Read on Twitter
Another part of Bruce Reed’s career the Biden transition seems intent on memory holing is his work with the Simpson-Bowles commission - their goal was to create an austerity agenda both Obama and the Tea Party
Reed was “lead author” of their final report, let’s see what it says!
Reed was “lead author” of their final report, let’s see what it says!
Here’s the “guiding values” of the document. 6 of the 10 points are variations of
1. We need to cut taxes
2. We need to cut spending everywhere
3. We specifically need to cut government
4. We have to cut social security and medicare for everyone and they need to suck it up
1. We need to cut taxes
2. We need to cut spending everywhere
3. We specifically need to cut government
4. We have to cut social security and medicare for everyone and they need to suck it up
Initial recommendation are pretty standard Republican stuff - we need to cut congress and the WH (how much is Reed being paid I wonder?), cut federal workers, and freeze pay for everyone but the literal troops
Here’s the plan for Medicare & Medicaid. Pretty much identical to anything Seema Verma cooked up
Cut benefits for seniors, force them to pay more cost sharing, more state waivers for Medicaid, and achieving a global budget by changing Medicare to premium support (the Ryan plan)
Cut benefits for seniors, force them to pay more cost sharing, more state waivers for Medicaid, and achieving a global budget by changing Medicare to premium support (the Ryan plan)
Onto Social Security - it looks complicated but effectively it cuts benefits for everyone but the poorest, increases the retirement age, and decreases COLAs.
In Bruce’s words, “Middle-income earners who are able to work will need to do so a little longer.”
In Bruce’s words, “Middle-income earners who are able to work will need to do so a little longer.”
Based on their own model, everyone but the bottom quintile of earners sees a cut from this plan
(I do want to highlight this bit because I like it - put state and local workers back in Social Security! Stop making local government cover their full retirements!)
This is an absolutely hilarious recommendation though - ‘make it clear to people it’s not the governments job to take care of them”
I also want to shout this out because now everyone loves UI triggers.
Here’s why Bruce likes them - otherwise we might accidentally “provide too much stimulus after the recovery has begun.”
Unemployment was around 10%.
(Triggers also punish those least able to find work)
Here’s why Bruce likes them - otherwise we might accidentally “provide too much stimulus after the recovery has begun.”
Unemployment was around 10%.
(Triggers also punish those least able to find work)
Imagine, worrying about giving too much money to the unemployed after the great financial crisis!
Can’t wait to see what Bruce has in store next
Can’t wait to see what Bruce has in store next
Oh man how could I forget their plan to force the government to charge people more for electricity, increase fees on everything, and make the post office cut service days and shut down locations
TLDR: Bruce Reed wanted to cut social security and Medicare for seniors, cut Medicaid for the poor, cut taxes for the rich (some offsets admittedly), make you pay more any time you touch the government, raise your electric bill - and now he has the chance to do it again!
