I thought when Barack Obama got elected we were getting a new kind of Democrat. Hope? Change? Not so much. When Obama hitches his wagon to the curmudgeonly octogenarian Alan "Cow Teat" Simpson's proposals for Social Security reform, you know it's just more of the same: solutions aimed at protecting the riches of the wealthy without any regard for the exigencies of the needy. So let's all say it together, "Raising the retirement age doesn't help blue-collar workers." Pounding nails, waiting tables and mowing lawns at age 70 sucks.
Raising the retirement age is the equivalent of an across-the-board cut in benefits. Since the poor and working class tend to die earlier than the upper middle class and the wealthy, it is a cut that will hit the poor the hardest. They also tend to have jobs that are more physically demanding. It is one thing for a lawyer (or an equity strategist) to continue working until age 67 or even 75; it is quite another for a coal miner to continue working at that age.
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