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Notwithstanding public pronouncements to the contrary by Joe "too far over his skiis" Biden, and Harry "Mitt Romney pays no taxes" Reid, we learn today that Barry "shiv-in-your-back" Obama is feeling the pain of House Repugnants with such poignancy that he finds it neccessary to bargain away a big chunk of Granny's outyear meal budgets; throwing Boehner a bone as it were, by snatching it from Granny's teeth.
The mechanism for this particular manifestation of Reagan Republicanism in Democratic Mufti is the subtle deception called "chained CPI", a bookkeeping slight-of-hand by way of which legally mandated cost of living increases in benefits are shaved to reflect the tendency of lower income seniors to adapt to privation through the substitution of a cheaper diet for a previous shopping list rendered out of reach by rises in price. (Of chicken, for instance, to be exchanged by the canny shopper for "Chicken Flavored Kibble, New&Improved! Now with aroma crystals!").
The "Senate firewall" with Reid and Sanders in the pass at Thermopylae, may be but a bit of stagecraft to distract.
The tell: We are working with a House Budget Resolution that includes a Reconciliation instruction, added by Lyin' Ryan back in the day, presumably at the behest of John Boehner passing along the desideratum of is grand bargain partner-in-crime, who looked to give cover to ostensible friends of the people in the Senate. (Obama himself, of course, has had a long history of promises to filibuster this or that obnoxious bill for which he later voted, but some others have their pride…
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And Nancy Pelosi, who has never seen any malignant actions taken against Middle Eastern or Asian peoples as bad, is for “strengthening” Social Security.
Now this has nothing to do with the deficit .. and Social Security will not run out of funds for 23 yrs, even with the ridiculously conservative estimates of its “trustees”.
But yeah, let’s strengthen it by never using that big surplus of trillions it has built up for that money’s intended purpose.
Beats letting those tax cuts expire. or cutting defense. .. or putting a tax on financial transactions (which would wipe out most of the deficit) .. or ..
Obama is a sleeze and so is the mega-rich Nancy Pelosi.
People not fighting this cut don’t realize it is the younger ones who will be most affected. If you have 20 yrs. to go before you can retire, the effect will be 7% less benefits. If you have 30 yrs., 11%. So people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s will actually be hit harder than some old dude currently in his 70s.
And of course there will be other tweaking. Social Security is already really bad insurance for high earners, and it will get worse. They may try to cap the benefit at about what is the current median payout.
All in all, this is worth really yelling about.