Cutting Social Security is no grand bargain

Cutting Social Security is no grand bargain

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“I’m encouraged by any steps that President Obama is taking to save and preserve Social Security,” cooed Texas Republican firebrand Ted Cruz. “I think it should be a bipartisan priority to strengthen Social Security and Medicare to preserve the benefits for existing seniors.”

Oh, please. Social Security hasn’t contributed to the budget deficit. And it’s solvent for the next two decades. (If we want to insure its solvency beyond that, the best fix is to lift the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes – now $113,700.)

And the day Ted Cruz agrees to raise taxes on the wealthy or even close a tax loophole will be when Texas freezes over.

The President is scheduled to dine with a dozen Senate Republicans Wednesday night. Among those attending will be John Boozman of Arkansas, who has already praised Obama for  “starting to throw things on the table,” like the Social Security cuts.

That’s exactly the problem. The President throws things on the table before the Republicans have even sat down for dinner.

The President’s predilection for negotiating with himself is not new. But his willingness to do it with Social Security, the government’s most popular program  — which Democrats have protected from Republican assaults for almost eighty years — doesn’t bode well.

The President desperately wants a “grand bargain” on the deficit. Republicans know he does. Watch your wallets.
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only fools would support changing for the negative the cost of living.  workers, whom contract wages are in some way based on cost of living, are fools if they support this.

does anyone think in contract talks that a business would not press hard to change cpi to chained?