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Monday, 15 April 2013

How Badly Will Obama's Chained CPI Error Hurt Democrats In The Midterms?

Posted on 21:00 by Ashish Chaturvedi



Social Security has long been the third rail of American politics. It has generally kept Republican predators, fearful of losing their careers, at bay. By introducing the Republicans' plan for Chained CPI, Obama has weakened the power of the third rail. It's the worst thing he's done since taking office. In the long run, it could well permanently tarnish the Democratic Party brand. And in the short run, many Democrats worry it will destroy the party in the midterms.

Although Boehner and Miss McConnell demanded that Obama include Chained CPI in his budget proposal, the GOP immediately jumped on it as a betrayal of seniors and vets (which it certainly is). Greg Walden (R-OR), head of the NRCC, immediately went on the attack against Democrats for this "shocking attack on seniors." Who couldn't have seen that coming?

Democratic candidates are being put into the uncomfortable position of having no choice but to distance themselves from Obama. Mike Lillis at The Hill reported that no less a party Establishment shill than Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a former-- failed-- head of the DCCC, who oversaw the catastrophic Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010, recognizes the danger for Democrats running for Congress next year and that "Walden's comments foreshadow a line of attack the GOP will use on the campaign trail."
"There are the substantive concerns about the chained CPI-- I share many of them-- but there are also the political concerns," Van Hollen said Friday. "And the fact [is] that Republicans were very quick to show they would use this as a political weapon against Democrats.

"I know there have been efforts to rewind the tape on that," Van Hollen said, referencing Republican criticisms of Walden's comments, "but that first salvo demonstrated what the Republican campaign committee intends to do."

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said Obama's Social Security proposal was a gift to Republicans that could single-handedly kill any chance the party had at regaining the Speaker's gavel in 2014.

"Seniors vote in even heavier numbers, proportionately, in off-year elections," he said. "So just looking at a political standpoint... I would think that this would be a damning blow to our chances of taking back the House next year."

...Walden delivered a different verdict, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Obama was “trying to balance this budget on the backs of seniors."

That's precisely the message Republicans used to great effect in 2010, when, despite their own calls to slash Medicare spending, they accused Democrats of threatening seniors by enacting billions of dollars in Medicare cuts under Obama's signature healthcare reform law.

"I don't underestimate the degree to which they'll be disingenuous," Rep. Mark Takano (Calif.), a freshman Democrat who has emerged as one of the loudest critics of Social Security benefit cuts, said Friday. "It harkens back to the charge that $700 billion was taken from Medicare and put into ObamaCare, and [they] told all the seniors it was a [benefit] cut. That was very deceptive, [and] this is another instance of that."

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), another staunch defender of Social Security, echoed that charge Friday.

"I never underestimate Republican hypocrisy," he said.

Not all Democrats fear Obama's chained CPI proposal will be a liability for the party during the midterms. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, argued that the president proposed the change, so any political fallout should be directed at him.

"They cannot lay that dead cat at our door," Ellison said Friday. "I don't know how it's going to affect the president's brand, but it would be completely unfair to affect the House Democratic Caucus brand, because we had nothing to do with it and most of us are affirmatively and explicitly against it."

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), another fierce critic of chained CPI, offered another reason he thinks GOP attacks on Obama's budget won’t stick: Republicans, he said, have crusaded for similar entitlement cuts for too long to reverse course convincingly.

"The party that champions the dismantling of Medicare has a hard time attacking anybody for going after seniors," Deutch said Friday. "They would not come with clean hands to that argument."

Deutch predicted the conservative House Republican conference would ultimately prevent Walden and his National Republican Congressional Committee from attacking Obama's chained CPI proposal on the campaign trail, even if it would prove effective.

"There are too many members of his caucus who want to do real harm to Social Security and Medicare," Deutch said. "They won't allow him to even make that political argument because he'll expose them for what they really want to do."

Complicating the GOP attacks on Obama's proposal, more than 100 Republicans voted this year in favor of the Republican Study Committee budget, which includes a shift to the chained CPI.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) argued that the Republicans' track record on Social Security-- which includes the effort by President George W. Bush to privatize the program-- would make it "immensely difficult" for GOP leaders to make an effective campaign strategy out of Obama's proposal.

"They are firmly embedded in the minds of the public as being a party that does not support Social Security," DeFazio said. "Hypocrisy is rife around here, but I think that was a personal statement by Greg Walden. … I don't think this is a budding strategy."

..."Our job is to make clear that Mr. Walden's crocodile tears over [Obama's proposal] rings insincere and hollow," Takano said. "As a whole, Republicans want to do far, far, far more damage than chained CPI."
And aside from the obvious crackpots like Louie Gohmert, Phil Gingrey, Ted Yoho, Steve King, Mike Pompeo, Steve Stockman and Paul Broun, among the Republicans who voted for Chained CPI in the Republican Study Committee budget were members of Boehner's inner-circle like House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), House Homeland Security Committee chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX), and House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX). In CA-25, for example, Lee Rogers has been very clear that he opposes Chained CPI and all cuts to earned benefits for seniors and veterans, while McKeon already voted for it. Rogers: "I’m eager to find out where McKeon stands on taking away benefits from seniors, since he’s supported previous measures like ending the Medicare benefit and raising the Social Security age. As a doctor I am adamantly opposed to cutting benefits to our population in most need. I announced several weeks ago, I would have been a day-one signer of the letter Mark Takano and Alan Grayson authored pledging to protect seniors and veterans from cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, including chained CPI."


