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We've written about this over and over again here at C&L and what a bad idea it is to be calling for the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare to be raised -- how it just inflicts pain on the poor at a time of record income disparity. Not to mention the fact that there are other ways to address our debt and deficits other than attacking our social safety nets! It was nice to see Ezra Klein once again give some grief to the wealthy CEOs and pundits out there who have downplayed just how damaging these policies are for anyone who actually works for a living and is not sitting in some cushy, over-paid job. They don't care when or if they retire because they love their jobs.

Meanwhile, working people are in so much pain from the hard work they do, they take a big hit on their benefits to retire early.

For anyone that missed the segment, you can check that out here: Ezra Klein: Raising Social Security Retirement Age Concentrates Pain on the Poor.

Klein discussed the recent news that CEOs and The Business Roundtable are pushing to have the retirement ages raised to 70, but don't want the income cap raised on Social Security, because heaven forbid we do anything to harm those uber-wealthy "job creators." As Klein notes, while they didn't mind pushing for those with much lower incomes to take a big hit on their retirement benefits, the wealthiest among us aren't willing to share in that sacrifice themselves. They're drawing the line when it comes to raising their own Social Security taxes as Reuters reported:

But the group rejected shoring up Social Security by making incomes above the maximum annual threshold - which in 2012 was $110,100 - subject to payroll taxes, saying that would hurt the economy.

"You would have to raise the base upon which the taxes are applied very substantially to drive a sufficient level of revenue to address the long-term solvency of the program," Loveman said.

"That would be far more damaging to economic growth than what we're asking people to consider," he added. "If you raise the tax rate on people who earn over the current threshold, you'll have an immediate deleterious effect on employment and economic activity."

I was very happy to hear the way Klein followed up on this:

KLEIN: So if you're a CEO who makes maybe $1 million, you're only taxed for Social Security on first tenth, tenth of your income. If you're making $60,000 a year, a normal worker, every one of your $60,000 is taxed for Social Security. And this is the kind of thing, it just drives me crazy. Because you know what the flip side of these guys loving their jobs and never, ever, ever wanting to leave, not even when they're old and their back hurts and they've got lots of grand kids is and the money to take all those grand kids to an island?

They're also not going to stop being CEO of Caesar's because they're paying payroll taxes on more of their income, because they love their jobs. But that is the shell game that gets played here. Folks at the top have convinced themselves that things that won't hurt them at all like raising the retirement age are easy, no brainers, because they won't hurt anybody at all. They're just common sense.

And then they've also convinced themselves that things that will hurt them, will devastate the economy. So when they're saying no to paying higher taxes, they're not being selfish, they're just protecting jobs and growth. As Upton Sinclair liked to say, it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on him not understanding it.

Groups like The Business Roundtable, they have a big voice and they like to quote themselves in the economy and argue that what they say and what they do are informed and driven by just wanting what is best for jobs and for growth and for their company. But it seems to often come down to what is best for the CEOs. It is good to be on the top.

Sadly, yes it is. And those on top seem to be more and more detached from the lives of everyday Americans as the rest of us face those realities on a day-to-day basis. Segments like this one with Klein calling them out for it on cable television unfortunately are all too rare an occurrence these days.

You can read more about this push to raise the retirement age at Klein's blog here: CEOs want to raise the retirement age to 70,

And here's more from Think Progress: Wealthy CEOs Want To Force Americans To Retire Later.

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Ezra Klein, filling in for MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell this Tuesday evening, ended this segment responding to Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein's assertion that the Social Security retirement age should be raised with a question that we all already know the answer to:

KLEIN: [A]ll these folks who like to talk about raising the Social Security retirement age as if it's a complete no-brainer, they need to think harder about why they have settled on the single cut to Social Security that will concentrate its pain on people who are poor, who haven't fully shared in the remarkable increase in life expectancy and who really don't like going to their jobs every day. Why are they the people who should sacrifice the most on Social Security?

Because they haven't bought the politicians, who as Klein noted, too often are more than happy to stay at their jobs until they drop dead, unlike most Americans out there.

I just want to thank Ezra Klein for saying on television what way too few of his fellow pundits are willing to say out loud. Raising the age equals a cut in benefits for the poor and those who work physical jobs that most people just cannot continue working as we get older and our health declines, and for advocating that the cap be lifted. And for pointing out again what he wrote in his article at The Washington Post last month -- There’s nothing ‘courageous’ about raising the Social Security retirement age.

Here's what Blankfein told CBS's Scott Pelley:

BLANKFEIN: You're going to have to undoubtedly do something to lower people's expectations -- the entitlements and what people think that they're going to get, because it's not going to -- they're not going to get it.

PELLEY: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?

BLANKFEIN: You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn't devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career. ... So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.

PELLEY: Because we can't afford them going forward?

BLANKFEIN: Because we can't afford them.

We wondered whether he thinks the government needs more revenue in the form of higher taxes.

