Why Progressives Shouldn't Fall For the Deficit Reduction Trap

By James K. Galbraith, AlterNet
Posted on January 26, 2010, Printed on January 26, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145401/

Shockingly, President Obama has announced his support for a commission whose purpose is to ramrod Social Security and Medicare cuts through Congress. Thinly disguised as a program for "deficit reduction," the proposed commission will meet its first test today, when the Senate may vote to authorize it as part of a bill to raise the national debt ceiling. A large progressive coalition is already on record against it. But the progressives' case is flawed; it's not tough enough. Here's why.