Obama Wanted to Cut Social Security. Then Bernie Sanders Happened

[Teamster Jeff]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by LostOne4Ever (a host of the General Discussion forum).

Remember Chained CPI Social Security cuts. Because SS was such a "problem". Yeah me too.

“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.

This idea became a central theme in Sanders’s presidential campaign. In the speech announcing his candidacy, the senator said that “instead of cutting Social Security, we’re going to expand Social Security benefits.”

By April 2013, 2.3 million Americans had signed petitions calling on the president to back off of chained CPI. The signatures were presented at a White House rally that featured Sanders, who vowed to “do everything in my power to block President Obama’s proposal to cut benefits for Social Security recipients through a chained consumer price index.”

The senator mobilized a wide coalition or organizations, including veterans, women’s rights groups, and labor unions to oppose chained CPI.

Under this intense activist pressure, the White House was unable to convince its own allies in Congress that this change was worth the political costs. The next year, the chained CPI was quietly dropped from Obama’s budget proposal.

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.”

Now that's change I can really believe in

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/02/obama-wanted-to-cut-social-security-then-bernie-sanders-happened/

http://xnerg.blogspot.com/

[MattP]

1. Elizabeth Warren happened and Bernie hopped on

Good for him but she was the one

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/11/18/elizabeth-warren-dont-cut-social-security-expand-it/

[LiberalArkie]

3. And this also.. Probably bounced the idea off each other.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/bernie-sanders-obama-budget_n_3046023.html

[SouthernDemLinda]

17. The problem for Clinton.....

[link:http://www.ibtimes.com/hillary-clinton-trans-pacific-partnership-obama-aide-calls-her-out-tpp-past-1975980|http://

Hillary Clinton And Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Aide Calls Her Out On TPP Past

BY CLARK MINDOCK
@CLARKMINDOCK
ON 06/19/15 AT 8:42 PM

Hillary Clinton has found herself in a tough place. Democrats have come together in a high-profile rejection of giving U.S. President Barack Obama broad trade negotiation authority on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and it makes political sense that Clinton has more or less done the same in campaign rallies. The problem for Clinton, though, is that during her time as secretary of state, she may have expressed support for the deal more than a few times -- and at least one Obama administration aide has pointed out her involvement.

In an interview on Bloomberg TV Thursday, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said that negotiating the TPP was one of Clinton’s biggest achievements while at the State Department. Less than a week earlier in Iowa, Clinton said that the president should listen to his allies in Congress, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, when approaching the deal. Pelosi has been a strong ally of Obama on just about everything throughout his presidency, but recently she opposed Obama and the so-called fast track authority for trade deals.

“As you know, we have been negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement to bring that to fruition,” Rice said. “We look forward to receiving trade promotion authority from Congress. That is another significant accomplishment” of Clinton’s.

On Sunday in Des Moines, Clinton took a somewhat measured approach to the subject while saying Obama should heed his Democratic allies. She said she would be tough in similar negotiations if she were president and cited her vast experience voting on trade deals while a Senator from 2000 through 2008.

But, critics have pointed out that she’s held conflicting views on trade deals in the more than two decades she has been in the national public eye. At various points, she’s both supported and opposed trade reform.

As a candidate in 2008, she opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which she supported when her husband promoted it as president in the '90s. She then helped negotiate the TPP as secretary of state. After her tenure at the State Department, she went more or less silent on the topic until recently, when she seemed to reverse course, though in a noncommittal manner.

“What I have advised … is that the president take the opportunity offered by staunch allies like Nancy Pelosi … and try to figure out how to use this as leverage to go back to the other countries and say: ‘You want a lot out of this. I need more,’ ” Clinton told Radio Iowa this week.

The TPP negotiations are a part of the Obama administration’s so-called pivot to Asia. Early in his presidency, Obama outlined a plan to put more energy and focus into the Asian Pacific, especially in terms of economic development. While serving as Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton expressed support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in at least 45 public speeches, according to a roundup of quotes by CNN.

