Between The Lines - Eric Kingson: Progressives Organize to Oppose Obama Budget that Would Cut Social Security and Medicare Benefits (Week Ending April 19, 2013)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

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Progressives Organize to Stop President Obama's Proposed Social Security and Medicare Benefit Cuts

RealAudio MP3

Posted April 10, 2013

Interview with Eric Kingson, co-director of the Strengthen Social Security campaign, conducted by Scott Harris

President Obama’s proposed federal budget that was unveiled on April 10, provoked the ire of many progressive groups that had supported him in his last two presidential election campaigns. The flashpoint for anger, and in some cases charges of betrayal, sprang from the White House plan to impose changes to the Social Security system’s cost of living adjustment formula, known as “Chained CPI,” reducing benefits totaling $100 billion or more over 10 years. The president is also calling for $400 billion in unspecified cost savings from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which assist both senior citizens and the poor and disabled.

A day before the budget was to be announced, progressive legislators from the House and Senate joined by organizers from 15 national organizations, gathered in front of the White House to present two million petition signatures opposed to Obama’s proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits. Many activists who are gearing up for a fight against the entitlement program cuts point to public opinion polls that overwhelmingly find that Democrats, Republicans and Independent voters oppose any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

White House Spokesman Dan Pfeiffer told reporters that the president only supports reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits if the Republicans in Congress accept closing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthiest, and there are protections for the most vulnerable, including the oldest seniors. But opponents of the White House compromise offer to the GOP say that the very groups who worked hardest to re-elect the president will be the ones hurt most by the cuts being proposed. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Eric Kingson, co-director of the Strengthen Social Security campaign, who explains why his coalition of 300 national and state organizations representing over 50 million Americans oppose President Obama’s proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

ERIC KINGSON: The proposal that's being put forward, first and foremost must be understood as a cut, c-u-t. It's called the chained CPI. You would change the way the cost of living adjustment is made in Social Security on an annual basis. It sounds innocuous, it sounds very wonky. There's some wonks who have lined up and have said this is a better way to measure inflation.

But the reality is, what it means is it cuts the cost-of-living adjustment each year by three-tenths of a percentage point. Over 10 years, that means that year 10, if you have a 65-year-old grandfather retiring today, in year 10, on average that grandfather or grandmother would be receiving about $700 less in that year. In year 20, when they're 85, they would receive about $1200 years less. In year 30, if they reach 95, about $1700 less.

What's most concerning is, well there are a number of things. The language that's used, they call this a "little tweak." This is "just a little tweak in benefits." This is not a tweak. This is $28,000 if you live to the age 95 out of the pockets of beneficiaries.

They also have said very, very clearly in the presidential campaign, the congressional campaigns, the president has said he will not slash benefits. This goes against that promise. Almost all politicians have said they will not cut benefits on people 55 and over. This goes against that promise, and it does it in a disingenuous way. They try to sell this notion that inflation is over-protected in Social Security with the cost-of-living adjustment. They're trying to say is that people with disabilities, older people, veterans – many of whom receive Social Security – they've been getting too large a cost-of-living adjustment. This past year, they got a 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment. Meanwhile, their Medicare premium goes up. Their health care costs go up. So they're saying that 1.7 percent is too much. A couple of years ago, they got nothing. They're saying that was "too much."

BETWEEN THE LINES: Eric, there are many defenders of the president who say that this part of political theater. That people on the left, progressives shouldn't get too upset because the president is playing three-dimensional chess while we're all playing checkers. How do you respond to the idea that there's some kind of wisdom in this strategy of offering these benefits cuts to Social Security and Medicare and some better purpose that's unspoken?

ERIC KINGSON: Well if that is the case, they're being "too smart" by half. They're destroying the public's confidence in the system. A part of Social Security is to provide security. The purpose of it - it is there to provide broad security to the American public if people lose wages because of a parent dying, a parent becoming disabled, the spouse becoming disabled, or you reach retirement ages.

Part of what it does is provide piece of mind. If the president is doing this in a disingenuous way, and I hope that's not the case. I hope he's being forthright and saying this is what I believe, because I think it's what he believes. I'd certainly read a lot of what the Republicans want. If he's doing this for political purposes, then he's gambling with the well-being of this institution, and he's playing a cruel joke on the American people. Yes, he's been using this as a bargaining chip certainly to get Republicans to play a little bit on raising some taxes as they should well do.

But, you don't need to do this. He has his own secretary of the Treasury. Jack Lew has made it clear in an op-ed I think was in USA Today, saying that Social Security has nothing to do with the federal deficit and the federal debt. Three-dimensional chess may be a fine game, but not when you're playing with people's lives.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Eric, are you concerned that the GOP, which has rejected this offer of benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare before since negotiations began in the summer of 2011 from the White House, that they may accept it this time and call the president's bluff and press hard to get this done to make these cuts?

ERIC KINGSON: It's possible. I would put it another way. What is more likely to happen is that the GOP will try to hang this proposal around the White House and all congressional Democrats who are up for election in 2014. The president doesn't have to run for re-election again. But many members of his party do have to run. And they will be running at their peril if they support any kind of cut to the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment). And even if they don't support a cut, I'm going to guess that the Republicans are going to talk about the Democratic proposal to cut your Social Security benefit.

Learn more about the Strengthen Social Security campaign’s work to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid at StrengthenSocialSecurity.org.