Obama Wanted to Cut Social Security. Then Bernie Sanders Happened.

[portlander23]

Obama Wanted to Cut Social Security. Then Bernie Sanders Happened.
Zaid Jilani
The Intercept
June 2 2016, 1:36 p.m.

“We can’t afford to weaken Social Security,” he said during a speech on economic policy in Elkhart, Indiana. “We should be strengthening Social Security. And not only do we need to strengthen its long-term health, it’s time we finally made Social Security more generous, and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they’ve earned.”

This was a far cry from Obama’s position on the program in late 2012, when his administration argued for reducing Social Security benefits by recalculating the way cost of living adjustments are made.

“President Obama’s evolution on Social Security, from at one time being open to cuts to calling for an expansion of benefits … is certainly welcome news, but not at all surprising,” said Alex Lawson, the executive director of Social Security Works, a nonprofit group that advocates for protecting and expanding the program.

Lawson’s organization has worked with lawmakers and other nonprofit organizations to oppose Obama’s proposed Social Security cuts and shift the conversation towards expansion. By the summer of 2014, a small group of Democratic caucus senators, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, started advocating for lifting Social Security’s payroll tax cap so wealthier people paid more into the system, and then increasing benefits to seniors. Polling by advocacy groups found broad support for expansion.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s evolution on the issue could also be traced to Sanders. Clinton initially shied away from the question of expanding the program, issuing only noncommittal statements on the issue. But after being directly challenged on the Social Security program this past February by the Sanders campaign, Clinton tweeted, “As always, I’ll defend it, & I’ll expand it.”

[Gomez163]

1. No. Atrios started this. Better known as Duncan Black.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/05/seniors-retirement-social-security-column/1965159/

According to the Pew Research Center, the median household wealth for those aged 65+ is about $170,000. While that sounds like a significant amount of money, as Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research pointed out, this is actually a trivial amount of wealth for people with little or no income other than Social Security benefits. Remember that this figure includes housing wealth. Even if it was a bunch of cash in a bank account, it wouldn't actually provide for a significant supplement to other retirement income, but the reality is that many people have a house and not much else.



There isn't a lot of support for this in Washington right now. Austerity is the rage, and the old and the poor must suffer right along with the rich. One member of Congress, Alan Grayson, D-Fla., did tweet, "We should not be talking about cutting programs like Social Security; we should be talking about expanding them." He is correct, but sadly the leftmost position generally in Congress is to demand no cuts to the program. There isn't yet a movement to expand them. Try calling your member of Congress. You never know, they might listen.

[Hoyt]

2. You may believe he wanted to cut SS, but it didn't happen. In fact, he reduced the donut hole for

Part D Medicare which is like a raise for many seniors. Obama knows what he's doing. The voters don't get it sometimes.

Clinton defended SS long before Sanders. Sanders has not managed to do anything for SS but yell at the sky. That is not results, nor does it help anyone.

[Nanjeanne]

6. The grand bargain he wanted contained chained CPI which is essntially

cut in SS. The Dems were going to give him this although Parry Murray proposed less drastic cuts to Medicare and Sanders was very vocal in his opposition. Obama was going to raise Medicare age to 67 from 65. The Repubs refused the Grand Bargain because they wouldn't give Obama any "victory".

[Hoyt]

7. Yet it did not happen. Smart politicians "lay stuff on the table" all the time, knowing the

opposition will walk away because of the other parts of the deal. Sanders wasn't perceptive enough to get it, so he played up to the gullible.

[Nanjeanne]

8. It didn't happen because Republicans fought against Obama and McConnell. Please

don't pretend it was a choice by Obama knowing Repubs would shut down the govt.

[Ferd Berfel]

9. THe only reason it didn't happen was because republicans are suicidal

The fact it didn't happen was more dumb luck
and save the bullshit of how Obama is a 5th degree black belt ninja 3-D chess master. IT should have never been on the chopping block to begin with.......unless you're a Republican. just more neocon crap from the DLC THird Way corporate crowd.


And Clinton wants to continue this shit

[Hoyt]

12. Dumb luck or brilliant. I tend toward the latter. The crap is folks who just look for reasons to

blame Obama.

[Ferd Berfel]

15. for godsake. Did someone force him to put SS on the Chopping block?

gambling with the lifeline for Tens of Millions of seniors is some how "brilliant".
sick.

[leeroysphitz]

25. Delusional thinking. n/t

[vintx]

32. This is what politics has been reduced to. Blind partisanship

We used to mock RWers for shit like that

[Orsino]

13. But it still means thnat expanding SS is a flip-flop for him.

I think it's an effect of the movement and/or Sanders' platform...but another factor is Obama's fewer-fucks-to-give final year in office. Hard to say which is the biggest effect.

[joshcryer]

19. Huh? Obama campaigned on "putting everything on the table."

Simpson-Bowles never went anywhere, though.

[Orsino]

20. Yep. Signaling (for years) a willingness to cut SS...

...but here in his final year a recommendation to expand it. He's late to this party, but he's moving in the right direction.

