Democratic Strategy for the 2014 election. Is it working?

[sabrina 1]

President Obama offered Republicans Chained CPI as a compromise in his budget proposal.

A majority of Democrats AND Independents oppose any bargaining with Social Security and always have.

We have been given a dozen different reasons as to why Obama, a Democrat, introduced SS into these discussions in the first place. Most of them make little sense to Democrats.

Millions of Democrats and Independents signed a petition asking the President not to include Chained CPI in the budget.

Republicans have, as expected, turned it down. Several Prominent Republicans have called it 'trying to reduce the deficit on the backs of Seniors'.


A majority of Democrats are outraged. Certainly the Republicans are lying by claiming they are now the party of the people who will protect SS benefits from Democrats. It is laughable to anyone who is has been paying attention over the past several decades.

But this is politics. A chess game we are told. So, it was all predictable. First that Republicans would refuse the offer and then that they would turn it against Democrats, which they have.

The WH spokesperson stated, when asked why the president put CCPI in the budget, that it was because 'Republicans asked for it'.

A few people, like James Carville wondered if it was because the Presidents 'likes getting The Left angry'.

Howard Dean tweeted that if this was true, he might have to become an Independent. And the list goes on.

So the end result of this 'strategy', if that's what it was, is that the President is now viewed by most Democrats as someone who is willing to compromise anything in order to 'get a deal' and, if making them angry was the goal as Carville suggested, then that goal was accomplished.

He is being portrayed by Republicans as someone who is willing to get what he wants, a budget deal, 'on the backs of seniors'.

Since this occurred we are getting more and more excuses/reasons for it. Not many are buying them.

So, if this is Democratic strategy, in my opinion, we are guaranteed to lose the next election. If I accept it as strategy and not what the president believes, then my advice is 'fire the strategists, this is a disaster'.

Does anyone else think we can win with this kind of strategy?

To be honest, I don't see 'strategy' here at all. Am I just not politically savvy or something?

My opinion is that the President supports the idea of a CCPI. From all I have read I see nothing that tells me he does not. I could not disagree with him more.

Others think he doesn't, but 'had to compromise' to make a deal and it was better strategy to get a deal than to protect SS.

Still others just trust him and claim he got the result he wanted, Republicans turned it down.

That last one makes zero sense at all. If that is the case, he should have typed up a Progressive Wish List which is what people would be talking about right now. THAT would have been good strategy for 2014, getting attention for OUR issues.

But I'm not a political strategist, just someone who wants an end to Republican ideas being passed into law here. They are a disaster for this and other countries.

Do YOU think the President offering the Chained CPI was a good or bad idea? What WAS his strategy in your opinion?

2 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	He was willing to compromise SS in return for tax increases on the wealthy. He supports the idea.
	2 (100%)
	He doesn't support the idea. He was just trying to show that Republicans are obstructionists.
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Marr]

1. I think it's fairly obvious at this point that he supports the idea of Chained CPI.

It's been a DLC/Third Way policy recommendation for years now, and Obama was with the DLC. That in itself would make it a pretty sound assumption, but when put in the context of all the political maneuvering to build cover for other politicians on the issue (beginning with the rigged "Cat Food Commission" way back at the beginning of his first term), I really don't see how any honest observer could say he's against Chained CPI.

It seems to have been one of his major policy goals from the start.

[sabrina 1]

2. That's the conclusion I have come to. The Third Way supports it strongly.

His advisers are certainly not Progressives. And we haven't heard from him yet on his reasons for doing this.

Occam's razor applies imo. Clearing out all the noise, we are left with the fact that he did it, he offered it because 'they asked for it'.

[trof]

3. We have a strategy?

Guess I missed it.

[sabrina 1]

4. That's what we have been told. This was not a betrayal of SS it was brilliant strategy which worked.

I know, I don't get it either. But apparently there are people who believe it is a great strategy. I just wanted to know if I am in the minority.

Personally I would fire the entire team who had anything to do with letting this happen, but like I said, I'm no strategist!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. The Republicans were wrecked in 2012 so Obama feels compelled to level the playing field.

Other than being an obviously stupid move it was a glorious victory for bi-partisanship.

[sabrina 1]

8. Bi-partisanship. That is such a bad word. If it were really bi-partisanship the people would be

represented. These deals are made by the small group who represent only the wealthy in this country. There's nothing 'bi-partisan' about them. They are all one group. The only disagreements they have apparently is what strategy to use to get what they want and still make it look like a democracy.

[Babel_17]

6. As part of a deal, it's negotiable

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-17/both-parties-in-congress-may-have-reason-for-january-deal.html

the CPI revision has been a centerpiece of most of the major bipartisan efforts to trim the debt.

That includes Obama’s failed negotiations with Boehner in 2011 over a grand bargain to trim the deficit, as well as the proposal by the co-chairmen of the president’s 2010 debt panel.

“This is not a fringe idea,” said Jared Bernstein, a former member of Obama’s economic team and a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Democratic- aligned group wrote a February paper advocating the chained CPI under “certain conditions.”

[sabrina 1]

7. 'This is not a fringe idea'?? I think they just found out what a fringe idea it is.

These people, most of whom no one elected, seem to think they are the only people in this country.

More and more I agree with George Carlin, 'it's a club and we're not in it'.

That article alone shows how totally removed from the millions of people who live in this country, these wealthy billionaires are.

We need ordinary working class people representing us. Just as they cannot relate to us, I just don't get them either. They live in some cloud somewhere that has no connection to earth.

[truedelphi]

9. I was surprised to realize you wrote this the morning of April 15th 2013

The events of that day will make all the matters surrounding CPI and Social Security to be perceived as matters that don't matter any more.

Only thing on our plate as a nation now is where we go from here in terms of being all against the inner terrorists that are stalking us everywhere. And as the discussions heat up about the terrorist matters, we will begin to realize that the military and Homeland Security need even more money in order to do more heroic things. (Never mind that it was NOT the half a billion dollar shut down of Boston area on Friday, with the tanks in the street, and the police going door to door, that got the "terrorist" captured, but a guy who was bored with it all and went out to spend time on his boat, and then lo and behold!)