Democratic Primary Voters Don't Like Flip-Flopping On Social Security-- And In Oregon, It's Not Just Trump Who Is-- Tuesday Is D-Day For Kurt Schrader

At least Trump doesn't support "saving" Social Security and Medicare by cutting the benefits, the way Paul Ryan, most Republicans and the Wall Street-owned New Dems do. Right? As with all policy matters involving Trump, who knows? At one time he said he opposed cuts to Social Security nut now that he's trying to corral support from the Republican Establishment-- not just approval from Paul Ryan by $100 million from anti-Social Security fanatic, half man/half pig Sheldon Adelson-- Trump now says he's open to cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Speaking Wednesday at the world capital of Let's Get Rid Of Social Security, the Pete Peterson Foundation, a top Trump advisor, Sam Clovis, said Trump would be open to a bipartisan look at entitlement spending and would consider changes to Social Security and Medicare if he is elected. "After the administration has been in place, then we will start to take a look at all of the programs, including entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare... We'll take a hard look at those to start seeing what we can do in a bipartisan way," said Clovis. But "a bipartisan way" doesn't mean dealing with mainstream Democrats like Pelosi. It means dealing with the treacherous Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the New Dems and Blue Dogs. We'll come back to that in a moment.

On the campaign trail in Wisconsin last month, [Trump] attacked Republicans who he said would cut Social Security benefits.

"It's my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is," Trump said during a Republican debate in March. "I want to make our country rich again so we can afford it."

Trump has been using Social Security and Medicare as a bludgeon to beat up on Paul Ryan and has connected the dots for his followers over the months: "[Ryan is] so anti-Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security," Trump told them. Last week he responded to Ryan by tweeting "I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda."

As Morning Consult reported Thursday, this is getting more serious as Republicans huddled with Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton behind closed doors last week, plotting how to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicare benefits.

Medicare changes discussed at the meeting included enhancing Medicare Advantage, the private alternative to traditional fee-for-service Medicare, and raising the Medicare eligibility age... [L]eaders also talked about using per-capita caps to fund Medicaid.

..."A lot of it is just trying to understand what they’re trying to do. But it’s turning out to be more encompassing than what we expected. Previously, we only talked about the private marketplace and Medicaid expansion. Now, we’re actually adding in Medicare and the premium support-- the things Paul Ryan has been talking about for years," said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

So what about the Democrats who are the Ryan side of the argument, the ones who want to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits and raise the retirement age? Almost no Democrats will publicly admit they're in that camp but when the head of the Blue Dogs, Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader, offered an amendment on February 6, 2013 to accept the Simpson Bowles proposals that do just that, 54 right-of-center Democrats went along. Schrader's House Amendment 19 to HR 444 failed 75-348. Thankfully, many of the Democratic traitors were defeated at the polls and are no longer in Congress, but these are some of the Democrats who voted for a death sentence for Social Security that day:

• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)
• Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)
• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Joe Crowley (New Dem-NY)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Susan Davis (New Dem-CA)
• John Delaney (New Dem-MD)
• Denny Heck (New Dem-WA)
• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)
• Steny Hoyer (MD)
• Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
• Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)
• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)
• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Loretta Sanchez (Blue Dog-CA)
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)
• Adam Smith (New Dem-WA)
• Chris Van Hollen (MD)
• Filemon Vela (New Dem-TX)

New Dems Joe Garcia (FL) and Pete Gallego (TX) both voted for it as well and were subsequently defeated for reelection. I mention these two scumbags because both are trying to worm their way back into Congress this year. This would be an especially good year week to defeat Kurt Schrader, who has a strong progressive opponent, Dave McTeague. The two face off Tuesday. Bernie is expected to win in Oregon. If all his voters back McTeague, who is actively campaigning for Bernie-- while Schrader is a pledged Hillary SuperDelegate-- Schrader will be defeated and a major message about accountability will go out to every corrupt Democrat in Congress. McTeague and all the progressives on this list want to expand, not cut, Social Security: