podesta_email_09578.txt

podesta-emails 2,254 words email

P17 V11 P20 V15 D1

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a variety of economic, social and political reasons I would suggest that HRC support an increase in social security benefits for recipients below a certain net worth threshold, and finance it by a combination of a small tax on Wall Street trades, and if necessary a graduated increase in the social security tax for those earning above a certain income. Sometime soon I will write a column suggesting this and wanted to give you a heads-up and suggest HRC advocate this. In brief: 1. Economic and social reasons: Seniors living on fixed incomes are among the most hard-pressed groups in America today. Their interest bearing yields on bank accounts, etc. lag far behind the real cost of living increases and their Social Security COLA's have been lagging behind the real inflation rate for many years, leaving them falling further and further behind. I would emphasize that a majority of seniors who would benefit from a social security increase are women, because they live longer, and because in most cases for their entire working careers they were receiving unequal pay compared to men while they were paying into the system. HRC and most politicians do not appreciate the severity of this from the point of view of poor and middle income seniors. They do not have a real-life or intuitive understanding of what it is like to pay ever-rising costs of groceries, and medicine that is not covered by insurance, and other necessities whose prices rise while fixed incomes decline in relative terms, because they are either wealthy and/or live in worlds inhabited without much daily interaction with fixed income seniors struggling with this in their daily lives. An increase in social security benefits financed as I suggest would have a net stimulative effect to the economy and increasing economic equality and social equity. 2. Financing: I like the idea of a small tax on Wall Street transactions which would raise substantial revenue without imposing material hardship on traders. Bernie has proposed this, to use the money for his free public college proposal. The problem with the free public college proposal, which I like in principle, is that it is virtually impossible to adequately restrain tuition costs, which needs to be done, but without doing this the transaction-tax-for-tuition trade would largely subsidize higher tuition and detracting from the benefit to students. By contrast, a transaction tax whose revenues went into the social security fund to fund an increase in social security benefits would be a straight trade that would support higher benefits. To address a legitimate issue, a combination of some means testing plus the transaction tax could enable this formula to strengthen long term social security financing while simultaneously financing some increase in benefits. We could simply take the revenue gain from the transaction tax plus the social security financing gain from the means test and divide the financing gains between one part increase benefits and the other part enhancing the stability of the system. 3. Democratic politics. Right now Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and some other progressives support increasing benefits. I agree with them on principle and policy and would advise HRC to join and potentially lead this. This would rally the Democratic base, divert some attention from you-know-what, and be the kind of initiatives Democrats should pursue for Democratic principles behind a highly popular Democratic government program that we should aggressively champion, and not defensively back away from. When I write this column, if HRC opposes this, I would simply agree with Bernie and Elizabeth supporting it and would not mention HRC either way. If HRC supports this I would banner and give high praise to her leadership. 4. Democratic-Republican politics: I do not believe it is enough to merely repeat that we oppose Republicans who want to cut social security. That is fine as far as it goes, but is timid and stale and tends to ring like demagoguery and does not ring man bells with seniors because they have heard it before and we are merely arguing against a negative event that they know is unlikely in fact to happen. By contrast, a call for an increase in social benefits would resonate with voters because it would involve a specific amount for the proposed increase that all seniors would immediately understand, view as directly improving their lives in measurable ways, and serve as one motivating issue for a potential mandate election that would have an outstanding chance of being enacted if HRC is elected, especially with more Democrats elected to the House and Senate with her. Additionally, if an increase in benefits were financed in whole or part by a Wall Street transaction tax, we would draw a stark contrast with Republicans on both ends of the trade where Democrats have the high ground and Republicans are vulnerable. We support social security in ways they do not; we will finance this in a way that ask Wall Street to do their fair share in an age where there is great wealth on Wall Street and a need for economic fairness. This can but need not be accompanied with populist anti-Wall Street rhetoric, that is a political call. Res ipsa loquitur, the thing will speak for itself, they want to privatize social security and turn it into a new Wall Street profit center; we want to protect Social Security and increase benefits for poor and middle class recipients. 5. Senior voters. Democrats have developed a growing weakness with senior voters that this would directly address. And again I would emphasize that a majority of these beneficiaries are women, who simply live longer than men, and begin with a baseline of having worked for wages that were unequal in most cases for their entire careers while they were working. Politics and policies are both about choices. These are the choices I would recommend for HRC. Brent Sent from my iPad Delivered-To: [email protected] Received: by 10.25.43.136 with SMTP id r130csp375428lfr; Sat, 5 Sep 2015 04:06:15 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.202.220.86 with SMTP id t83mr6929334oig.24.1441451174946; Sat, 05 Sep 2015 04:06:14 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from SNT004-OMC2S7.hotmail.com (snt004-omc2s7.hotmail.com. [65.55.90.82]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id p18si3696634oem.32.2015.09.05.04.06.13 for <[email protected]> (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128/128); Sat, 05 Sep 2015 04:06:14 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 65.55.90.82 as permitted sender) client-ip=65.55.90.82; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of [email