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Latest News Release – Interviews AvailableRSS

Social Security and Medicare Cuts in the President’s Budget

April 10, 2013

ELLEN SHAFFER
Shaffer is co-director at the Center for Policy Analysis. She said today: “President Obama has announced that he will propose a budget plan on April 10 that would cut Social Security benefits and increase Medicare deductibles.

“Congress and the President must protect these lifelines for seniors, people with disabilities. These cuts would be especially harmful to the health of women, who live longer but have lower incomes. The “chained CPI” would cut payments to women in their 80s by the cost of three months of groceries a year. Additionally, women of color, who already experience a host of health disparities and difficulties in accessing critical health services would be disproportionately impacted by any erosion of Medicare or Medicaid. Such cuts would force women ages 65-67 to neglect needed health care, worsening chronic conditions throughout their lives. Reduced income support would force many elderly women without family or friends as caregivers to spend down to qualify for Medicaid, and experience medically unnecessary confinement in nursing homes as a result.

“Social Security has absolutely nothing to do with causing the deficit, so cutting it won’t help to reduce the deficit. The Social Security Trust Fund is entirely solvent through 2038, requiring only minor tweaks in the interim to extend into the future. Medicare and Medicaid are affected by health care cost increases, but cutting benefits will not solve those problems.

“On Nov. 6, women and communities of color gave the margin of victory to a President and members of Congress who promised to fight for higher taxes on the wealthy, for more public investment and for careful cuts in spending, while revitalizing the economy. It is unconscionable to ask those who are barely making it to be squeezed even tighter at a time when corporations and the wealthiest 2% are not paying their fair share of taxes, despite soaring profits.”

Recent Blog PostsRSS

What We Should be Talking About: Romney’s Foreign Policy Advisers

August 28, 2012 by journalist ·

John Kennedy used to say, “Domestic policy can hurt us; foreign policy can kill us.”

But despite the fact that lives (American, allied, and civilian) continue to be lost in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel is blustering about attacking Iran before the US election (in order to drag in a reluctant Obama administration), much more time will be given to domestic policy rantings then foreign policy. In the 2000 election, there was very little debate about foreign policy, though anyone who looked closely might have guessed that Bush’s foreign policy advisors (who called themselves “the vulcans,” and had complex and long-standing links to groups and think tanks pressing for war on Iraq, would undertake that project at the slightest provocation.

This year, with less excuse (given the large deficit and two ongoing military operations), we have had very little discussion in the media about Romney’s foreign policy advisors. Yet, they are a far more coherent group of militarists than the Bush team.

[more]

Dying to Live in Mexico

May 15, 2012 by journalist ·

Cuernavaca, Mexico — In 2011, some 12,000 people were murdered in situations presumably related to the drug trafficking industry in Mexico. In 2010, the number was more than 15,000 killed. Between December 2006, when Felipe Calderón of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) took office and declared a “war on drug traffickers” and January 2012, depending on the source, some 47,000 to 60,000 people have been slain, and some 5,000 disappeared. This grim fact has become the centerpiece of Mexican politics and an inescapable force in daily life throughout much of the country.

But neither the number of people killed nor the cruelty of the killings can be understood without simultaneously taking account of another pair of figures. First, Calderón has repeatedly said that more than 90 percent of those killed were involved in “the struggle of some cartels against others.” Calderón does not cite a source for this estimate. The underlying logic, however, is clear: if you’re dead, you’re guilty. The perennial official refrain is “en algo andaba,” or, they were up to something; they were in the game. [more]

THE PAYROLL TAX CUT: Talk about a Ponzi Scheme!

September 9, 2011 by Gwendolyn Mink ·

Is President Obama trying to kill Social Security without explicitly saying so? He put Social Security “on the table” for consideration by his Deficit Commission — even though Social Security has not contributed to creating or sustaining the deficit/debt in the first place. He kept Social Security on the table when he made a deal to delegate deficit reduction authority over entitlements to an undemocratic Super Committee. Now, in a speech reportedly about jobs, he proposed to extend and increase the ill-considered FICA tax cut he embraced last December — a tax cut that directly undermines the financial integrity of Social Security.

