Image by Getty Images via @daylife"The White House deficit commission is reportedly considering deep benefit cuts for Social Security, including a steep rise in the retirement age. We cannot let that happen.
"The deficit and our $13 trillion national debt are serious problems that must be addressed. But we can -- and must -- address them without punishing America's workers, senior citizens, the disabled, widows and orphans.
"First, let's be clear: Despite all the right-wing rhetoric, Social Security is not going bankrupt. That's a lie!
"The truth is that the Social Security Trust Fund has run surpluses for the last quarter century. Today's $2.5 trillion cushion is projected to grow to $4 trillion in 2023. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, experts in this area, say Social Security will be able to pay every nickel owed to every eligible beneficiary until 2039.
"Got that? In case you don't, let me repeat it. The people who have studied this issue most thoroughly and have no political bias report that Social Security will be able to pay out all benefits to every eligible beneficiary for the next 29 years.
"It is true that by 2039, if nothing is changed, Social Security will be able to pay out only about 80 percent of benefits. That is why it is important that Congress act soon to make sure Social Security is as strong in the future as it is today.
"The hatred of Social Security from the right-wing, anti-government crowd is based on the fact that the government program has been enormously successful in accomplishing its mission. For 75 years, in good times and bad, Social Security has provided financial security for tens of millions of Americans. ..."(use link above to read the whole piece)
Two Yemeni men who arrived in Amsterdam on a flight from Chicago were arrested by Dutch authorities Monday and charged with preparing a terrorist attack after officials found suspicious items in their luggage, Dutch and U.S. officials said.
U.S. authorities requested the arrest after discovering that one of the men had checked his luggage from Chicago to Dulles International Airport in Virginia, then left Chicago on a different flight to Amsterdam, said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the case.
The luggage sent to Virginia contained a cell phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol, in addition to three cell phones taped together and several watches taped together.
The owner of the luggage, Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi, a Yemeni citizen who lives in Detroit, also was carrying $7,000 in cash, said a Dutch official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
After sending his luggage to Dulles, al Soofi was joined in Chicago by a second man, Hezam al Murisi, and the two men flew on United Airlines flight 908 to Amsterdam. U.S. air marshals were aboard the flight.
Al Soofi's luggage was flown to Virginia and was headed for Dubai, then Yemen. But once authorities learned al Soofi had taken a different flight, federal officials in Virginia ordered the aircraft to return to the gate to remove his luggage. Another inspection revealed no explosives.
