John Nichols: Obama’s Social Security cuts are austerity
President Obama’s plan to include Social Security cuts in his budget plan is well summed up by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as a “bitter disappointment.”
Obama closed his 2012 campaign with a populist flourish that seemed to suggest he was finally coming to believe his own rhetoric about the need for growth, as opposed to austerity. The strength of his message earned the president a mandate: a popular vote margin of almost 5 million, a landslide win in the Electoral College, and significant gains in Senate and House races.
But now he proposes to squander that mandate in pursuit of a “grand bargain” with House Republicans — a bargain that would replace the current approach to figuring cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients with a “chained CPI” (Consumer Price Index) scheme. That change will harm not just seniors, children and people with disabilities, but also the fragile economic recovery.
This is not Paul Ryan privatization. But it is a classic austerity cut.
It is wrong economically, and politically.
More here...
What the hell is Obama thinking?
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