“Now President Obama and I have said many times that this will be America’s Pacific century, and we are focused on the broader Pacific,” Clinton said in remarks on April 12, 2012, at the White House Conference on Connecting the Americas. “That’s why we’re creating the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We recognize the mutual benefits of engagement between the Americas and the rest of the Pacific.”

In April, Clinton’s staff said that she would still consider the trade deal under certain circumstances and hadn’t yet rejected it.

“Hillary Clinton believes that any new trade measure has to pass two tests,” Clinton’s spokesman, Nick Merrill, said in a statement to the New York Times. “First, it should put us in a position to protect American workers, raise wages and create more good jobs at home. Second, it must also strengthen our national security. We should be willing to walk away from any outcome that falls short of these tests.”

But while she seems to be publicly distancing herself from the president’s trade policy, her campaign has quietly partnered with a pro-TPP lobbying firm.

A majority of Americans oppose giving the president fast track authority to negotiate the trade deal, according to a New York Times/CBS poll. There’s at least one other reason that Clinton might be pushed farther away from supporting the TPP: her Democratic primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders, who opposes TPP fast track. He’s already criticized her for maintaining a lukewarm position, and he has surged to within 10 points of Clinton in New Hampshire.[link:http://www.ibtimes.com/hillary-clinton-trans-pacific-partnership-obama-aide-calls-her-out-tpp-past-1975980|]

[SouthernDemLinda]

19. My link didn't come out

[link:http://|http://www.ibtimes.com/hillary-clinton-trans-pacific-partnership-obama-aide-calls-her-out-tpp-past-1975980]

Hillary Clinton And Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama Aide Calls Her Out On TPP Past
BY CLARK MINDOCK @CLARKMINDOCK ON 06/19/15 AT 8:42 PM

[dynamo99]

30. She was for TPP before she was against it

and I don't trust her on the issue, it's the sort of thing Bill would like, too. But let's be fair. The SoS has to toe the line on administration policies, it's her job. She would have had to quit her position to publicly oppose. Quitting her position to oppose Obama would have (at least in her mind) killed her future political chances, no matter what her personal view was.

[SouthernDemLinda]

42. not unheard of for someone to refuse an order from the President of the United States.

Well, then it's real easy, Hillary Clinton should ask Obama to withdraw TPP.

Look at some actually fairly recent history and you'll find that it's not unheard of for someone to refuse an order from the President of the United States.

During the Watergate investigation President Nixon ordered Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox to make no further effort to obtain tapes or other presidential documents. Cox responded that he could not comply with the President's instructions and not only refused but vowed to pursue the tape recordings at news conferences.

Cox had refused to accept or comply with the terms of an agreement worked out by the President and the Senate Watergate committee under which summarized material from the White House Watergate tapes would be turned over to Cox and the Senate committee.

President Nixon abolished the office of the special prosecutor and discharged Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus. Richardson resigned when Nixon instructed him to fire Cox and Richardson refused. When the President then asked Ruckelshaus to dismiss Cox, he refused, Ruckelshaus said he resigned.

Cox said: "Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people."

[scscholar]

27. It's good that they both recognized that we should do this...

even though the math says we shouldn't. People are more important than math.

[davidthegnome]

33. Uhm.

Bernie Sanders has supported liberal policies for decades. He didn't suddenly decide to just "hop on" - whatever hope we have had in the past for progressive ideas and policies, Sanders has been one of the few people to help fight the battles. As an independent, he has done more for the cause of democracy (particularly as, essentially, a "social democrat&quot and progressive ideology in general than most politicians (regardless of party) ever come close to doing. There are few politicians that have earned - and deserve, quite as much praise as Sanders does for all of the work he has done over the years. I like Warren a lot, too, but Warren didn't run for President to lead a reform movement that is desperately needed in this Country. Sanders did.

What he could have accomplished as President... is, I think, at this point irrelevant. The point is, he tried - and I think he did one hell of a job and deserves credit for it. He absolutely pushed in favor of expanding benefits, above and beyond what any politicians here in recent memory have suggested. He absolutely was critical of chained CPI and many, many other very, very bad ideas.

