Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
For a long time we have been telling the President and all Democrats one thing. There is no need to try and compromise or "reach out" to the modern Republican Party led by such "people" as John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. Indeed reaching out to these folks only leads to one thing. Pulling back a bloody nub. And now for a President that seems all to willing to sell his base and his beliefs down the river for some "grand bargain" to create some sort of legacy to be "proud" of we can only ask this. Ready to fight yet?
Indeed, instead of fighting the Republicans in the court of public opinion over policies that have destroyed the middle-class and asking the wealthy to pay more Obama seems determined to do what Republicans do best, call for sacrifice once again from the most vulnerable Americans:
Obama’s plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 calls for slower growth in government benefits programs for the poor, veterans and the elderly, as well as higher taxes, primarily from the wealthy.
Obama proposes spending cuts and revenue increases that would result in $1.8 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years, replacing $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are otherwise poised to take effect over the next 10 years.
Obama’s plan includes $580 billion in new taxes that Republicans oppose. There’s also a new inflation formula, rejected by many liberals, that would reduce the annual cost of living adjustments for a range of government programs, including Social Security and benefits for veterans.
Obama made no mention of the effect his budget would have on Social Security and other social safety net programs. That idea drew a hostile reaction from some of his most ardent political backers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
And indeed as always with Obama it seems as if he is much more willing to alienate his base and those who really need him to fight for them in a failed attempt to reach some "grand bargain" with those who care nothing about anyone but themselves:
The AFL-CIO, the nation's largest coalition of unions and a staunch supporter of President Barack Obama, blasted Obama's budget proposal on Saturday in an email to supporters that urges them to sign a petition opposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Liberals have made known their opposition to Obama's proposal since reports started emerging on Friday. At highest issue is the proposal known as Chained CPI, a means of cutting Social Security and other entitlement programs by using a different inflation measure that won't rise as much. It would have its biggest effect on Social Security.
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/...
The AARP also ripped into Obama's Chained CPI and informed it's members exactly what that meant to them:
The acronym is easy: CPI stands for consumer price index, a formula that looks at how the prices of stuff we need (food, for example) change over time. It's used to make cost-of-living adjustments in programs such as Social Security, veterans benefits and food stamps.
How much could payments change? Estimates show that under the chained CPI, your cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) would be about .3 percentage point below the plain old CPI. That works out to $3 less on every $1,000, which doesn't sound like much — except that it keeps compounding over time.
Look at it this way: The COLA for this year was 1.7 percent. If your monthly Social Security check was $1,250 last year, it increased to $1,271.25 this year.
With the chained CPI, you would be getting $1,267.50 — or $3.75 less a month and $45 less a year. Again, that might not seem like a big reduction, but if the COLA is the same next year, the difference increases to $7.61 a month and $91.32 for the year.
http://www.aarp.org/...
Paul Krugman has explained why this is quite simply a stupid idea:
Does it make sense in policy terms? No. First of all, there is no reason to believe that the chained index is a better measure of inflation facing seniors than the standard CPI. It’s true that the standard measure arguably understates inflation for the typical household — but seniors have a different consumption basket from the young, one that includes more medical expenses, and probably face true inflation that’s higher, not lower, than the official measure.
Anyway, it’s not as if the current level of real benefits has any sacred significance. The truth — although you’ll never hear this in Serious circles — is that we really should be increasing SS benefits. Why? Because the shift from defined-benefit pensions to defined contribution, the rise of the 401(k), has been a bust, and many older Americans will soon find themselves in dire straits. SS is the last defined-benefit pension still standing — thank you, Nancy Pelosi, for standing up to Bush — and should be strengthened, not weakened.
So what’s this about? The answer, I fear, is that Obama is still trying to win over the Serious People, by showing that he’s willing to do what they consider Serious — which just about always means sticking it to the poor and the middle class. The idea is that they will finally drop the false equivalence, and admit that he’s reasonable while the GOP is mean-spirited and crazy.
Oh, and wanna bet that Republicans soon start running ads saying that Obama wants to cut your Social Security?
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/...
