SuperCongress to Cut $1.5 Trillion to Reduce U.S. Debt
By Slashing Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security

Fast-Track Decision by November 23; No Filibusters or Amendments Allowed

By Harry Kelber

The SuperCongress, the 12 lawmakers, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, is meeting behind closed doors to work on a plan to reduce the federal debt. by at least $1.5 trillion. The funds will come from eliminating or shrinking Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and other agencies that benefit the middle class and include the working poor, the sick and the elderly.

Ordinary Americans haven’t the vaguest idea what a trillion dollars looks like or what it means in spending cuts on domestic programs, but they can expect the bad news to their entitlement rights, probably by November 23 to dampen their Thanksgiving holiday.

The six Republicans on the committee have signed a pledge to guarantee that none of them will vote in favor of any tax increase, closure of tax loopholes or rescinding of temporarily lowered tax rates in the Bush tax cuts.

The Democrats on the committee have proposed hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits to demonstrate that they too want to reduce the national debt. The Obama administration is ready to use Social Security and Medicare as “bargaining chips,” if it can get agreement on tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy.

To influence the decisions of the SuperCongress members, corporations have spent as much as $64.5 million. Of this amount, $43.7 million went to Republicans and $20.8 million to the Democrats. The biggest donors were Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase.

AFL-CIO Finds Spending Cuts Are ‘Unacceptable,’ So What?

In a video message, AFL-CIO Richard Trumka blasted the SuperCongress debt reduction plan for proposing hundreds of billions of dollars in cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other domestic programs that benefit the middle class, the working poor and the sick and elderly.

There were no calls for protest rallies or marches., but a memo on the AFL-CIO’s “America’s Union Movement“ said: “Stay alert. We may soon need you to take action to save the middle class. Hours or even minutes could matter. We are the 99% and Congress needs to represent us. It’s that simple.”

We can’t imagine what, if anything, the AFL-CIO is planning, because it is not known for initiating public, non-violent actions. Besides, it completed a month of “events” across the country just two weeks ago and would find it difficult to whip up a new campaign in such short notice.

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It is important to note that the SuperCongress members are not interested in discussions of how to create jobs for the millions that need them. In fact, by eliminating or shrinking entitlement rights, they will be increasing the number of unemployed who worked at those agencies and programs.

Cuts instituted by Congress in fiscal 2011 eliminated some 370,000 jobs, according to a report by the Center for American Progress.

So what do our labor leaders propose that will enable us to fight back against spending cuts and to demand federal money to create jobs? Or are we to admit defeat by default?