Bernie isn't hopping on any wagon, he's been helping drive the damn thing for years.

[kacekwl]

35. Listening to Brunch with Bernie

for years and have heard him talk about this many times.

[senseandsensibility]

38. absolutely!

[SouthernDemLinda]

47. Bernie jumps on wagon ....while there are giant piles of shit everywhere else!

http://www.wired.com/2016/04/bernie-sanders-panama-papers-told/

[link:http://www.wired.com/2016/04/bernie-sanders-panama-papers-told/

Bernie Sanders On the Panama Papers: Told You So

AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY BUSINESS DATE OF PUBLICATION: 04.05.16.

BACK IN 2011, Bernie Sanders told the Senate that Panama was “a world leader when it comes to allowing large corporations and wealthy Americans to evade US taxes.”

This week, those words are sounding eerily prophetic, and the Sanders campaign, for one, would like to remind you of that fact.

As the world reels from the so-called Panama Papers leak, which exposed the offshore tax havens of world leaders from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Icelandic Prime Minister Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Sanders is calling attention to his opposition to the 2011 Panama Trade Agreement.

“I was opposed to the Panama Free Trade Agreement from day one,” Sanders said in a statement today. “I wish I had been proven wrong about this, but it has now come to light that the extent of Panama’s tax avoidance scams is even worse than I had feared.”

As president, Sanders says he would terminate the agreement within his first six months in office and “conduct an immediate investigation into US banks, corporations, and wealthy individuals who have been stashing their cash in Panama to avoid taxes.”

[Chasstev365]

2. And Bill Clinton wanted people to invest it in the stockmarket

Which of course is why FDR's New Deal created it in the first place, right?

The Clintons are as Progressive as W Bush was "compassionate conservative."

[katmondoo]

4. Will we get a COLA increase this year?

I love Obama but he is the only President that did not increase Cola twice. Even though the grocery bills keep going up.

[JoePhilly]

5. No President can increase COLA on their own ...

... you really need to read up on these things.

The formula for COLA was put in place in the 70s ... and it has not changed ever since.

[840high]

22. I was told no increase because gas

prices went down. Groceries went up. I don't drink gas.

[Scruffy1]

43. This is the real evil of COLA

Seniors have different living expenses than the general population. More on healthcare, less on transportation, etc. The whole formula is twisted on CPI and there are many ways of computing it.

[stuffmatters]

7. One could see that as silently imposing a more drastic chained CPI..not less, nothingx2

[George II]

9. The President doesn't establish the COLA, and he never "wanted to cut Social Security".

[bvar22]

20. You might want to check History beforre making such proclaimations.

Rep. Conyers: Obama Demanded Social Security Cuts--Not GOP

"We've got to educate the American people at the same time we educate the President of the United States. The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor DID NOT call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CALLED FOR THAT," declared US Representative John Conyers in a press conference held by members of the House "Out of Poverty' Caucus on 07/27/11."

Conyers added ""My response to him (President Obama) is TO MASS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE TO PROTEST THIS."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Rep-Conyers-Obama-Demand-by-Jeanine-Molloff-110729-352.html

This declaration is significant both politically and morally as Conyers is not only the second most senior representative in the House, but was also the first member of Congress to endorse candidate Obama.

[NorthCarolina]

8. Bill Clinton wanted to cut Social Security but then

Monica Lewinsky happened.

The Pact Between Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich
Two powerful foes secretly plot to reform Social Security and Medicare.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/05/29/the-pact-between-bill-clinton-and-newt-gingrich

[appalachiablue]

24. +1 Bill and Newt in 1997 WH meetings to privatize, I mean 'reform' SS and Medicare.

Triangulation efforts failed because of Monica Lewinsky scandal news.

[onehandle]

25. What a Free Republic comment.

Goodbye.

[NorthCarolina]

31. It's not a "comment", it's an article. It's not Free Republic, it's US News & World Report.

So now, what's your point you were trying to make? Sorry if a bit of truth offends you.

