We need Solidarity Amongst Democrats on Social Security

[jtown1123]

Just read this article in Roll Call saying Dems are "split" on Social Security changes. We need everyone to be on the same page: no cuts, no means testing, no raising the retirement age. Solution? Raise the payroll tax cap. At the end of the day, this is not somehting that needs to be looked at for another 20 or so years. Who knows, by that time, the economy could grow and the 22% shortfall could be nonexistent. All Dems need to fight back against rash and draconian cuts. It's alarming there isn't consensus amongst Democrats on this issue...we are supposed to be the defenders of Social Security.

Roll Call

Social Security Ties Democrats in Knots

By Steven T. Dennis and John Stanton

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is among those who have spoken against recent proposals to cut Social Security.
Democrats are split when it comes to what to do about Social Security — if anything — and the intraparty divide could throttle efforts to get a grand bipartisan budget compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Democratic Policy and Communications Center Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), among others, have all ripped proposals to cut Social Security of late. But Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) both backed President Barack Obama’s fiscal commission proposal, which included a Social Security overhaul that among other things raised the retirement age to 69 and shrunk benefit increases for higher-income seniors as part of a plan to shore up the program for the next 75 years.

The split is equally apparent in the House, with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaking out forcefully against raising the retirement age, an idea floated by several of her deputies, including Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), perhaps the biggest deficit hawk in either chamber.

THE REST: http://www.rollcall.com/issues/56_75/-202993-1.html