According to the White House Fact Sheet on “The American Jobs Act” the FICA tax holiday for workers will be increased to a 50% reduction, lowering it to 3.1%. Under the 2010 tax deal, the payroll tax for workers was reduced from 6.2% to 4.2%. In addition to expanding the tax cut for workers, the President proposes to extend the FICA tax holiday to employers by cutting in half the employer’s share of the payroll tax through the first $5 million in payroll. [more]

Stop the Cuts to the Social Safety Net!

July 20, 2011 by Gwendolyn Mink ·

Medicaid cuts will injure communities of color disproportionately. 11 percent of Asian Americans, 14 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, 27 percent of Latinos, and 27 percent of African Americans gain access to health care through Medicaid.

Medicaid cuts will injure women disproportionately. Women account for 70 percent of Medicaid participants.

Social Security is survival income for many older women, especially older single women. Fifty percent of women over age 65 rely on Social Security for 80 percent or more of their income. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research: Unmarried women living alone aged 65 and older are three times more likely to be living in poverty than married women aged 65 and older (16.6 percent compared with 4.8 percent). Without Social Security benefits, more than two-thirds of these unmarried women would live in poverty. [more]

In The NewsRSS

James Henry on NPR

March 28, 2013

IPA expert, former chief economist at McKinsey and lead researcher of the Tax Justice Network’s report, “The Price of Offshore Revisited” featured on NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show” speaking on international tax havens.

Norman Solomon Debates Ex-Powell Aide Lawrence Wilkerson

February 6, 2013


Following his inclusion in the IPA news release “Colin Powell’s Infamous U.N. Speech, 10 Years Later: Deceiving Public, Ignoring Whistleblowers Led to War,” Norman Solomon was featured in a debate on Democracy Now!, “Decade After Iraq WMD Speech at UN, Ex-Powell Aide Lawrence Wilkerson Debates Author Norman Solomon.”

‘Two Anaheims’

January 3, 2013

After an IPA news release highlighting police brutality, economic inequalities, and lack of Latino representation in the Latino-majority city of Anaheim, Al Jazeera English’s ‘Faultline’ produced a 24 minute documentary, ‘Anaheim: A Tale of Two Cities.’

Ray McGovern in Al Jazeera English

November 20, 2012

Following his inclusion in the IPA news release, “After Petraeus,” Ray McGovern was featured in the Al Jazeera English article “Obama backs Allen as Petraeus inquiry widens.” He said, “If people see these folks as being unfaithful in small things, how can you expect them to tell the truth about progress in Afghanistan? You cannot expect them to do that. What we have here is a situation where the troops know that they cannot trust their superiors.”

Recent News ReleasesRSS

Drones in Your Backyard

April 9, 2013

The Associated Press reported yesterday: “At the start of what could be a new era in police surveillance, an Illinois legislator is proposing a limit on how law enforcement agencies can use drones highly sophisticated, unmanned aircraft that authorities are eyeing for aerial surveillance.”

[more]

Equal Pay Day

April 9, 2013

April 9th is ‘Equal Pay Day’ symbolizing how far past the new year women must work in order to simply receive the same salary men earn in only 12 months.

[more]

“I’m a Nation to Myself:” Iraqi Refugees in the United States

April 8, 2013

Ten years after U.S. forces cemented their victory over Iraq by toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square on April 9, 2003, Iraqis continue to flee their country, adding to the estimated 4 million displaced by the war and occupation. The Progressive magazine has a new report on the largest community of Iraqi refugees in the United States who’ve fled as a result of the U.S. war and occupation.

[more]

The Koreas: Lurching Towards War

April 4, 2013

Reuters is reporting: “The United States said on Wednesday it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called a ‘real and clear danger’ from Pyongyang.”

[more]

Atlanta Test Cheating Scandal: “Tip of the Iceberg”

April 3, 2013

“Atlanta is the ‘tip of an iceberg’ in a sea of standardized test score manipulation that has swept the U.S. in response to politically mandated misuses of standardized exams.”

[more]
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