiaries receive: 59% oppose
- Reducing benefits for people earning above $60,000, typically what a proposal to "means-test" Social Security would do: 62% oppose
The poll was released as leaders in Washington debate how to reduce the federal deficit and many members of Congress call for having all options on the table, including deep cuts to Social Security. Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall have not declared where they stand on cutting Social Security benefits or taking it off the table because it does not contribute to the deficit.
"This poll shows that voters are clear in their thinking: Don't cut Social Security benefits, don't reduce the COLA and don't raise the retirement age," said Max Richtman, Acting CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which has 220,000 members in Colorado.
More proof, as if we needed it, that Udall is wrong to embrace the radical cuts that have become conventional wisdom in how to fix the deficit is this set of facts from Bernie Sanders (I-Most Popular and Least Cowardly Senator on The Left): Sanders compiled a list of some of some of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders:
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.
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6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.
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8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.
UPDATE: And then there's stuff like this: Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) were the reigning champions of finance in 2006 as home prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and brokerage firms to their best year ever with $104 billion of profits.
By 2008, the housing market's collapse forced those companies to take more than six times as much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now the full amounts have remained secret.
If we are to believe that Mark Udall believes a single word of what he said in December, 2010, then he should be taking action right this moment to eliminate the tax breaks of the highly profitable corporations and the men and women that take billions from their balance sheets.
I think he thinks we do have a short-term memory problem, but Senator Mark Udall will try to take advantage of that problem by telling us one thing in a video press release and doing another when the vote comes down to cutting our Social Security and Medicare benefits - benefits we all pay for with each and every paycheck we have received our entire lives.
I'm getting there, but I don't have that short-term memory loss, Mark, not yet........
* - I think Tara's gone now, but I call her a spokes-ghost because never, not once, did she so much as reply to any requests from me for comments from the senator - not even a "piss off you stinking blogger!" as would be expected... |
