Social Insecurity

An article from the LA Times about Chile's privatized social security plan: "The government "painted this wonderful picture of private accounts," Pardo said. "They fooled me. They fooled us all."
Chile switched to private accounts in 1981, along with about two dozen other countries. After some initial success, people are starting to fall through the cracks; either they got into the government-promoted system too late, or they have lost extensive and sizeable amounts of money to high management fees. [LA Times]
Here is Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) plan. [Rockefeller]

Pushing the conservative agenda: "Corporate America, the financial services industry, conservative think tanks, much of the Washington trade association community, the Republican Party and GOP lobbyists and consultants are prepared to spend $200 million or more to influence the outcome of two of the toughest legislative fights in recent memory." [WP]

Here's David Sirota's take on the "class action sellouts."
I can't believe that Obama voted for this either...WTF!?! [Sirota] [Kos]

Budget cuts: "In the new list, the president asked legislators to eliminate programs worth $4.3 billion from education, $1 billion from health and $1.5 billion from law enforcement. Reductions include cuts totaling $2.5 billion from agriculture, $690 million from health and $470 million from housing."
That's right, keep America dumb, sick, and without protection. [Seattle]