"Sens. Bernie Sanders
There, fixed it.
Posted on 07/08/2011 2:38:11 PM PDT by Evil Slayer
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) warned Friday that President Obama faces turmoil in the Senate and in his reelection campaign if he includes Social Security cuts in any debt-ceiling deal.
The senators said the White House has not communicated effectively to Senate Democrats and they and their rank-and-file colleagues are being frozen out of the process.
“I have talked to some of my colleagues, including some that you might not expect, who say if [White House officials] bring to the Senate a piece of crap that comes down heavy on working families and children and the elderly and they expect me to matter-of-factly vote for it, they'll have another thing coming,” Sanders said. He added that he would filibuster such a deal.
“I do worry that the White House is misreading the Senate and taking things for granted,” Whitehouse said. “There has not been enough communication to alleviate that potential misreading.”
Sanders wants Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to rule out any benefit cuts, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has done.
Whitehouse noted that Democrats can support a $4 trillion deficit-reduction package without touching Social Security. He noted the so-far secret Senate Budget Committee plan has more deficit reduction than the House-passed budget without doing so.
Both men said they have only heard of potential cuts to Social Security through newspaper accounts and they do not know what is on the table.
Sources have said that at the very least, leaders are considering whether to alter how inflation is calculated. This move would reduce benefits by an average of $1,000 per year after 20 years, Sanders noted.
Sanders quoted Obama as saying during the 2008 campaign that he would not change the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
They must have a script. We all know that no real cuts are being proposed.
What they are going to do is introduce means testing.
I will never understand our side. They should be on every tv show today saying ‘Wow this president wants to slash social security on the backs of seniors after he already slashed 500 billion out of medicare to hand out free health care to younger people in Obamacare.’
Republicans should reject any change in SS or Medicare at this time. This is a poison pill being offered by the RATs so they can use it as a campaign issue next near.
The RATs are the real cutters of Medicare - by half a trillion dollars in the ObamaCare law.
This is a winning issue for Republicans if they call out Zero on the real cuts he’s already made to Medicare. I hope they don’t fall for this ruse.
I was listening today to Juan Williams prattling on about the need for “shared sacrifice”, and I sort of agree with him. Its just at the other end of the spectrum.
Here we have 50% of income earners paying no income tax. What’s up with that? 150 million workers?
Ok, cut out the exemptions and deductions enough so that each one pays up to $100 per month in Income tax. That’s a measly $25 a week and it all adds up to $180 billion a year.
That’s a start toward shared sacrifice, instead of pushing all of the sharing to the other end of the income scale.
No “shared sacrifice” for me and mine. Only for you and yours.
To these anti-American bass turds EVERYTHING is a political focus, be damned the nation and our sovereignty!
In a true free society there IS no sacrifice.
This sacrifice talk is nothing but Marxist political crap!
Works for me. Dismantle the Dept of Education, EPA, and any other agency which was formed by drawing down on Social Security Trust Funds. Go back to the date that the revenue for government operations prior to the unified budget act and disband and defund all of those agencies. At that point see what’s still available for social security to fund it’s original obligations it’s taxing us for today.
I agree
Who do you suppose Juan Williams voted for in the last election and who do you think he will vote for in the next one. Does that help you to understand Juan Williams?
No “shared sacrifice” for me and mine. Only for you and yours
Not at all. I’m just pointing out the hypocrisy of the Democrats that ANY cuts to their pet projects is unacceptable while they bleat endlessly about “shared sacrifice”. Well, if there’s going to be a shared sacrifice, everyone should be sacrificing, not just Democrat enemies.
Neighborhoods where 'disability' has become a scam - the new welfare - need to be looked at and cut... Scammers will ruin it for those who really are disabled - or for the 90 year old grandfathers who can't go back to work when the system is destroyed.
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