Who did not see this coming?
Remember those warnings about how instead of welcoming President Obama’s adoption of Chained CPI, Republicans would continue to deny him a budget deal and attack him for proposing to cut Social Security?
Well Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) — who also happens to be chairman of the House GOP’s re-election committee — just showed how it’s done, saying Obama’s budget “lays out a shocking attack on seniors.” (via TPM)
Now the GOP gets to run the table in the midterms by (quite rightly) waving around Mr. Obama’s budget. Super strategery you’ve got there Mr. President. Really fucking excellent. Bravo, Sir. Bravo!
Did this guy vote for the Ryan budget? The one that eliminates Medicare?
Mitt Romney did this as well… he ran on Obama’s cuts to medicare. As much as I hate when Obama does this, it normally works to his favor. Who knows. Maybe it’s because he gets to make the centrist noises (without ever having to follow through) while Republicans continue to be the party of no.
The Chained CPI business is horrible. For me, this technocratic bullshit to redo cost of living is meant to get Congress out of the business of paying back the SS surplus funds they’ve already spent. And keep spending. But if the Dems were better at this game, they’d be dining out on the fact that for as much as the GOP has been screaming for a budget and some leadership from the President, they turn their backs on it when they get it.
NPR has been reporting on this and you can tell that they are really struggling for some false equivalency here. But on the radio, the rejection of the President’s budget is pretty much being portrayed as a GOP problem.
And how about this one? Grover Norquist says chained CPI violates the Taxpayer Protection Pledge
I don’t care how it is politically justified or motivated or if it is doable or a bluff or a sharp stick in the eye, it does “lay out a shocking attack on seniors” Shame on any democrat pol who would risk this adventure in playing chicken with vulnerable peoples lives. Wrong, wrong, wrong Mr. President.
John Kowalko
And the GOP response gets better — Club for Growth wants Rep. Walden to explain why he is not for cuts to Social Security.
Looks like Obama is headed toward another one of those inexplicable “victories.” I forget – are we supposed to clap?
What I guess I will never understand about Obama is his view of mid-term elections as unimportant. He has now officially proposed cutting SS benefits – SO IT IS A DEMOCRATIC POLICY PROPOSAL, and every Democratic challenger in the country has to contend with that.
The best way for Democrats to contend with it is to denounce it and vote against it.
Props to Joe Biden and the cliff deal for the revenue givebacks that gave more legs to the austerity program. Well played, sirs.
I wonder if there is a reverse logic that benefits Dems in conservative districts by allowing them to run against Obama on this no-brainer issue.
The “vulcan chess” theory.
Obama has done well with counter-intuitive victories in the past, at least in terms of his personal approval ratings at the expense of the recovery.
Huzzah!
The way I see it is Obama just called the Republicans bluff.
On the other hand, being the most reasonable person in the room won him an election last year.
Have you even looked at the rest of what his budget would do? He proposes a few Republican wish list ideas (liked Chained CPI) in this budget — basically calling their bluff on a few issues. Issues that they’ve already said are DOA. Like means-testing medicare, or asking Fed employees to contribute more to their retirement. So now what? They’re pretty much out of cards at this point.
Boehner is trying to walk this back — basically trying to cherry pick the stuff they want out of it. So far, I see the WH saying it is a complete package. Including eliminating subsidies on the petrochemical industry, reducing farm subsidies, making the AOTC permanent, making the EITC expansions permanent. Chained CPI is distasteful not because it is a GOP idea, but because it gives Congress some breathing room for paying back the SS trust fund at the expense of people who need SS. And there is a study out there (I read it recently but can’t find it now) that indicates that the kinds of expenses that seniors have increase faster than the normal rate of inflation, so that chained CPI would be especially hurtful to them.
Another way to help seniors is with food and drug costs. Begin drug price negotiation, and stop burning up corn in our gas tanks. Then chained CPI would matter less.
And drug price negotiation would count toward “fix it later!”
If seniors has access to free universal health care, the CPI adjustment would not matter much. Health expenses are a major problem for seniors.