General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe GOP 2014 election strategy will now be to attack Dems for proposing Social Security cuts
The GOP will attack Obama and the Dems for wanting to "balance the budget on the backs of seniors":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/04/10/house-gop-campaign-chief-obama-budget-shocking-attack-on-seniors/
The Republicans have been handed a gift in the 2014 election courtesy of the centrist Democrats.
The centrists of course will blame progressives, but who really is to blame for this debacle? Well it certainly isn't the progressives or "professional leftists" because they have been opposed to cuts all along.
The blame lies squarely with the centrist corporate Dems who wanted to come out with this proposal in order to please the punditocracy in New York and Washington D.C.
This proposal could now very well be suicidal. If the 2014 mid-term elections turn out to be a disaster, the corporatist Dems will blame progressives, but the truth is that they caused this disaster.
Faygo Kid
(21,477 posts)Although of course the Repugs would either end Social Security tomorrow or turn our contributions over to Wall Street, they now have both a campaign slogan and an opening for Social Security's eventual destruction.
Well played, Mr. President.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)If the Republicans ever gain full power, they will do all they can do destroy Social Security. But they know they have to lie about supporting Social Security in order to get elected.
Liberalynn
(7,549 posts)WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)And why the fight is far from over.
By Chris Frates
Updated: March 28, 2013 | 6:09 p.m.
March 27, 2013 | 7:30 p.m
....
McConnell, a master of byzantine Senate procedure, immediately realized that, as a tax, the individual mandate would be subject to the budget reconciliation process, which exempted it from the filibuster. In other words, McConnell had just struck upon how to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority vote.
....
Of course, Republicans are doing their best to highlight and stoke the kind of constituent anger that would force Democrats to tweak the law. In fact, if Democrats come under enough pressure, Republicans believe they might be able to inject Obamacare into the broader entitlement-reform discussion they are planning to tie to the debt-limit debate this summer.
But that is a long shot. If Republicans hope to completely repeal the health care law, they have to start by taking back the Senate in 2014 and would likely need to win the White House two years later. Still, some Republicans think the politics are on their side.
....
In the meantime, Republicans will continue to, as GOP Sen. John Barrasso put it, try to tear (Obamacare) apart. And the GOP suspects it might get some help from moderate Democrats less concerned about protecting Obamas legacy than winning reelection.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/the-secret-republican-plan-to-repeal-obamacare-20130327
And how do they win in 2014 and 2016? By claiming that Obama and by association, Democrats, are the ones who offered up Social Security on a silver platter. Death panels in 2010; cat food in 2014. If Sensible Centrists think 2010 was bad, just wait until 2014. We'll see.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Tomansky says there will be no deal.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/09/obama-s-social-security-gambit.html
Wednesdays
(17,249 posts)At bargain prices.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)My guess is that's bridges, dams, power plants, and transmission lines.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)Way to go. Pfft.
tularetom
(23,664 posts)"I had to destroy Social Security in order to save it".
MisterP
(23,730 posts)doc03
(35,148 posts)like in 2010. You can bet the teabaggers will be out in full force blameing Obama cutting SS and Medicare.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)and oppose Obama on this, repugs get no gain as I see it.
Dems will have to be loud and forceful, but it is Obama proposing this, not congress.
And the repugs are still for privatizing SS which is nearly as popular as chained CPI.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)They're not united NOW, to wit: Pelosi and Grijalva.
Dems *suffered* in 2010 because of ACA and Granny being offed by death panels; they'll suffer in 2014 because of proposed cuts to SS and Granny being forced to eat cat food.
Thanks, Obama!
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)McConnell gave the President preconditions to get a budget passed and the debt ceiling raised, no revenue, no defense cuts and reductions in "entitlement" spending. The President is offering up chained cpi as a reduction of "entitlements" in order to get revenue increases.
I think it's a terrible idea, like everyone here does too. It's a bone for the RepubliCONs.
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)....
As Sargent points out, McConnell told the Wall Street Journal in late November that the chained CPI cost-of-living adjustment, means-testing on Medicare premiums, and an increase in the Medicare eligibility age would be the "kinds of things that would get Republicans interested in new revenue."
Medicare means-testing and chained CPI are two proposals that Obama has embraced throughout the constant series of budget talks.
Republicans would push back on Sargent's argument with a common refrain they already agreed to new revenue as part of the deal to avert the fiscal cliff. But the change in tone underscores the risk for Obama in embracing chained CPI as his own infuriating his own base while still getting nothing in return from Republicans.
http://www.businessinsider.com/chained-cpi-social-security-cuts-obama-budget-boehner-mcconnell-2013-4#ixzz2Q7dBNrfp
A budget with Chained CPI won't pass, but not because Obama is some sort of genius. Rs want to tie entitlements (and Obamacare, from what I'm reading) to debt-limit negotiations this summer. They'll hold hostage, and Obama will yield. When campaigning in 2014, they'll hang Obama's willingness to cut Social Security around Democrats' necks. They take control of Congress, and God knows what will happen to Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare.
