Joan Walsh: Mr. President, You Won the Election, Not Them! (Chained CPI, Medicare Deductibles)
Last edited Mon Apr 1, 2013, 02:15 PM - Edit history (5)
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/01/bad_ideas_that_just_won’t_dieMONDAY, APR 1, 2013 07:45 AM EDT
Mr. President, you won the election, not them!
Obama’s new budget will reportedly include GOP's beloved entitlement cuts. Why he's overlooking the real solution
BY JOAN WALSH
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The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the budget will likely include the chained CPI for Social Security. “We and all of the groups engaged on this are starting to feel it may well be in the budget,” AARP vice president Nancy LeaMond told the WSJ. The same day the New York Times revealed that Obama and House Republicans are getting close to agreement on a package of Medicare cuts that would restructure Medicare parts A and B – one covers hospitalization, the other doctors’ visits — to raise deductibles for the 80 percent of seniors who see doctors but don’t require hospitalization in any given year. The Times reports that some version of the proposal might also find its way into the 2014 budget.
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OK, I’d rather not see Obama make that deal, because I think it’s bad policy. As a New York Times editorial argued Sunday, less than half of 55- to 64-year-olds have any retirement savings, and of those who’ve managed to save, half have less than $120,000. It’s also bad politics: Watch for Republicans to hang those cuts around the neck of Democrats for years to come. But in the context of a big deal that raises revenue, they’re at least debatable.
But putting them in a budget document with the president’s name on it, without getting anything in exchange? No one in the Senate wants his or her name on chained CPI: 10 days ago by voice vote they backed a measure by Sen. Bernie Sanders specifically opposing a switch to the chained CPI. No voice was raised on the other side.
The president’s political folks know that his futile crusade for compromise with Republicans at any cost hurt him politically. Jim Messina called the debt-ceiling debacle a “white knuckle moment” for the 2012 reelection campaign. So what would be different now (for Democrats, anyway; the president doesn’t have to face reelection)?
Obama is likely to defend such proposed cuts as necessary to afford investment in programs for young people, including a new and necessary push for preschool. As Paul Krugman explained so eloquently – and as I’ve argued here and here – deficit-cutting is now being defended as “for the children.”
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We are of course cheating our children, but it’s not with entitlement spending; it’s with 30 years of tax cutting and disinvestment in education. Today, we cheat them by ignoring the joblessness and poverty of their parents, while acting like education is a reliable ticket out of poverty, when for too many kids, it won’t be.
REST AT LINK[p]
= new reply since forum marked as read
what link? 
among the five best president ever imo if he had championed progressive causes rather than governing from a good bit right of center. America will be the loser and the wholly unpatriotic Republican Party will now have a chance to wipe out any remaining vestige of our Constitution and founding principles. 
run for offices ourselves. City Council, County Commission, Mayors etc.
Get involved with your local Dem Party---run for office with-in....
We, clearly--after Decades of "trying" will Never change the "status quo" if "we" don't act.
There are, for instance, Many right here on DU that are Highly qualified to run for various offices in both state and local offices.
Don't under estimate your Own talents--you Are what "the people seek"
I don't know of any existing mechanism for it, but there are indeed a lot of people on this forum who would make good candidates. Just wondering out aloud about some way DU could help develop their own. I'm sure there are existing organizations that more naturally align with that kind of thing. PDA? Not sure.
DU is a large and active community, perhaps a group could form towards this purpose. If so, I would hope that it would strive for bluer blue, not just for getting someone with a D after their name in office. One of the keys would be for the candidate to be free of the constraints of corporate campaign finances. Wishadoo candidates? Some other kind of online crowd-sourcing?
Speaking for myself, I could use the work, but my place would be as an advocate or campaign worker rather than as a candidate (anyone that knows me knows this). I'm sure there are many good potential candidates in our midst who just need a supportive environment to get their start.
edited to add:
way to find out...ask Not sure if they Can, but it's a great idea...
We can also look around our own local communities. There are great people who never thought about it that might be willing.
I too am not a good choice, I don't have the "calm professional nature" that I believe is essential...
I Know there is a fabulous "pool of potentials" right here on DU
I see local city/county officials to be the "roots" of a national government. Treat the "diseased roots" and the rest of the tree thrives...
Where are all the people who always jump on these threads stating that Obama would NEVER do this and we're all just hyperventillating? Hmm, where? It's been obvious from years that this is one of Obama's wet dreams, he keeps raising the issue and putting this on the table, time after time. This time he ever put it in writing for all to see. Is he really a Dem, or just another pol out for himself and taking the bribes (or scared of the threats?) of the Repugs? He certainly didn't say any of this crap as candidate Obama, because he knows it's a loser and will make the Dems a much tinier and non-competitive party. Repugs must be grinning ear to ear. For shame, Mr. President. I am so ashamed of you right now.
Mr. President, you won, why are you 
?????????
"the GOP's beloved entitlement cuts"
How quaint, pretending that Obama has been anything but a forceful advocate of them.
This is just brilliant Chess.
They'll Fix It Later.
Seriously, what will take the GOP from death is Obama steering the hatred and anger onto the Dems. Then, bingo, we are in the political sewer and the Koch dream of the repukes bringing their fascist rule to the country will be complete. The teabaggers will be back on steroids. Clinton tried to kill liberalism as a good southern boy...Obama will bring it to its knees.