[cheapdate]

10. Not sure "wanted to cut" really properly captures Obama's outlook.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

18. It doesn't, but this is the DU, where lying about Democrats is standard

More accurately, Obama put Chained-CPI on the table, asking what Republicans would be willing to give up for it.

For good, or ill, the answer was "nothing". And instead they tried to get their way by threatening the full faith and credit of the United States. And that didn't work for them either.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[cheapdate]

23. Uh huh.

[creeksneakers2]

39. Its true

Obama suggested chained CPI if the Republicans would agree to boost taxes on the wealthy. Of course, Obama knew that the GOP would never agree to that. The offer was made to make it look like Obama was being flexible and willing to compromise while the GOP wasn't. Cutting SS was never a serious policy goal of Obama.

[tk2kewl]

26. Simpson Bowles...

Why are democrats beginning bargaining positions by offering concessions? The starting point for negotiations must be the optimal outcome. Was chained CPI the optimal outcome?

[ConservativeDemocrat]

28. The point of compromise is that no one gets everything they want

Social Security is slowly running out of money, thanks to longer lifespans. If nothing is done, the fund will run out of money come 2033. At that point, it will only be able to pay approximately 3/4 of what it owes. That will be a HUGE cut to retiree's incomes, nothing like Chained-CPI, which is largely just a reduction in the way that inflation is calculated, discounting things that the elderly typically don't buy.

Fixing the Social Security fund requires increasing taxes. Republicans don't like that. So Obama was saying "if you raise taxes (on the rich), I'll may agree to a Chained CPI reduction".

Republicans aren't a governing party any more though. They can't even agree with themselves.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[-none]

34. Social Security is slowly running out or money because our Living-Wage-Jobs have been shipped

over seas. Not because of longer life spans.
There is less money being paid into Social Security because the average wage has been dropping since the early 2000's. In fact unemployment for many years was in the double digits. And is still higher than we are being told. That is money not being paid into Social Security also.
Get our Living-Wage-Jobs back into the country and Social Security will be fine.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

36. Longer lifespans, ending of the demographic bubble... wage growth comes up last

But here. I'm not super right wing about this. It wouldn't take much more than a 1% increase in GDP taxes to completely fund the program, and yes, just removing the tax cap of FICA would more than take care of it.

But that would take an act of Congress. Hence, you need to offer the GOP something. Chained CPI wasn't an unreasonable thing to put up to see if that would spur any movement. But it was Republican disinterest, not Sanders, that made President Obama realize that there was no "grand bargain" to be had.

Boehner actually talking to President Obama is what did him in with the teabaggers. I'm so thankful our own Green Teabaggers, who would do the reverse, don't have that much power.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Scruffy1]

44. The lifespan for people at age of retirement has not increased by much.

I make it out to be about 9% by the the stats I have available since 1990. To me its just a meme that has been repeated so often it has become a fact. For working people as a whole it's about 2 years since the eighties. For the Dick Cheneys and Kochs the just never die.

[seabeckind]

37. Not to mention all the subsidiary benefits.

reduction in health insurance subsidy

reduction in social spending and EIC

Tho I couldn't speak of a direct effect on crime, I would bet...

all those people having some extra folding money

Then there's the intangible benefit of not being desperate and in survival mode.

[Scruffy1]

48. Finally some one who has the corect answer.

The meme about "living longer has been repeated so often that it has become an accepted fact.
The real problem is how are we going to fix it? The offshoring of jobs has been going on all of my working life. Nearly every I but is made in Chinese factories. I have watched whole industries disappear. If you make trade deals that raise the cost of goods the public will scream. Most of the young people I know are working for peanuts or less and are a net loss as far as taxation is concerned.
I think Lemmy might have had the answer with the song "Eat the Rich".

[SouthernDemLinda]

49. Tax Cuts for the rich cost more than the wars ....

Thank you. I won't have to tell them all that.

