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<span id="mn_Global"><span id="mn_MyTown_Global">
<BR></span></span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">Rep. Speier indulges in some blatant conspiracy</font><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">-theorizing</font><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"> about Obama's tax-cut deal:</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><br></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">"</font><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><span id="mn_Global"><span id="mn_MyTown_Global">This is a grand plan of starving Social Security so you can then privatize Social Security (and) seniors are on their own."</span></span></font></p><br><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_16829980">http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_16829980</a></p><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><br>"I'm very
disappointed. He's out-Bushed Bush," she said of Obama, referring to
President George W. Bush's failed attempt in 2005 to partially privatize
Social Security.</font><span id="mn_Global"><span id="mn_MyTown_Global"><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><br></font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">Speier reserved some of her scorn for how
Obama's plan was formulated, a process that left congressional Democrats
out of the loop. "The president made a tactical mistake by
thinking he could negotiate with the minority members of the Senate and
think that's good public policy," she said. "Last time I checked, we
didn't have rings in our noses."</font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><br></font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">Obama's circumvention of
Democrats led to a raucous meeting Thursday of the House Democratic
Caucus, which emerged with a message of opposition to the president's
plan.</font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><br></font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">"It was very animated," Speier said of the meeting. "It's about core values. And they have just been uprooted and tossed aside...."<br></font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><br></font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">Speier
also thought it was rich that, following months of talk about bringing
the national debt under control, the president and Republicans are
planning to add nearly $1 trillion to the debt with money, she said,
borrowed from China.</font><span id="mn_Global"><span id="mn_MyTown_Global"></span></span><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><br></font><BR><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3">"You just declared bankruptcy, and you're going out on a shopping spree," she said.</font><BR><br><BR></span></span> </body>
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