Bernie Sanders has long been a fighter for working people and Progressive ideals in the Senate. Needless to say he was less than impressed with the Obama "compromise":
Millions of working people, seniors, disabled veterans, those who have lost a loved one in combat, and women will be extremely disappointed if President Obama caves into the long standing Republican effort to cut Social Security and benefits for disabled veterans and their survivors through a so-called chained CPI. In 2008, candidate Barack Obama told the American people that he would not cut Social Security. Having him go back on his word will only add to the rampant political cynicism that our country is experiencing today.
If Obama is serious about dealing with our deficit he would not cut Social Security – which has not added one penny to the deficit. Instead, he would support legislation that ends the absurdity of one out of four profitable corporations paying nothing in federal income taxes. He would also help us close the offshore tax haven loopholes that enable large corporations and the wealthy to avoid paying $100 billion a year in federal taxes.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/...
And after all this alienating of his base, after asking seniors, disabled veterans, the poor and their children to sacrifice yet again what did Obama achieve with all this "reaching out"? He is pulling back a bloody nub just as we predicted. The Prince of Orange John Boehner came out with gnashing of teeth:
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday that President Obama was holding needed entitlement reforms "hostage" after the White House said that its budget, to be released next week, will propose cuts to Social Security and other programs.
"If the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there's no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes," Boehner said in a statement. "That’s no way to lead and move the country forward."
Boehner said Friday that Obama should not "make savings we agree upon conditional on another round of tax increases."
"At some point we need to solve our spending problem, and what the president has offered would leave us with a budget that never balances," Boehner said. "In reality, he’s moved in the wrong direction, routinely taking off the table entitlement reforms he’s previously told me he could support."
Read more:
http://thehill.com/...
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The Prince of Orange is not alone. It does not matter how much sacrifice Obama offers up for the most vulnerable in our society the modern Republican Party is still determined to ensure one thing. They will not sacrifice one penny to the debt they ran up and the economy they crashed. Obama's bloody nub is the fact that Republicans simply insist on the fact that the budget will be balanced on everyone's backs but their own:
On the budget, Mr. Obama has tried both strategies — negotiating personally with Speaker John A. Boehner on a “grand bargain” for taxes and entitlement-program reductions, and when that failed, letting Congress try, which also failed. Now, with the bipartisan effort moribund, the president has decided he has no option but to publicly take the lead to revive negotiations with hopes of drawing some Republican support.
So the budget he is sending to Congress will embody his last compromise offer to Mr. Boehner in December. For the first time, Mr. Obama is formally proposing to reduce future Social Security benefits, if Republicans will agree to higher taxes on the wealthy and some corporations.
Republican leaders already have rejected the overture, based on early reports about it. But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Mr. Obama is “showing some signs of leadership that’s been lacking. I’m encouraged.”
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Sadly the grand total of one Republican, Lindsey Graham has even said one positive thing about the President's offer. And of course that is all dependent upon the President throwing millions of the most vulnerable Americans under the bus for his "grand bargain".
That is why we are encouraging the President once again to do what he has needed to do all along. Stop trying to compromise with the most selfish, unpatriotic folks in America who care nothing of anyone but themselves. They have shown they will crash our economy with their greed and block recovery in a shameless attempt to win elections. An attempt that by the way failed miserably. They care nothing of anything except padding their pockets at the expense of the rest of us.
If Obama is really concerned about creating a legacy he should give up making it the President who achieved a "grand bargain". Instead he should make his legacy the President who finally stood up the the greediest and least patriotic among us and fought for those who really, desperately needed someone in power on their side for once.
President Obama needs to stand up and fight these Republicans tooth and nail for every inch of America. They have no interest in compromise, they just want to pad their pockets with the destruction of America. The President should use all his power to defend all of us for once, not be complicit in the further destruction of the middle-class and the raping of the poor that Republicans enjoy so much.
So my message to the President is this. Quit "reaching out" and pulling back a bloody nub. A majority of the country voted for you and need you to fight, not compromise. Millions of Americans including your base would stand behind you proudly as you embarked upon a campaign to fight those that destroyed our livelihoods. Our only question to you is, are you ready to fight yet?