[dflprincess]

32. Not to burst your bubble

Last edited Sun Jun 19, 2016, 11:46 PM - Edit history (1)

but putting chained CPI on the table wasn't really a question of what Republicans would be willing to give up - it was Obama making it clear he'd be happy to throw Social Security recipients under the bus for something the Republicans might give him.

Chained CPI is a cut to benefits and it was people who can afford to do it least who would have been expected to give something up.

[creeksneakers2]

40. The GOP was never going to agree to raise taxes on the rich

Obama's offer to cut wasn't serious.

[maindawg]

11. No one cares about that.

At one time , so I am told , there was some 2 something trillion in a social security fund. Actual money. Set aside through the payroll tax. We had a nice nest egg. We Americans, you and I and your babies. Our grand parents and our parents were who they took that money from. Whether they agreed or lived to collect the benefits they all paid. So then , I am told that Ronald Reagon spent it ?

Oh well , no one cares....

It's funny too that when poor people get their SS at age 65 they only get 900 dollars but when rich people get their SS at the age of 65 they can get many times more . Now I understand about how much they paid but I thought it was supposed to be all based on percentages. How come poor people always stay poor even by percentage?

[stuffmatters]

14. With property tax, all kids in a district get same access to public schools, and there's no cap

Should be the same for soc sec...you pay in based on ALL your income and everybody gets the same basic income.

[seabeckind]

41. I always thought property tax for education is a bad idea

The value of property in districts is tremendously unequal and then when it is balanced against the unequal distribution of children it gets worse.

Our inner city schools are falling apart (Detroit springs to mind) while just 30 miles away the schools have sports stadiums that rival collegiate stadiums.

Then there's the difficulty in attracting good teachers to the poorer districts.

And then there's the control exercised over spending that is used as a lever to control curriculum by local bureaucrats.

But heaven help us if we even hint at talking away local control.

[scottie55]

12. That Damned Sanders - Getting In The Way Of Our Extraction

Signed:

The 1%

[djean111]

13. Oh, it is really just pandering campaign blather. On Obama's part.

And if Hillary is the candidate she may deign to pretend to go along with that. If elected president, she will do what Pete Peterson and the Third Way want to do - gut Social Security. IMO and all that, and I guess tough shit for folks on Social Security if I am right.

[joshcryer]

15. Simpson-Bowles never went anywhere. Obama campaigned on SS.

He said everything should be on the table.

There was no "evolution" about it.

[Beartracks]

16. "As always..."

===================

[Duval]

21. I remember signing the petitions.

[zentrum]

29. Thank God for Bernie and Elizabeth nt

[Scruffy1]

45. Amen.

[highprincipleswork]

46. SO IMPORTANT!

[OnlinePoker]

50. Disability Insurance Fund will run out sometime this year

Old Age Security fund is only increasing because of interest paid on the government treasuries. The money isn't really there. It's just another $2.73 billion debt the Treasury owes. As long as the government raises the debt ceiling, no problem, but, even so, without some serious reform the fund is expected to be empty around 2035.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/tr/2015/II_B_cyoper.html#96807

[AllyCat]

51. But, but, but Bernie never did anything in the senate!

Nothing will change with Clinton at the helm. But it's better than going backwards with tRump.

[LostOne4Ever]

52. LOCKING THREAD AS SOP VIOLATION

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=crimson]I am going to LOCK this thread as a violation of the SOP.[/font]

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#dcdcdc; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025307978[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

Threads about the Democratic presidential primaries are not permitted and must be posted in the General Discussion: Primaries forum.

Threads about the Republican presidential primaries are permitted.

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=crimson]It is the Rule of thumb of the hosting forum that any thread that mentions either democratic candidate is a General Discussion Primaries thread until June 20th (IE the next couple of hours).

Therefore, this thread should not be posted in regular General discussion.[/font]

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=crimson]If you wish to post this thread on DU it is the recommendation of the Hosting Forum to post it in a different forum or group. Possibly consider reposting in General Discussion: Primaries.

Thank you.[/font]