GP RELEASE Greens: Summit on Obama's 'Catfood Commission' reveals bipartisan intention to gut Americans' financial security‏

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
 
For Immediate Release:
Monday, May 21, 2012
 
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
 
 
Green Party urges citizens to protest revived Simpson-Bowles plans to
gut financial security for working people
 
• Bill Clinton, House Speaker Boehner, and other participants push for
Simpson-Bowles austerity measures at summit in DC; Greens offer
alternatives to recommendations by Obama's 'Catfood Commission'
 
• 2012 Green Presidential Nominating Convention, July 12-15 in
Baltimore, Md. http://www.gpconvention2012.com
Media Credentialing page http://www.gpconvention2012.com/p/media.html
 
• Video of Green Party presidential candidates' forum, May 12 in San
Francisco with Jill Stein and Roseanne Barr:
http://www.gp.org/video/display.php?ID=106
 
 
WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party candidates and leaders said today that
bipartisan politicians supporting President Obama's Simpson-Bowles
Commission are targeting working Americans' job security, wages,
benefits, Social Security, Medicare, education, student loans, and
other necessities.
 
The Simpson-Bowles Commission (National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, nicknamed 'Catfood Commission' because of
its recommendations for scaling back Social Security) was established
by President Obama to plan his administration's economic policies.
 
A bipartisan summit to promote the Simpson-Bowles recommendations was
held in Washington, DC last week, sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson
Foundation, named for the co-founder of the private-equity firm
Blackstone Group LP
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/16/bloomberg_articlesM42GOS07SXKX01-M44OI.DTL).
Participating in the summit, which has received little media coverage,
were former President Bill Clinton (D), Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner, House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R), and House
Speaker John Boehner (R).
 
"President Obama's 'Catfood Commission' wants to impose the kind of
austerity on middle-income and low-income families in the US that
citizens in Iceland and Greece angrily rejected," said Colin Beavan,
PhD, Green Party candidate for the US House in Central Brooklyn, New
York's 8th Congressional District (http://www.votecolin.org). "The
focus of the commission is on solving the deficit by cutting services
and job protections, rather than on creating jobs, which would
stimulate the US economy and assist millions of Americans facing
hardship. They also intend to reform the tax code, which means tax
cuts for top corporations and the one percent, starving the economy
even more."
 
The Green Party has urged Congress to reject the commission's
recommenations and has promoted alternative plans to boost the economy
and create millions of new jobs, with Green candidates endorsing the
'Green New Deal', first introduced in 2010
(http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/08/11/62-green-candidates-endorse-green-new-deal/).
 
Greens, including presidential candidates Roseanne Barr, Kent Mesplay,
and Jill Stein, have participated in the Occupy Movement's protests
against Wall Street power, privilege, and virtual impunity for
criminal fraud. Greens said that the Obama Administration's alarming
enlistment of the Homeland Security Department and military apparatus
in civil police suppression of Occupy protests
(http://www.nationofchange.org/white-house-dems-back-banks-over-protests-newly-discovered-homeland-security-files-show-feds-central)
hints that the federal government anticipates more widespread unrest
in reaction to austerity measures, if enacted.
 
"The participation of Bill Clinton in the summit signals that the
Obama Administration has adopted much of the GOP economic agenda. The
Clinton White House discarded the Democrats' traditional platform and
signed on to NAFTA, Welfare Reform, and concentrated media ownership
in the 1996 Telecommunications Act. When Clinton signed the Commodity
Futures Modernization Act and repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, he
helped enable the Wall Street abuses that caused the severe 2008
recession," said Barry Hermanson, Green candidate for Congress in San
Francisco (http://www.barryhermanson.org).
 
"Obama is following in the footsteps of his Democratic predecessor.
Social Security and Medicare are on the chopping block -- because of
President Obama, a Democrat," said Mr. Hermanson.
 
Greens said that too many Americans are giving President Obama and
other Democrats a pass during the 2012 election year for their
capitulations and abandonment of working Americans. Anger continues
against Republican Governor Scott Walker's attacks on public sector
jobs, benefits, and organizing rights in Wisconsin, while Democratic
Governor Andrew Cuomo's similar attacks on New York's public employees
have been mostly ignored
(http://www.howiehawkins.com/2010/media-releases/476-green-party-says-cuomo-fiscal-plan-recycles-failed-policies.html).
 
See also:
 
"Bill Clinton Advises Obama to Talk More About Deficit Reduction"
ABC News, May 15, 2012
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/bill-clinton-advises-obama-to-talk-more-about-deficit-reduction/
 
"Bill Clinton, Boehner and Some Other Rich White Guys Had a 'Summit'
and Agreed: It's Your Fault"
By Richard (RJ) Eskow, The Huffington Post, May 16, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/bill-clinton-boehner-and_b_1520025.html
 
"Simpson-Bowles Zombie Returns"
By Dave Johnson, The Huffington Post, April 18, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/simpson-bowles-zombie-ret_b_1435989.html
 
"Green Party urges rejection of proposal by Obama's Fiscal
Responsibility Commission to scale back Social Security and Medicare"
Green Party press release, November 30, 2012
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=370
 
 
MORE INFORMATION
 
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
• 2012 Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention, July 12-15 in
Baltimore, Md. http://www.gpconvention2012.com
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php
• Green Papers http://www.greenpapers.net
• Google+ http://www.gp.org/google
• Twitter http://twitter.com/gpus
• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• GP-TV Twitter page http://www.gp.org/twitter
• Facebook page http://www.gp.org/facebook
 
Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog
 
 
~ END ~