protected] designates 65.55.90.82 as permitted sender) [email protected] Received: from SNT404-EAS41 ([65.55.90.73]) by SNT004-OMC2S7.hotmail.com over TLS secured channel with Microsoft SMTPSVC(7.5.7601.23008); Sat, 5 Sep 2015 04:06:13 -0700 X-TMN: [RiSc5hSES+2HZHrb+5+R2uH/IeBiwPdo] X-Originating-Email: [[email protected]] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Return-Path: [email protected] Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable From: Brent Budowsky <[email protected]> MIME-Version: 1.0 (1.0) Subject: HRC and Social Security Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2015 07:06:12 -0400 To: John Podesta <[email protected]> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Sep 2015 11:06:13.0718 (UTC) FILETIME=[E0F30F60:01D0E7CA] For a variety of economic, social and political reasons I would suggest that= HRC support an increase in social security benefits for recipients below a certa= in net worth threshold, and finance it by a combination of a small tax on Wall Stre= et trades, and if necessary a graduated increase in the social security tax for those e= arning above a certain income. Sometime soon I will write a column suggesting this= and wanted to give you a heads-up and suggest HRC advocate this.=20 In brief: 1. Economic and social reasons: Seniors living on fixed incomes are among t= he most hard-pressed groups in America today. Their interest bearing yields on= bank accounts, etc. lag far behind the real cost of living increases and their So= cial Security COLA's have been lagging behind the real inflation rate for many years, leav= ing them falling further and further behind. I would emphasize that a majority of seniors who would benefit from a social= security increase are women, because they live longer, and because in most cases for t= heir entire working careers they were receiving unequal pay compared to men while= they were paying into the system. HRC and most politicians do not appreciate the severity of this from the poi= nt of view of poor and middle income seniors. They do not have a real-life or int= uitive understanding of what it is like to pay ever-rising costs of groceries, and m= edicine that is not covered by insurance, and other necessities whose prices= rise while fixed incomes decline in relative terms, because they are either= wealthy and/or live in worlds inhabited without much daily interaction with fixed income seniors strugglin= g with this in their daily lives. An increase in social security benefits financed as I suggest would have a n= et stimulative effect to the economy and increasing economic equality and socia= l equity. 2. Financing: I like the idea of a small tax on Wall Street transactions wh= ich would raise substantial revenue without imposing material hardship on traders. Be= rnie has proposed this, to use the money for his free public college proposal. T= he problem with the free public college proposal, which I like in principle, is that i= t is virtually impossible to adequately restrain tuition costs, which needs to be done, but= without doing this the transaction-tax-for-tuition trade would largely subsidize hig= her tuition and detracting from the benefit to students. By contrast, a transaction tax whose revenues went into the social security f= und to fund an increase in social security benefits would be a straight trade that w= ould support higher benefits. To address a legitimate issue, a combination of so= me means testing plus the transaction tax could enable this formula to strength= en long term social security financing while simultaneously financing some incr= ease in benefits. We could simply take the revenue gain from the transaction tax= plus the social security financing gain from the means test and divide the financ= ing gains between one part increase benefits and the other part enhancing the st= ability of the system. 3. Democratic politics. Right now Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and som= e other progressives support increasing benefits. I agree with them on princi= ple and policy and would advise HRC to join and potentially lead this. This would r= ally the Democratic base, divert some attention from you-know-what, and be the ki= nd of initiatives Democrats should pursue for Democratic principles behind a hi= ghly popular Democratic government program that we should aggressively champion, and not defensively back away from. When I write this column, if HRC opposes this, I would simply agree with Ber= nie and Elizabeth supporting it and would not mention HRC either way. If HRC su= pports this I would banner and give high praise to her leadership. 4. Democratic-Republican politics: I do not believe it is enough to merely= repeat that we oppose Republicans who want to cut social security. That is fine as= far as it goes, but is timid and stale and tends to ring like demagoguery and do= es not ring man bells with seniors because they have heard it before and we are mer= ely arguing against a negative event that they know is unlikely in fact to happe= n. By contrast, a call for an increase in social benefits would resonate with v= oters because it would involve a specific amount for the proposed increase that al= l=20 seniors would immediately understand, view as directly improving their lives= in measurable ways, and serve as one motivating issue for a potential mandat= e election that would have an outstanding chance of being enacted if HRC is el= ected, especially with more Democrats elected to the House and Senate with her. Additionally, if an increase in benefits were financed in whole or part by a= Wall Street transaction tax, we would draw a stark contrast with Republicans on b= oth ends of the trade where Democrats have the high ground and Republicans are vulnerable. We support social security in ways they do not; we will finance= this in a way that ask Wall Street to do their fair share in an age where there is g= reat wealth on Wall Street and a need for economic fairness. This can but need not be accompanied with populist anti-Wall Street rhetoric= , that is a political call. Res ipsa loquitur, the thing will speak for itsel= f, they want to privatize social security and turn it into a new Wall Street profit cente= r; we want to protect Social Security and increase benefits for poor and middle class r= ecipients.=20 5. Senior voters. Democrats have developed a growing weakness with senior voters that this would directly address. And again I would emphasize that a= majority of these beneficiaries are women, who simply live longer than men, and begin= with a baseline of having worked for wages that were unequal in most cases for th= eir entire careers while they were working. Politics and policies are both about choices. These are the choices I would= recommend for HRC. Brent Sent from my iPad=