Posted on 05/25/2011 11:40:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
First he goes after ethanol in Iowa, now this. What’s next? Telling Texans it’s time to wean themselves off of barbecue? Good lord. This isn’t a campaign, it’s an intervention.
Alternate headline: “Tim Pawlenty now unelectable in not one but two early primary states.”
A day after telling Iowans their beloved ethanol subsidies will have to go, Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty used a stop in senior-heavy Florida to call for reining in Social Security and Medicare benefits for future retirees…
It’s part of a tough-medicine tour, designed to highlight Pawlenty’s willingness to tell “hard truths.” He’s also planning to visit Washington to call for less-generous pay and benefits for public sector employees and to New York to call for an end to Wall Street bailouts…
Pawlenty said Social Security’s retirement age must “gradually” increase for people who are not yet in the system. He also called for ending cost-of-living increases for wealthy retirees. He said he’ll release details soon and said the changes would not affect current retirees.
That’s from today’s Facebook town hall, where he also took a question that seemed geared towards winning a certain fiscal-con icon’s constituency:
“In the state of Indiana, our governor has been really hard on teachers,” asked one girl. “What is your view of education?”
Pawlenty voiced a position on education similar to the reforms passed by Daniels in the last Indiana legislative session: school choice and vouchers, support for charter schools, and saying that education policy should be geared to help children and should “put their needs first, rather than the interests of adults in public employee union movement.”
The choice of the question seemed deliberate, as a way to position Pawlenty as the natural alternative for Daniels’ supporters.
The straight talk on entitlements, I think, is mainly geared towards giving him cover with the base for when he starts inching away from Ryan’s Medicare plan. He praised Ryan’s budget when speaking to reporters after the Facebook town hall today but reminded them that he’ll be introducing his own plan in the coming months. With good reason: The more Senate Republicans bail on Ryan — Olympia Snowe is the latest — the closer we get to the sort of tipping point imagined by Nate Silver. It’s easier for the GOP to deflect concerns about Ryan’s Medicare reforms if they’re voting party-line, less easy when the RINO contingent of Snowe, Collins, and Brown defects and thereby implicitly signals to centrists that Ryan’s budget is “extreme.” T-Paw’s trying to massage both sides here (much as he did in Iowa), hinting without saying that he thinks Ryan’s plan is extreme too but not so much that entitlement reform should be avoided. Exit quotation: “What I know is this: There just can’t be any more sacred cows.”
Yes starting this past January, Social Security tax was lowered by 2 percent. Obama did this. Really stupid at a time when we are having problems with the program.
I’m pretty sure you are talking about a mere reduction in the paycheck-by-paycheck WITHHELD amount. The underlying SS tax rates that you must pay annually are not changed. (Because the amount withheld during the year is less, however, you must make up the difference when you file.)
Will he go to the border states and demand higher, longer fences?
In this election, it's going to take a candidate with not only a backbone of his own, but one who's also willing to wear the enemy's vertebrae as a trophy necklace.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/01/a_little_extra_in_your_paychec.html
This is just one example of a google search. I heard it in December because it was all over the news and people were excited over it. It was an instant pay raise for the entire work force. You probably wondered why you received such a huge pay raise in January but didn’t realize the reason. You may have thought that your company gave you a raise.....Nope it was the United States of America.
Pawlenty’s going for the ‘big balls’ approach to politics. It has worked for Christie and was working for Trump for a few weeks.
I think I like it. He’s definitely on my list.
You raise a good point about the amnesty issue (a hugh, series problem for Texas Gov. Perry if HE jumps in). A lot of far-from-the-borders conservatives are flaky on amnesty. (For that matter, so are a lot of McCains and Perrys who ARE close.) Is Pawlenty? We’ll have to see.
It aint working Tim, I wish it was but it just aint.
The old folks ears close up tight as soon as they hear the words "medicare" and "reform" in the same sentence, and stay shut through the part about a later kick-in date that won't affect them at all. I know how old retirees think because I not only worked closely with many of them in FL, I'm now one of them myself.
BTW, just to make my self clear, I'm all for Pawlenty's plan. If there aren't some major changes medicare will fail totally and my kids won't recover ANY of their past, current, present, or future payroll deductions in the form of partially pre-paid medical expenses. But try telling that to my retiree neighbors and the only sound you will hear are the creaks and groans made by their ears closing. Personally I think it's probably a union mindset thingy, but that just may be because I'm as biased against unions as I am against Obama's commie friends in the White house.
Again, you are talking about a reduction in the withheld-each-paycheck tax. The annual amount you owe, on a given income, is not reduced.
The FICA tax reduction was part of the deal renewing the Bush Tax Cuts in December.
I’m pretty sure you are talking about a mere reduction in the paycheck-by-paycheck WITHHELD amount. The underlying SS tax rates that you must pay annually are not changed. (Because the amount withheld during the year is less, however, you must make up the difference when you file.)
Fortunately you are wrong. The reason is because in 2010 everyone was given a 400 or 800 dollar rebate on your taxes. In 2011, I added this amount to the taxes because I thought we had to.....well guess what? I was wrong and the IRS sent me a check for the amount because I was wrong.......First time that has ever happened to me.
So what you are saying is that when we file in 2012 for 2011 taxes, we are going to have to write a check for the 2 percent that we were given. I promise you that you are wrong. I know you believe that you are right but I am grateful that you are misinformed.
Mondale lives.
If the annual tax rates were reduced, not just the amount withheld, then I certainly stand corrected.
This is what the government itself says: It’s a FICA tax cut — not JUST a withholding cut, as I was stubbornly saying — BUT the amounts will get repaid to SS by “The general fund,” in other words, general tax revenues. They’ll have to raise OTHER taxes (or cut spending that otherwise wouldn’t need to be cut) to “pay for” this “tax cut.” It’s all smoke and mirrors.
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/taxRates.html
(in the footnote)
RE: Mondale lives.
Pawlenty = Mondale?
Heaven help us if this means Obama = Reagan
Ryan’s plan or any other kind of real reform is far better than what the Democrats had in mind to do to seniors with ObamaCare; you know, letting nature take its course. That should be part of the discussion whenever Republicans talk about the issue or we’re not going to get anywhere with the Dims playing dirty with Mediscare.
What problem? First, it was a temporary reduction. Second, payroll taxes will cover payouts until 2017 without needing to tap the surplus which itself is good until 2037.
Pawlenty is a fool and needs to step aside now, Saying we need to cut the debt is good, saying we need to cut medicare and then bring Ryan’;s plan up is political suicide.
I wish Bibi could run for president as he is what w need right now and one of a few who has balls to take obama on and call out the media who have been paid off by George Soros
Ryan should never have done that plan in public, it was a gift to the left and now they are using it against us and scaring people and it is working.
They used the Ryan plan to attack us in JAX and NY and it has worked both times and we have lost.
It is foolish for Pawlenty but then again he also wants cap and trade.
No way cap and trade Pawlenty , move on and give it up
nail on head
cap and trade Pawlenty is a fool and saying what he siad is plain stupid
I’m waiting for the guy who is FIRST going to cut all the $$ we send other countries who hate us, then going to have a real plan to find and stop the fraud and WASTE the govt spends. Then he will stop all government funding of Planned Parenthood, public television, medicare waste in the form of hundreds of mailings that no one reads, stop funding ridiculous studies such as men and women are different.
After attacking these and many other nonsensical spendings, then he can talk to me about cutting senior citizen programs or American workers programs.
That’s where I see no candidate yet and I am sure I will not anytime soon. Proof none of them is serious about the money problems of our country.
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