NANCY ALTMAN, njalt at aol.com
Altman is co-chair of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, a coalition of over 300 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans and author of the book “The Battle for Social Security: From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble.” Altman said today: “The announcement that the so-called supercommittee could not reach agreement is a victory for democracy and for the American people — the 99% over the 1%. Time after time, the American people have stood up for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and they have again. The supercommittee contemplated cuts to these vital programs, but a massive push back by everyday Americans was apparently heard. An end-run around the will of the people has been prevented.”

NICOLE WOO, woo at cepr.net
Director of domestic policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Woo said today: “Let’s not forget that the ‘supercommittee’ was created over the summer by the Budget Control Act, which already cut discretionary spending by over $900 billion over ten years, with not one dollar of additional revenue. Since such spending cuts disproportionately affect the 99%, it seems that true ‘shared sacrifice’ would have to include some revenue coming from the 1%.”