Yeah, I didn’t think it was possible, not after the president’s too Obama to live statements on the Orlando Massacre, repeating vague calls for gun control measures that would not have prevented the killings and refusing to acknowledge murderer Omar Mateen’s shout out to ISIS. I mean, what’s in a name, anyway?
Yeah, I’d had it up to here with Obamaman, but then the WashPost’s self-appointed economic scold Bob Samuelson, who isn’t always wrong, had to spoil my day by launching an entirely unjustified attack on the president regarding Social Security. Pivoting off the president’s support for expanding Social Security, which I agree is not necessarily a good idea, Bob tells us first of all how rich us geezers are, which is not necessarily true. According to the Social Security Administration itself, “Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 22% of married couples and about 47% of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.” And since the average benefit is only $1,335 a month, not every geezer is rolling in cash.
Yeah, Bob could have been more evenhanded in his description of the situation, but the real kicker comes when he gets off this one-liner (well, actually a paragraph): “Only the president can challenge outdated ideas. Obama didn’t do so. He has not used the “bully pulpit” to educate the public about the demands of an aging society: the pressures on government budgets; the need for Americans to work longer, accommodating greater life expectancy; the conflicts between generations.”
Yeah, I guess Bob was, I don’t know, lying drunk in an alley for the past six years while the president periodically begged a Republican-dominated Congress to help him cut entitlements, only to get pissed on and spat upon for his pains. Yeah (or “yes”), only the president can solve all our problems for us. If only Obama would just get in there and twist a few arms and smooth and schmooze a few egos, à la Lyndon “got us into Vietnam” Johnson and Bill “got himself impeached” Clinton, everything would be Nirvana.
Bob, President Obama did cut Medicare entitlements in his first year in office, and got the most rip-roaringist “don’t cut a dime of Grandma’s Medicare” Republican Congress you ever saw. The simple fact is, we live in a democracy, and a solid majority of the American people want subsidized health and retirement benefits for the middle (and upper) class, bless their greedy little hearts, no matter how much rich folks like you deplore it. You should be blaming everyone but President Obama for the current situation.
