I knew it....

Is Obama About to Sell Us Out on Social Security? The Political Fallout Would Be Devastating

Obama has signaled that he might include Social Security cuts as part of a grand deficit-reduction deal. If that occurs, expect civil war among the Democrats.

The post at AlterNet where you can read it all.....

When the right congratulates Obama for winning, you know he is losing. For starters, the proposed compromise isn't much of an economic stimulus. If the deal passes Congress, taxpayers will be paying the same income tax rates in 2011 and 2012 as in 2010. No stimulus there.

The only real stimulus is the temporary cut in Social Security taxes, the extension of unemployment insurance plus a few minor tax breaks for regular people, totaling about $200 billion. That's a little more than one percent of a $15 trillion economy. Pretty puny, certainly a lot smaller than the inadequate stimulus of February 2009 when the recession was only beginning to deepen.

Except for the extension of unemployment insurance, which should be done out of common decency, most of the "stimulus" is pure Republican ideology -- stimulate the economy by cutting taxes. If that had worked, the huge tax cuts of the Bush years would have kept the economy out of recession.

A Democratic president with strong progressive principles and political nerve would have taken his party into the mid-term election pledging never to cut Social Security and daring Republicans to take a similar pledge. Instead, Obama appointed a deficit commission with a majority of appointees wanting to cut the Democrats' signature program -- thus blurring party differences on the Democrats' biggest political winner.

I used to be an optimistic person, believing the Democratic Party was the party for middle America. I feel myself turning into a cynical, fearmongering doom and gloomer and I HATE IT! But what are we supposed to think when we read things like this article? All you need to do is look at this Obama/ McConnell tax cut bill to see the GOP destruction that is about to happen. It feels very much like President Obama knows what kind of deal he struck and it all really doesn't matter.....

Bush-era tax cuts extended for the rich,  payroll tax reduction; estate tax exemption level at $5 million, unemployment benefits extensions that do not help the 99ers.....the wool has been pulled over our heads.