And right on schedule here's Dennis, playing his role of "principled voice in the wilderness" at the last moment before the game is lost. He did it with health care, he did it with the original bailout, and he'll do it with this new "debt ceiling" corporate "crisis" and shafting of the country.

Hey, thanks a lot Dennis. Why don't you tell us why you're still in that party, a party that has been instrumental in foisting all of this on America? Do you do it for the money? To get your face on TV? For a little "prestige"? To take flights on Air Force One? Who do you think at this point should believe you're anything more than a shill for a corrupt and failed party, seducing well-meaning people with your rhetoric into placing their trust in a phony corporate bear-trap of a party that you count yourself a member of?

Not increasing the debt ceiling does not automatically mean that people will not get their SS checks. We must pay our debts first which mean we must pay the interest on all US Treasuries. The Social Security Trust Fund holds a large amount of these bonds and uses this to pay the SS checks. After Treasuries and Social Security priority of paying the other obligations becomes the responsibility of the Sec of Treasury. He will make the decision on who does not get paid. Not increasing the debt ceiling only means no increase in the debt ceiling. We still have taxes coming in and can need to decide what obligations to pay and which to drop. Some of the things we could drop include foreign aid, some major weapon systems projects, eliminate unnecessary spending, close some of the 300+ military bases located in other countries, etc. We have sufficient revenue. We just need to better identify our spending priorities and not attempt to satisify everyone. Just like every family we must learn to live within our budget and not keep borrowing money from the rich bankers.

Dennis: Impeach. Or shut up. Those are the only two morally tenable options.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION THAT WOULD PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY INTO PERPETUITY By John Bachar The analysis of Social Security (SS), not to be found anywhere else, for the 16 year period, 1993 through 2008, has been done. The central result is that easy structural changes can be made to the SS taxation system by an act of Congress that will easily provide for sufficient annual contributions and Trust Fund assets growth to take care of the retirement needs of the increasingly aging population into perpetuity, as well as the replacement of the existing 73-year old regressive SS taxation system (only salaries/wages are taxed below a certain amount called the “cap”) by a progressive one (i.e., the taxation of all income, not merely salaries/wages, at a rate that increases with increasing income), and without reducing retirement benefits nor increasing the retirement age. Please click on: 1. Complete analytical version (November 2010) http://www.absentlinks.com/uploads/6/6/4/2/6642350/four_analytical_paper... 2. Comprehensive updated version without analytical tables (July 2010) http://www.absentlinks.com/uploads/6/6/4/2/6642350/july_2011_comprehensi... 3. Comprehensive updated version with analytical tables (July 2010) http://www.absentlinks.com/uploads/6/6/4/2/6642350/july_2011_with_tables... 4. Brief version http://www.absentlinks.com/uploads/6/6/4/2/6642350/social_security_taxat... John M. Bachar, Jr. Emeritus Professor of Mathematics California State University Long Beach (CSULB) Bio I am a Mathematician with a 50+ year record of research and university teaching (to summarize; Ph.D. UCLA, 1969; M.S. Northwestern University, 1955; 36 years teaching at CSULB; dozens of research conferences; director of research conferences; research papers). In addition to the world of pure mathematics in academia, I have analyzed and written about dozens of issues that are in the Public Interest, with particular emphasis on the inherent mathematical content of such issues.

At least Kucinich, like Bernie Sanders, speaks up. The democratic members of Congress in our state are rarely in the news and certainly not on the subjects that Kucinich addresses, much less in the same direction...

I sing the same song. Do not mess with SSA/Medicare. If you do every senior citizen and recipient will be hurt never mind the working class of this Country. Remember Democrats/Republicans/Men/Women and their dependents receive benefits. You may not like it but do not junk it. Do not listen to the detractors.

Sorry, but I do not consider Kucinich, the 'unflinching' Obama supporter, to be an 'unflinching (defender) of senior citizens and Social Security from those who would pay off the debt by creating economic insecurity for our seniors'.

Obama is a Manchurian Candidate, a Trojan Horse, we all have been duped.