OntheWilderSide

Green Party leaders warned that President Obama and Democratic leaders will betray the American people if they agree with Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare, and demanded that such cuts be taken off the table.

The Green Party has challenged bipartisan claims that the deficit, rather than the recession and job crisis, is the major economic problem facing the US.  Green candidates and leaders have promoted a ‘Green New Deal’ with an array of positive solutions for the economy and employment (http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/08/11/62-green-candidates-endorse-green-new-deal).

There are ways other than cutting Social Security and Medicare to end the federal deficit — ending the three wars, sharply reducing the military budget, raising taxes on the wealthy.  A modest raise in the contribution cap for the highest income brackets would keep Social Security solvent.  Social Security and Medicare are accounts separate from the federal budget — they play no part in the deficit crisis.  But President Obama, compromising with congressional Republicans and fulfilling his own ambition to ‘restructure entitlements’, has signaled his willingness to roll back the protections that his party passed in the 1930s and 1960s to give working Americans their financial security and prosperity since the mid 20th century, saving millions of people from financial destitution.  The President’s deal, which we can count on Democratic leaders in Congress to support, may compel
people to gamble their retirement savings in the Wall Street casino.  And pushing back the eligibility age will be a ‘work till you die’ sentence for many Americans, including Black people, the poor, and others with statistically shorter life spans.

It’s time for a voters’ revolt against both Democrats and Republicans.  President Obama’s compromise shows he has joined the GOP war against working people.  There is no longer any reason to make excuses for Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats.  There is no reason to vote for ‘the lesser of two evils’ if the lesser evil is so willing to cooperate with the greater evil against the rest of us.  Two-party politics is more than a flaw in our democracy.  It’s a disaster that can only be solved by removing Democrats and Republicans from office and replacing them with Green candidates.  Greens accept no corporate money and are committed to maintaining and strengthening Social Security, and to expanding Medicare to cover everyone.  Mr. Obama’s likely Social-Security/Medicare deal with the GOP is proof that the Green Party is an imperative for the 21st century.  If the deal is accepted, it will be time for people to gather in protest in Washington, DC, and throughout the US just as people protested in Wisconsin when Gov. Walker threatened public sector workers and union organizing rights.

• Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States: “It’s no longer accurate to say we have two parties running the country.  We have a single party with an extremist wing called the Republican Party and a slightly less extremist wing called the Democratic Party, both of which have made service to Wall Street and other powerful corporate elites their top priority.  Most Americans don’t want to see Social Security or Medicare reduced — but most Americans don’t contribute huge campaign checks.  Unlike corporations, thanks to the Supreme Court’s ‘Citizens’ United’ decision, most Americans don’t run endless campaign ads.”

• Howie Hawkins, Green candidate for Common Councillor of Syracuse, New York and 2010 Green candidate for Governor of New York: “If MoveOn.org and environmental activist Van Jones believe that America’s future should be in the hands of Democrats, they’re as deluded as Tea Partiers who want a Republican future.  President Obama’s planned raid on Social Security and Medicare tops off the list of capitulations and betrayals since taking office: escalation of the Afghanistan War and air assaults on Pakistan; a third war, on Libya, in violation of the War Powers Act; continued warrantless wiretapping of US citizens, harassment of whistleblowers, and other legal abuses; plans to build more nuclear power plants, with taxpayers’ money, even in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan; plans for more offshore oil drilling despite the BP disaster; a health care reform bill designed mainly to enrich insurance companies, with mandates to purchase private
coverage and no reductions in medical costs; embrace of the myth of ‘clean coal’ and no interference in destructive, poisonous mountaintop removal mining…  The list goes on and on, even surpassing President Clinton’s fulfillment of GOP agenda.”

• George Carlin, nonpartisan comedian and social critic (1937-2008): “The word bipartisan means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.”

MORE INFORMATION

“Trumka: Social Security Cuts Should Not Be on the Table”
AFL-CIO Blog, July 7, 2011
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/07/07/trumka-social-security-cuts-should-not-be-on-the-table/

“Breaking Point: Obama and the Death of the Democratic Party”
By Jane Hamsher, FireDogLake, July 8, 2011
http://firedoglake.com/2011/07/07/the-breaking-point/
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/08-3

Filed under: 3rd party, Action Alert!, activism, grassroots democracy, Green Party, News, politics, president, third party, US Politics Tagged: | green, Green New Deal, medicare, social security, united states