The president of Public Citizen signed this email message:
“This was a bad week for the radical right.
“In trying to ransom the functioning and credit of the United States government in a desperate ploy to force their regressive policies on the rest of us, the Republican Party just looked out of touch and out of ideas.
“The federal government is back to work.
“Our nation is honoring its debts.
“But, a few points:
“1. The politicians in Washington, D.C., really only kicked the can down the road. We’ll be facing the threat of another shutdown and a looming default again just a few short months from now, replete with whatever schemes the far right dreams up next.
“2. The Democrats merely preserved the status quo, that being the sequester the Republicans finagled out of their previous debt ceiling hissy fit. It’s less than good that ‘winning’ means retaining misguided, across-the-board budget cuts at a time when our fragile economy needs to be kick-started by public spending, not hamstrung by austerity.
“3. The deal struck earlier this week to end the shutdown and forestall default includes a plan to negotiate over further budget cuts. Make no mistake, what the Republicans — and, sad to say, President Obama — are talking about is cutting Medicare and Social Security.
“Add your name to this message to President Obama:
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We must not allow the president to deal with the Republicans on Social Security and Medicare. It is our government leaders(sic) who over the years since its inception have taken money out of the S. S. lock box, only to never having put it back. If the leaders would put the trillions of dollars they stole back into into Social Security, plus all of the interest it that would have accrued over the years, there would be no problem with Social Security.
As for Medicare, it only costs the government about 3% to run its version of single-payer health care; whereas, it costs the various insurance companies, on average, about 30% to run those corporations. It’s obvious that the leaders of this country should pass a bill for single-payer to cover all of us at a truly affordable rate.
Furthermore, if the president and Congress really want to cut spending, they should do it on the ridiculous trillions of dollars spent on what they call defense and shoveling our money to countries overseas, which includes Israel, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, etc.