Fun times.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)So, is Obama a Republican "sleeper" infiltrated into our party?
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)Logging on for the first time today so I need to catch up on the festivities. First headline I saw was about the White House being shellshocked -- that was EXACTLY my reaction as I watched Gene Sperling interviewed last night by PBS.
Here we goooooo...
Volaris
(10,260 posts)1) Meidcare is NOT a government program
2) They want the Government made SMALLER, and should therefore, be OUT of the social saftey net busines altogether.
I'm convinced it's not going to be the role of the "Professional Left" anymore to try and convince this President that he actually is supposed to give a damn about us politically. It IS going to be our role to smash the metaphorical heads of the idiot 'baggers for being DUMB enough not to see the irony of their own hypocrisy.
If the Democratic President won't help us do that, FINE, because I don't think we need him to.
Jack Sprat
(2,500 posts)Speaking of disaster irony, this is it! We gave them a sword and they castrated us...or some such Nixon quote.
doc03
(35,148 posts)bowens43
(16,064 posts)City Lights
(25,171 posts)maindawg
(1,151 posts)they should also remind us of the WMS in Iraq
mcgarry50
(68 posts)that was the first thing i told my elected officials who are democrats here in washington state. if they thought 2010 was bad obama just blew it for you in 2014. the transformational figure just transformed the democratic party into the stupid party. i know i am going to register as a n independent because i am embarrassed to be a member of the stupid party.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Their base would not want to hear that. They won't believe it. They are sure the Democrats are communists.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)I know it's hard and gets harder every election cycle, but we can't give up.
We can not become so disheartened! This looks like the "I give up" thread, Cleita. All we need to do is primary out all the right-wing-DLC-third-wayers that have almost swallowed up the Democratic Party. We've got to primary out all of the blue dogs, once and for all, and vote in REAL Democrats in 2014. We reelected PO, in spite of Citizens United, didn't we? If we did that, then we can do this. 2014 must be our mantra now. Return the Democratic Party to the Real Democrats, not republican-lite democrats, with a veto-proof majority. Then, the last two years of POs administration, we can show PO how to be a REAL DEMOCRAT!
lobodons
(1,290 posts)Obama is demonstrating to us all how important it is to get the Gavel back in Pelosi's hands!! No way he talks entitlement cuts if Pelosi has the Gavel.
TheKentuckian
(24,949 posts)The Dreamweaver brigade seems to have some kind of Alzheimer's that swings them from completely forget that some other folks aside from those tuned in the master chess political ninjitsu and only chasing the votes of the mystical independents and at every move drive the much ballyhooed supposed targets away.
This is of course because "the middle", "independents", and "center" aren't actually cared about either, it is just a well worn lie to act as a fig leaf for pursuing the interests and whims of the wealthy, multi-national corporations, the medical industrial complex, military imperialism, the parasitic financial sector, and big carbon not any regular Americans of any political bent unless it is the advancement of wealth, which sure as shit isn't us.
Obama is scuttling our party in favor of corporate domination, he must be fiercely repudiated. It is crucial to run the hell away from and considered hostile. The Turd Way must be cast out and called what they are, enemies to self determination, broad prosperity, peace, justice, and honest wages for honest work.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Marr
(20,317 posts)So we're left with two options, really. Either he's a totally fucking idiot, which I don't believe for one second, or he really wants Chained CPI.
Billy Pilgrim
(96 posts)SS will remain in the trust of the Democratic party, maybe not Obama, but definitely not the Republicans.
bhikkhu
(10,708 posts)very likely. It should be an interesting election in 2014!
spedtr90
(719 posts)The Republican Study Committee - over 170 Republicans in the House - submitted a budget that included member Paul Ryan's Medicare vouchers and says their budget "Further strengthens Social Securitys long-term finances by transitioning cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to be indexed to chained CPI-U, which more accurately tracks the impact of inflation."
They have 2 budgets that balance the budget on the backs of seniors - and the poor.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Remember ... this is the starting point of a new "negotiation" (the gop's words).
What do you think will happen when President Obama (or maybe a Democratic legislator) offers:
Where does the gop go? ... and not cement their "unwillingness to compromise" monicker with the solid plurarity of gop and independent voters (a solid majority when taken as a whole) that poll as having the gop being unwilling to compromise and President Obama (and Democrats being willing to compromise).
In order to flip the House (because of gerrymandering as a result of 2010), we need those groups to either stay home, vote 3rd-Party, or vote Democratic. In my estimation ... It 's all about 2014.
Zorro
(15,691 posts)and see what the Republican reaction would be.