Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, November 18, 2010

The pleasure of inflicting pain on the unserious

By Dave Anderson:


There are two major elite driven deficit reduction commissions with proposals to 'reform' or loot Social Security.  Both commissions seem to enjoy inflicting unneccessary and needless pain on the elderly, or at least the not quite voting on anything and everything near elderly. 


The first proposal is from Simpson-Bowles.  Note the size of the shortfall closed...


Bowles Simpson SS


The benefit cuts and tax increases under this plan would be larger than neccessary to close the 75 year acturial gap. This might not be too surprising considering the plan is formulated by a Blue Dog Democrat and a standard issue conservative Republican who dislikes the New Deal. 


However, the other plan is advanced by Rivlin-Domenici, and Rivlin has a reputation of not being a Blue-Dog.  One might expect the long term plan advanced by this "serious" team would not include Social Security overkill. One would be wrong, as Bruce Webb at Angry Bear summarizes the Social Security Administration's scoring of their proposal:


the results are very similar to the Simpson-Bowles Plan with the bottom line being a 75 year improvement in actuarial balance of 2.48% in the face of a current imbalance of 2.01%, that is there is a certain amount of over-kill if the problem is considered simply as one of solvency.


This proposal would have a 24% overkill in additional tax increases and benefit cuts if the proposal was actually seeking to 'solve' the solvency problem. 


It seems like our elites get off on inflicting pain on the ritually helpless.  As long as there is a safe word between consenting adults in a private residence, I have no problem with that, but as a matter of public policy, this is sick and wrong. 



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