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      alan greenspan

      Bernie Sanders Wants to Expand Social Security

      Bernie Sanders Wants to Expand Social Security

      Social Security is critical for massive numbers of Americans, yet many Republicans and Democrats have wanted to destroy it. Today, Bernie Sanders introduced new legislation to strengthen the program by taxing the rich

      Heather Gautney
      Feb 13, 2019

      Social Security was signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s to guarantee workers and their families an income if they retire, become disabled, or if a breadwinner dies. At the time, Republicans and conservative Democratic lawmakers disparaged the legislation as "socialist," and the American Bar Association and US Chamber of Commerce decried it as an attempt to "Sovietize the country."

      Today, Social Security plays a major role in safeguarding tens of millions of people from destitution--not just people over the age of sixty-five, but millions of children too. It is by far the most significant anti-poverty program in the country. Which is why Vermont senator Bernie Sandershas introduced the "Social Security Expansion Act" to expand Social Security by requiring the wealthy to contribute more equitably to our public retirement system and preventing them from exploiting it for personal gain.

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      Opinion
      The Party of Ideas

      The Party of Ideas

      A pity they're all crackpot ideas.

      Mike Lofgren
      Dec 26, 2018

      I recently attended a conference at the Niskanen Center. It was a think tank gabfest at which the participants were disillusioned conservatives hoping to chart a course toward a saner political center-right. Jonathan Chait did a near-ecstatic write-up of the meeting and its promise of a conservative movement with fewer XYY chromosomes. Jeet Heer was less optimistic.

      "These are but a few of the crackpot nostrums peddled by conservatives in their supposed intellectual golden age."

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      Opinion
      The Future of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid Is on the Ballot This November

      The Future of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid Is on the Ballot This November

      Right-wing extremists have never been subtle about their goal to eliminate all three programs

      Nancy J. Altman
      Oct 17, 2018

      Everyone who cares about their Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid needs to vote on November 6. If Republican politicians and the donors who own them retain full control of Congress, they are determined to finally succeed in their longstanding goal of ending all three programs.

      Right-wing extremists have never been subtle about that goal. As the fight over President George W. Bush's 2005 proposal to privatize Social Security was heating up, a leaked memorandum from Bush's director of strategic initiatives, dated January 3, 2005, and marked "not for attribution," put the fight over the program in context: "this will be one of the most important conservative undertakings of modern times." If that weren't clear enough, the memorandum concluded with a startling and refreshingly frank assessment: "For the first time in six decades, the Social Security battle is one we can win."

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      Opinion
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