Here's a good place for Hillary Clinton to start making that contrast with the potential Republican nominee in 2016:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't quite lay out a detailed proposal for Social Security, but in remarks at a roundtable event in New Hampshire on Monday, she did suggest that Republican proposals to "privatize" or "undermine" the program are "just wrong." […]
"My only question to everybody who thinks we can privatize Social Security or undermine it in some way is, so then what's going to happen to all these people like you who worked 27 years at this other company? What's going to happen? It's just wrong," Clinton said.
TPM had previously asked the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign about her position on Social Security—whether she supported expanding it as liberal Democrats have been arguing recently or what she thought of proposals like some of the likely Republican 2016 field.
Spokesman Jesse Ferguson responded, "Hillary has a record of fighting against privatizing Social Security and opposing cuts to seniors benefits and, as she said yesterday, dealing with challenges facing older Americans is a top priority for her."
That's good as far as it goes, though no Democrat should ever be on record as supporting privatization. But it sure sounds like she's going to run against the kinds of cuts—means testing, raising the retirement age—that Republican contenders like
Gov. Chris Christie,
Jeb Bush, or
Gov. Scott Walker have championed.
We'll take that for now, but since 43 Democratic senators (Barbara Mikulski missed the vote, but tweeted her support) are on the record as wanting to expand Social Security, the debate has moved beyond just fighting privatization. What do you say, Secretary Clinton? How about joining the mainstream of the party and running on a stronger Social Security?