Dear Editors: As previously predicted, Republican efforts to sabotage the “Obama Recovery” are already well under way. First were $6 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) (Food Stamps) taking effect over the next two years, followed by “red states’” refusal to waive the “90 day rule” -- causing some 1 million previously eligible unemployed and/or childless recipients to suddenly become ineligible for SNAP benefits and threatening to overwhelm the limited resources of local charities and food banks. Second was Tuesday’s change to House rules governing “reallocation” of Social Security revenues between its retirement trust fund and its disability programs. As a result, what was previously routine will become a “leverage” (i.e., extortion) issue for “conservatives” seeking to privatize Social Security and/or defund the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) by threatening to impose a 20% reduction in Social Security disability benefits in 2016. Third is the House’s determination to employ “dynamic scoring” on tax-cut proposals (but not on infrastructure investments), and thereby imbed arbitrary and imaginary “pay for itself” economic growth assumptions into CBO scoring of more deficit-exacerbating tax cuts. Fourth, because the ACA requires employers to insure “full-time” (30 hours/week), the duplicitously-named “Saving American Workers Act” would redefine “full-time” as 40 hours/week, making it easier for employers to deny health insurance coverage. Both the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation calculate that the bill would increase budget deficits by $18 billion between 2015 and 2020 and by $53 billion between 2015 and 2025 -- because 1 million fewer people would receive employer-sponsored health insurance and between 500,000 and 1 million more would end up on Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Ironically, Mitch McConnell is already hedging his bets. If Republican efforts to derail the “Obama Recovery” fail, McConnell intends to take credit for its continuing success! Bill Hugenberg
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:42:45 +0000
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