Saturday, February 22, 2014

The Washington Post Mourns the Loss of the Grand Bargain


Fred Hyatt: I've found an efficient way to steal
from old people. Fucking Obama won't go along with it.

It's no secret that the Washington Post's editorial board, led by Fred Hiatt, has guided Beltway public opinion -- or been guided by it, what's the difference? -- into a Very Serious People cul-de-sac. Their latest screed against Barack Obama's abandonment of the failed "Grand Bargain" strategy for dealing with a recalcitrant Republican Party lacks anything resembling intelligence. Or, it should be said, the opinion lacks honesty or basic math ability, or both. It certainly shows, once again, that the Washington Post doesn't give a shit about America's elderly:
PRESIDENT OBAMA has not released his budget for fiscal year 2015, but he has already let it be known that one good idea won’t be in it: Unlike last year, Mr. Obama will not propose the use of a more accurate inflation factor, “chained CPI,” in the government’s annual adjustments to Social Security and other benefits.
This is a huge disappointment. As far as anyone can tell, the president’s view on the merits of chained CPI hasn’t changed. The measure would save $162.5 billion over the next decade , according to the Congressional Budget Office, thus helping to trim the entitlement costs that are on track to drive the U.S. budget deficit unsustainably higher beginning early in the next president’s first term. Appropriately tempered with protections for the very poor and very elderly, chained CPI is an efficient method of long-term deficit reduction that imposes only modest sacrifice on the vast majority of Americans.
Don't worry, Grandma, Fred
Hiatt's got your back.
It's the glib way the editorial board glances off the figure of "$162.5 billion over the next decade" that's the tell in this editorial position. What does that figure represent? Money picked from the pockets of senior citizens, most of whom will barely be getting by in their dotage as it is. It's not nothing, it billions of dollars over the course of the twenty or more years we hope each senior might live in this, the greatest country on Earth.

But that's chump change for the Washington Post. Who, exactly, are the chumps? It's the senior citizens of America, who, I must add, tend to vote more and more Republican as they age. But then, voting against your own self-interests is a common feature of our beloved American democracy, a fact that is daily celebrated on the pages of the Washington Post.

Let's take one last look at the black heart of Fred Hiatt. Let's reread that sentence that holds the key to Hiatt's loathing of the poor and unfortunate as they age somewhere out in the heartland:
Appropriately tempered with protections for the very poor and very elderly, chained CPI is an efficient method of long-term deficit reduction that imposes only modest sacrifice on the vast majority of Americans.
"An efficient method" my ass. It means we've found a way to quietly pocket money to pay for Bush's tax cuts or, better yet, a way to finance our beloved military-industrial complex. Either way, it's less for you, Mom and Pop.

There are better ways to fix this, Fred. But the Very Serious People don't like them. So mum's the word.

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