The Battle For Social Security Begins Anew

I've been wondering if all the strum und drang over the typically glitchy launch of the Obamacare website isn't just a shiny object moment to distract attention from what the conservatives among our ruling elites have in mind for us. Friday, Gene Sperling, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, may have given away the game. Obama has Social Security firmly in his sites again. The Grand Bargain he and Boehner cooked up before has been on the back burner and the two of them are determined to roll it out again-- and that means Chained CPI and other benefits cuts for those who can least afford them. The Republicans could never do this themselves; they need someone like Obama to front the effort. And now Obama is even willing to give Republicans the benefit cuts they (and he) want so badly without raising taxes, since the GOP have signaled they can't pull that off without destroying their base. Obama, apparently, doesn't care about his own base. Let's hope enough Democrats in the House and Senate do. Let's start with a quote from Sperling to fellow Democrats:

Right now, I think there is among a lot of people a consensus as to what the ingredients of a pro-growth fiscal policy are. It would be a fiscal policy that-- yes-- did give more confidence in the long run that we have a path on entitlement spending and revenues that gives confidence in our long-term fiscal position and that we’re not pushing off unbearable burdens to the next generation. That is very important.”

“We could have an economic growth strategy where we had a more pro-jobs, pro-recover fiscal policy right now that included-- that did not have this harmful sequester. We could have more savings that were on both the revenue and entitlement side that were long-term and would help in the future. And we could make sure that we’re making room for the things that almost everybody thinks we need to do more of”-- that is, investments in infrastructure and research and development.

None of what Sperling said was entirely new. Rather, it was what he chose to emphasize (and not emphasize) that struck me. Afterward, Sperling took a grand total of one question from the audience. I hustled after him to ask if was really proposing an entitlement-cuts-for-stimulus budget deal. Sperling smiled a little awkwardly and said something about how he’d love to negotiate with me. (Not sure what that was about.) But he didn’t rule a deal that cut entitlements without additional tax revenue, even when I asked him a second time.

Stimulus is short term and tax increases (revenue) can be changed a week after an election that goes badly for Democrats. Decoupling Social Security from the concept of a Third Rail is forever. When I woke up Saturday, I found 4 e-mails from Bernie Sanders, all about the potential for this betrayal of American working families. They were letters he wrote for Social Security Works, for the Campaign for America's Future and for the Progressives United PAC:

They’re at it again.



Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Pete Peterson, Stanley Druckenmiller and others are leading the charge to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.



If they succeed, millions of senior citizens, working families, disabled veterans and children will suffer. We must not allow that to happen.



Today, the middle class is disappearing, real unemployment is extremely high, poverty is increasing and working families throughout the country are struggling to keep their heads above water economically. Meanwhile, the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider and the wealthiest people and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well.



WE MUST NOT BALANCE THE BUDGET ON THE BACKS OF WORKING FAMILIES, THE ELDERLY, THE CHILDREN, THE SICK AND THE POOR.



As Vermont’s senator, I have the honor of serving on the Budget Conference Committee which will be negotiating a new federal budget over the next few months-- and where I am fearful that a deal could be struck to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.



As the founder of the Defending Social Security Caucus, please stand with me, our friends at Social Security Works and our coalition partners in demanding; “No grand bargain in exchange for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.”



Let’s be clear. Despite right-wing rhetoric:

• Social Security is not going broke. According to the Social Security Administration, Social Security has a surplus today of $2.8 trillion and can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible person for the next 20 years.
• Social Security has not contributed to the deficit. Social Security is funded independently by FICA taxes which are paid by workers and their employers.

The so-called chained-CPI, which recalculates how COLA’s are formulated, is not a “modest tweak.” If the chained CPI went into effect today, a senior aged 65 would receive $658 a year less in Social Security benefits when he/she is 75, and $1,100 a year less at age 85. Further, the average disabled veteran would lose tens of thousands of dollars in benefits over his/her lifetime.



Please stand with me today and demand that Congress and the President oppose any grand bargain which cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.



When one out of four U.S. corporations pay nothing in federal income taxes; when Bush’s tax breaks for the rich remain in place for many wealthy Americans; when the U.S. spends almost as much as the rest of the world combined on defense, there are much fairer and economically sound ways to address the budget than cutting programs desperately needed by the most vulnerable people in our country.

The Members of Congress who have chosen to stand with ordinary working families rather than the Wall Street predators-- so Bernie, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Keith Ellison, Raul Grijalva and a handful of others-- have been warning about Chained CPI since Obama first signaled he was going there. Below is a chat Alan Grayson had about the subject with Thom Hartmann a few months ago:



When Blue America vets a candidate for endorsement, we ask them about where they stand on Chained CPI. Anyone indicating they plan to go along with Obama and Boehner on cutting benefits for Social Security can't be endorsed by our PAC. Our newest endorsement was this week-- Eloise Reyes, who is running against corporate shill Gary Miller in the San Bernardino area (CA-31). Miller doesn't want to just institute Chained CPI; he would like to privatize or abolish Social Security altogether. He doesn't believe in social insurance policies and never has. It is a dream for extremists like Miller to remove the Third Rail from Social Security. We endorsed Eloise because she assured us she will never go along with that. Yesterday she weighed in on this debate:

I grew up in a family where everyone did their part to make ends meet. My brothers, sisters and I all worked the onion fields alongside our parents to help pay for our school clothes. I understand what it means to work your whole life, pay into Social Security and expect to live out your final years without having to make critical choices between food or medicine or rent.

It’s simply wrong to try to balance the budget on the backs of our seniors, veterans and the disabled. I’m running for Congress to make sure that never happens to anyone in San Bernardino, Upland, Redlands or anywhere else in America. Whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat who proposes it, "chained CPI" is just another way of saying "benefits cuts"-- and I will always hold Congress accountable when it comes to keeping the promises we have made to our seniors.

The families here in the Inland Empire will always come first for me, before anyone in Washington or anyone on Wall Street.

That's the kind of candidates Blue AMerica endorses. If you'd like to help her win her primary battle against a DCCC empty suit with no strongly held beliefs about anything beyond advancing his own career, you can do so here.