[randome]

21. You don't understand the art of negotiation. And you don't even try to understand Obama.

It's obvious to me what kind of person he is. He would not cut SS. It was politics, nothing more. You may want to believe everyone is out to get you -except Sanders- but you're looking only at the surface.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Orsino]

23. I think no president really wants to be seen cutting SS.

But some have the courage to put that off-limits.

[randome]

30. It would be nice if our politicians could speak plainly and consistently.

But it's politics. When you look at Obama's actions and interests overall, I say he's trustworthy. There were never going to be cuts to SS.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Orsino]

33. Yep.

My only point is that the president has switched from talking about maybe cutt Ss to talking anout maybe expanding it.

The OP credits Bernie, but I would credit the movement generally, with props to my candidate. Socialism is in the air, and the Sanders campaign is one result.

[randome]

34. I don't mind if Sanders or his movement takes credit so long as the GOP is made irrelevant.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Scuba]

28. When I was trained in negotiations there was never a mention of ...

... offering something you don't want to give up as a strategy.

Just the opposite. The first rule of negotiation is: You've got to ask for it what you want, and more.

If you want to enrich Social Security by 5% and keep the eligibility age where it is, the good negotiator's starting point would be to ask for 15%, plus lowering the age. This gives you room to negotiate and still get what you want.


My opinion is that Obama was offering cuts because that's what the wealthy interests that funded his campaign told him they wanted. Only an idiot would try to enrich it by offering cuts, and Obama is no idiot.

[randome]

29. Politics doesn't operate with normal rules of behavior.

More dodges and feints are involved. I don't want to come across as an Obama-worshiper but I really think he knows what he's doing, on this and much more.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Scuba]

31. 11th Level Chess. Got it, at least as far as my puny outside-the-beltway brain can understand it.

[randome]

35. It's more like looking one or two moves ahead, I think. Not as complex as you imagine.

With the GOP more and more comprised of aging, drooling idiots, it doesn't take much to tie them into knots. Look at them shooting themselves in the foot over a supreme court nominee.

They're dying out. That's what we should be celebrating.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Scuba]

36. If the GOP is such a bunch of drooling fools, Obama should of gotten us a raise ...

... along with Medicare for All (or at least a public option).

Instead we got the Republican health care plan. Drooling fools.

[randome]

37. MEAN, drooling fools.

Mean enough to shut down the government, default on the debt, cause our credit rating to fall and refuse to fully man the Supreme Court. These are not nice people.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[Scuba]

38. I wish our side was as successful as the drooling fools ...

"If the Democratic Party would fight as hard for the Working Class as the Republican Party fights for the Ruling Class, the Republicans would be a powerless minority party within a few election cycles.

The Democratic Party knows this, the Republican Party knows this, the Ruling Class knows this- and they've been astonishingly successful at making sure the Working Class never learns this." ~ Anonymous

[fasttense]

3. Proud to be one of the 1st rec

Of course it was Sanders that moved Obama's opinion to the left. Even Hillary hemmed and hawed about it.

Sure beats his cat food commission recommendations...oh wait, they never agreed to cut it. But Simpson came out with some cuts.

Obama said cola cuts for Social Security would be needed. He really wanted to cut payments. He said it numerous times. But we liberals fought it like we fought off W's privatization.

[Thinkingabout]

4. When the campaigns began, Hillary said she wanted to restart FICA on wages of $250,000 and above,

Sanders wanted to remve the max cap, some time in the campaign Sanders changed to the restarting FICA on wages of $250,000, when did Sanders change? Hillary did not want the taxes increases on the middle class, nasty remarks was made about $250,000 being middle class. Hillary was at this position a long time, glad to see another Hillary position joined by Sanders.

[fasttense]

5. Don't be ridiculous.

I heard her with my own ears. She hemmed and hawed and weasel worded her response when 1st asked. Oh now she's for increasing it. But she wasn't originally.

[Ferd Berfel]

11. and do you believe that she will do it

or will she triangulate her way out of it?

She'll flip flop again - Wall street isn't worried.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. And in 08 Obama supported a FICA restart while Hillary did not, it was hardly spoken of even

by Obama and this time you have both candidates and the one who won last time all talking about it. Who started that? Bernie, among others. Obama also carried that forward. Hillary is the last to bring up the idea.

[Thinkingabout]

16. Sanders was the last to arrive at restarting FICA at $250,000.

[Skwmom]

14. You can tell it's election season.

[dana_b]

17. Thank you, Bernie! I can't afford to have my SSDI cut

and I now that I'm far from the only one.

[CobaltBlue]

18. portlander23—If it weren’t for the likely Trump/Clinton matchup, I’d look forward to Obama leaving.

Enough of this fake crap in an election year!

President Obama offered up cuts to Social Security a few years ago.

Disgusting.

[Cheese Sandwich]

22. I'm actually against cutting social security. Horrible idea.

[CharlotteVale]

24. I don't care what he said. I don't trust him or Clinton on this.

And I never will.

[djean111]

26. Obama is just pandering. Hillary will pretend to agree with him.

And she will just be pandering. No sale.

[pengu]

27. He's had 8 years to try and all we got was the catfood commission and weak COLA increases (if any)

He's a lame duck watching the left revolt from the party establishment. It's just rhetoric.