By Jim Centner, SOAR Director
Thanks to the diligence of retirees and other progressive activists, we defeated the Senate’s attempt to shed their responsibilities and establish a commission to gut Social Security and Medicare. But we must be vigilant! The conservatives have persuaded President Obama to create his own commission to look at deficit reductions that would again put Social Security and Medicare in jeopardy.
We were successful last month. We defeated legislation that would have created an undemocratic commission that would have disenfranchised voters and hurt the political process. The conservatives and main stream media will continue to pressure the White House to act on the deficit. Addressing the deficit is one thing, messing with Social Security and Medicare is another!
SOAR is not opposed to the President creating a bipartisan fiscal commission by executive order as long as it is an advisory board to suggest and recommend needed changes to rescue our economy and deal with our long term debt. A commission should not be empowered to enact legislation. That is the responsibility of our elected officials. It is our responsibility to make sure a presidential commission does no harm!
Jim Centner, Director