BLANKFEIN: In the long run, there has to be more revenue. And, of course, the burden of that revenue will be disproportionately taken up by wealthier people. That's just logical.

PELLEY: So higher taxes on wealthier people?

BLANKFEIN: More taxes on wealthier people, to the extent that we need to raise more revenue, and we do need to raise some more revenue.

PELLEY: Why is an increase in revenue, in tax money, necessary? Why can't you just cut your way out of the deficit?

BLANKFEIN: For sure certain people in this country wouldn't like the society you would have if you did that, and personally, I don't think I would like it either, if we went as far as to close our entire budget deficit in that way.

PELLEY: What kind of society would it be?

BLANKFEIN: I think it would be one where the safety net would be more porous and lower to the ground.

Rough transcript of Klein's full response below the fold.

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From The Colbert Report April 27, 2010:

Bull Beat swoons over bank CEOs even more than the Wall Street Journal, plus it comes with a free Lloyd Blankfein poster.

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Bill Kristol got particularly animated during this segment on Fox News Sunday over the release of some of Goldman Sachs emails by Sen. Carl Levin's Senate subcommittee on investigations. Kristol doesn't seem to understand that if you work for a company that is under investigation by the government, those emails aren't private. I found this little snit of his particularly ironic since Bloody Bill was defending the Patriot Act back when Bush wanted to be spying on those evil turrists. He's screaming that "we all work for Carl Levin!" because Levin dared to make part of an investigation public, but he didn't have any trouble with Dubya rifling through the private communications of every citizen in the United States. Kristol's feigned outrage hypocrisy meter is broken.

Kristol: I think if the Democrats were as confident as they pretend to be, they wouldn’t be releasing emails. I mean what is that about? That wasn’t leaked, the Senate Banking Committee simply released private emails from Goldman Sachs… (crosstalk) …Senator Levin authorized his staff to release emails that were provided to this investigative Senate committee ostensibly on the grounds this committee was doing a serious investigation. Then they release emails that are simply, they say, embarrassing. It’s outrage actually. Now every business in the United States has to worry that any emails sent anywhere at some point in three years later that can be made to look embarrassing to a chief executive who’s testifying Tuesday, and I say this as no fan of Goldman Sachs, but Lloyd Blankfein is testifying Tuesday and they want to embarrass him on the spot and they’ve released these emails.

Well the core issue here, the issue of the rule of law and this notion that this bill increases executive authority discretions so much that it… as opposed to other ways of fixing the financial crisis through the bankruptcy code he doesn’t like, that it’s bad to increase the authority to the discretion of the government in Washington this much. That’s the core objection to the bill and the core dispute over the bill.

For President Obama to pretend that the only reason you might dislike this bill is if you were interested in bilking people. That’s insane. It’s really ridiculous.

Williams: It’s not ridiculous when you read the emails and the core here is not the release of the emails it’s the content of the emails and the emails reveal that they’re saying the people at Goldman Sachs are saying, you know what, we’re going to make money while investors are losing money. In fact we’re going to have a windfall they say in these emails. That is the outrage in case you missed it! And that’s why public outrage over the behavior by these Wall Street titans is over the top. And I might add, you know what else… (crosstalk)

Kristol: Shouldn’t Senator Levin’s emails be released? He’s the public official. I mean if he believes that everything should be transparent let’s see his emails and his staff when they discussed whether to embarrass Lloyd Blankfein or not.

Williams: Listen you are lost in the weeds on this thing. It doesn’t matter who…

Kristol: It doesn’t matter whether there is a rule of law in Washington?

Williams: Of course it matters there is a rule of law. But let me just say something, when you sit at your desk at your corporation, guess what your boss can read your emails. That’s not the issue. The issue… (crosstalk)

Kristol: But you know what, the Senator of the United States is not the boss of every employee at Goldman Sachs. That is a very revealing statement Juan! That is a very revealing statement! We all work for Carl Levin! That is the future …

Williams: Oh please stop. (crosstalk) What about the investors? The people who are putting money into these Wall Street firm are being gypped.

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From The PBS Newhour, more news on how Goldman Sachs is profiting from our tax dollars.

PAUL SOLMAN: Across from the construction site that was once the World Trade Center, Goldman Sachs' new world headquarters.

To help foot the $2-plus billion construction bill, Goldman got New York City and State to bless a $1.65 billion tax-free so-called liberty bond issue, plus another $66 million in job grants, tax exemptions, and energy discounts.

And, yet, the same firm just reported the most profitable year in Wall Street history, prompting protests when it channeled most of those profits to pay salaries and bonuses. It was a year of horrible P.R., which saw Goldman and its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, vilified...

LLOYD BLANKFEIN, CEO, Goldman Sachs: Everybody have that now?

PAUL SOLMAN: ... by everyone from passersby commenting on painter Geoffrey Raymond's portrait, to Glenn Beck on the right blasting Goldman's profits...

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