Have Obama's people focus-grouped the Chained CPI idea?

[CTyankee]

I don't believe that Obama would come forward with this idea if it hadn't been focus-grouped. It just doesn't sound like something they would do offhand. So I am wondering: what if their focus group findings were overall kinda positive out in the general population?

As a senior myself, I find it hard to believe that any self respecting Democrat would approve of this cockamamie idea, but maybe he's got evidence that this won't play that badly overall.

I just throw this out. I really don't know, but could the DU general consensus on this scheme be out of synch with what the larger Democratic Party membership says is somehow OK as a bargaining chip.

I am still trying to figure out why in the name of god Obama did this! To me, there is no upside, but there must be a reason...

[JaneyVee]

1. Chained CPI polls horribly across both political parties. Less focus group polling in 2nd term.

I suppose.

[JDPriestly]

9. The Republican rank and file don't want this either.

You don't know how many Republican seniors argued that they didn't trust Obama because they thought he would cut Social Security.

No way is this bipartisan. This is anti-American. That's all it is.

They are obsessed with privatizing everything. They want no government at all.

And the Republican rank-and-file fall for that as long as it is not specific.

Most of them don't like the restrictions that their local and state governments impose on them as landlords, property owners, etc.

Senior Republicans on the whole love Social Security and Medicare.

I've seen the polls on this.

They did not focus group this at all.

[winter is coming]

2. If a focus group was used, it must have been selectively informed.

I doubt they bothered.

[CTyankee]

3. that is worrisome. There are all these Dem congressional candidates who want a shot at

a House seat in '14. What's gonna happen to them? Doesn't Obama WANT a Democratic House? It seems to me that it would be in his best interest for his "legacy."

[winter is coming]

8. Maybe he thinks it will help them to be running against him??

[GoCubsGo]

17. Yup.

Might be some "Good cop-bad cop" going on here.

[cliffordu]

19. Makes more sense than anything else I could come up with...

[GoCubsGo]

4. I think he WANTS you to be pissed--and ACT on it.

As someone pointed out a day or two ago, this is more likely a version of "Make me do it." I think wants people calling into their representatives to oppose it, as they have the ultimate say-so as far as whether or not the president's proposals even get attention.

I have to wonder if he's setting up Senate Democrats to look like the good guys. I understand that the budget proposal is already DOA in the House because the cuts are tied to tax hikes and closings of loopholes popular among the GOPers' wealthy owners (and for the sole fact that it's Obama's ideas). But, if they call his bluff, there are a number of Dems and Bernie Sanders who have vowed to obstruct it.

[Katashi_itto]

7. How about... he's just trying to placate the Republicans again. "Occam's razor"

It states that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected.

[JDPriestly]

10. No. He is just weak-willed.

He gets in a room with a bunch of Republicans and his people-pleaser instincts take over.

That's the flip side of the fact that Obama is so good with people.

He just is not strong.

[freshwest]

13. I think that is what is some of it. The GOP is now feeling the heat and can call Obama the bad guy.

So in order to save the seniors, they will allow tax increases. Keep on raising hell with both parties.

Don't let the GOP run with Rush's lie that Social Security is glorified welfare for losers.

And don't let them run with their deficit cutting spiel when now the cutting will cost them elections.

It's time for their masters to pay for the deficits the GOP has said will be paid by magic. Cutting SS won't help.

[GoCubsGo]

16. Most people don't believe that SS is glorified welfare.

And, most people also don't understand that the republicans are the ones who hate Social Security, including the hordes of geezers who keep voting for them--See: Teabaggers with "Get the government out of my Social Security" signs. I think it's a wake-up call as much as anything.

[freshwest]

18. It should be a wake up call. If the GOP stands by and lets it happen by not dealing, oh, boy.

And true, most people don't see it that way, but the Koch brothers who OWN the Tea Party and the GOP, have always seen it as the refuge of the weak or those they've impoverished with their ideology, thus losers. More of Ayn Rand slip is showing in their candidates, and they despise SS more than they ever did.

[GoCubsGo]

20. If they don't deal, it won't happen.

The president tied it to revenue increases. They don't get the SS cuts without giving up tax cuts and loopholes. Yes, the Ayn Rand slip is showing, and it's about to drop down around their ankles, because there is no way in hell that the repugs are going to give the Kochs, et. al a tax hike, or take away their favorite loopholes. It's going to be nothing but the usual gridlock.

[freshwest]

21. Until 2014 - but the GOP is working hard to demoralize and steal votes.

The of 2012 is by no means over. This was the same fight in 2010 over taxes and they won it for 8 years of Bush. Obama's budget was based on the scheduled sunset of 2010 - but the Koch brothers made their Tea Party and have sworn to make Tea Party 2 because Obama won't give in. He is going for the same tax schedule that Clinton had, but they're emboldened to do the same things that worked so well in 2010.

But moreover, this is a generational fight - just as was when the New Deal started. It seems Americans adapted to the short attention span television gave them and they have been denied a proper education in civics for years.

The instant gratification mindset will not stop the Koch brothers. They have had a trans-generational plan, they have gone for the long haul. And they are very close to all their goals, and only a few people stand in their way.

[Marr]

5. Don't you remember their attempt at Rovian rebranding from a few weeks back?

Last edited Sun Apr 7, 2013, 07:45 PM - Edit history (1)

"Superlative CPI", they called it. Didn't get any traction.

You can rest assured this thing has been focus-grouped to death, and sales pitches considered from every possible angle. We're looking at the pitch that ended up being considered the most feasible. It's called, The Republicans Made Us Do It. It's become a standard over the last few years.

[CTyankee]

6. But in the end that makes Dems look weak, because they seem so helpless...

I hope you are right and this helps congressional dems and dem candidates...

[Marr]

12. I didn't say this was going to help Congressional Democrats.

How could it possibly do that? Obama is proposing a decidedly right-wing wet dream; cuts to Social Security. The GOP can do one of two things:

1. Say "yes" and have one of their decades-long goals handed to them without even sacrificing much political capital to get it, or

2. Say "no" and campaign as 'the party that saved Social Security.

There's no rational way of explaining Obama's betrayal here as anything other than that, and the only people it's going to help are opponents of Social Security.

[CTyankee]

14. Sorry I misread; my bad. I agree, of course. This is a problem but it gets back to my

original question: Why? What thehell does he get out of it?

[Marr]

15. Chained CPI is itself a long-time DLC/Third Way policy goal.

http://crfb.org/blogs/third-way-introduces-new-social-security-reform-plan

He doesn't get anything in exchange for it. "It" is what he wants.

All this political maneuvering is just building cover for the actual politicians they need to vote for their unpopular policy.

[on point]

11. Yes, but only among their corrupt friends and other ptb

[MNBrewer]

22. They've run it through the N-dimensional Chess algorithm.

That's all we need to now.