Other Democrats have similar dynamics at work. Florida anti-Social Security Republican, John Mica, voted for the Study Committee Budget and for Chained CPI. His opponent, Nick Ruiz has this to say about the Chained CPI scheme: "I would never vote to diminish Social Security benefits.These benefits cover retirees, widows, children, disabled persons and veterans-- none of whom receive enough as it is by current economic standards of reasonable cost, inflation and common decency. In fact, it's part of my platform to actually increase Social Security benefits, financed by lifting the FICA cap, and Wall Street cost-sharing." Same for Kenneth Sanders in TX-06. Joe Barton is a Chained CPI fan and voted for it. Sanders has been clear that "Chained CPI and the Ryan budget are both wrong for America. What this country needs right now is the kind of booming job creation that will get the economy running again. Penalizing seniors by taking Social Security earnings out of their pockets in not just wrong for the economy; it's immoral."

But will voters be able to distinguish? Or will they just have Obama and Chained CPI in mind-- with the help of a misleading GOP advertising blitz-- when they go to the polls in 2014?

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Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (500)
    • ►  July (35)
    • ►  June (150)
    • ►  May (153)
    • ▼  April (148)
      • If Gay Marriage Were Legal In 1998, Maybe Paul Cro...
      • Ted Cruz vs Chris Van Hollen-- How To Win Friends ...
      • Well, Of Course Rich Kids Are Smarter Than Poor Kids
      • Colbert's Sister-- Next Tuesday
      • NRA Shills In The Senate In Trouble-- At Least On ...
      • Still-active NBA center Jason Collins comes out --...
      • Is The GOP Still In Thrall To The Lavender Scare?
      • Big Brother Never Goes Away-- CISPA Is A Real Dang...
      • Maybe It Really Isn't Fair To Always Just Blame Th...
      • If you've kept up on your mega-bundling, Paris cou...
      • Awwwwww... Frank Luntz Gets Outed-- And Then Gets ...
      • Sunday Classics: My dark history with the rolllick...
      • Does Anyone Think The Republican Party Is The Same...
      • How Long Before Half the Gays Will Vote Republican?
      • Better Know A District-- Or, Better Yet, A Top Not...
      • TV Watch: Say, has anybody been watching this CBS ...
      • South Carolina Closets
      • Swing Districts-- The Utter Failure Of Steve Israe...
      • Unanimous Consent-- If Not Courageous
      • Sunday Classics re-preview: Enter Donizetti's phon...
      • Ooh please, could we have Todd Akin to kick around...
      • This Tragedy Among GOP Closet Cases Is No Longer I...
      • Big Business And Immigration... And Paul Ryan
      • Conspiracy Theory Lunatics Are Now Part of The Rep...
      • Will Her Fealty To The NRA Cost Kelly Ayotte A New...
      • So what would YOU have said at the opening of Chim...
      • You Might Be A Republican If... You Think First Gr...
      • What Has The Republican Party Done To The American...
      • Guest Post By Jay Stamper, Who's Running For The S...
      • Ugly On The Outside
      • TV Watch: Newfangled ways of measuring time (1): F...
      • Ending Jail Overcrowding in LA County-- Guest Post...
      • EMILY's List Up To No Good Again-- In L.A... And I...
      • NRA And K Street Lose A Powerful Senator-- Max Bau...
      • Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) Who Once Voted For DOMA Is Gettin...
      • American Political Elites Are Really Bad-- Roundup
      • Massachusetts Senate Primary-- One Week From Today
      • Who Remembers Weasel Words? Interpreting Ro Khanna
      • What Can We Learn From What The GOP Is Doing To No...
      • Can The Koch Brothers Turn The L.A. Times Into The...
      • Monday Bits-- Colbert's Sister Going To Congress? ...
      • Will Grassroots Democrats Rise Up And Throw The Bu...
      • Capitalizing On Tragedy
      • Republicans And Their Bankster Buddies Have A Plan...
      • Plato: "The Measure Of A Man Is What He Does With ...
      • How The NRA Prevents Law Enforcement From Catching...
      • Lindsey Graham... Not Courageous
      • Our Chained CPI "Contest" Is Over Tomorrow Morning
      • Surprised That Freaks And Kooks Like Glenn Beck Ar...
      • Mark Smith, Democratic Candidate For Pennsylvania ...
      • Not Enough Retirements In The House To Make Room F...
      • Rep. Steve Southerland In For The Fight Of His Life
      • Lindsey Graham, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Drones, Constit...
      • Pervez Musharraf Returns To Pakistan, Declares He'...
      • Sunday Classics preview: There's something about t...
      • The Lamest Ducks In The House-- A Beltway-Eyed View
      • How Will Peter King Respond To Rick Perry's Reques...
      • CISPA... Who Betrayed Us Yesterday And What It Mea...
      • Aaron Schock, GOP Closet Twink, Defends Twinkies' ...
      • It Would Be Great To Get Allyson Schwartz Out Of C...
      • Nuggets-- Mostly Gun Control
      • Whose Fault Was The Gun Control Vote In The Senate?
      • Can Republican Closet Case Lindsey Graham Survive ...
      • 104 Republican Congressmen Voted To Reduce Benefit...
      • Welcome To The Ron Paul Institute... No, Really
      • U.S.A.-- A Country Of Economic Refugees
      • More Bits, More Pieces Than I Actually Intended: R...
      • La Reforma Integral De La Inmigración
      • Is Obama Throwing Seniors Under The Bus So He Can ...
      • When Miss McConnell Passes Will "Ding Dong" Top Th...
      • Bits'n'Pieces-- Guns And Religion
      • Republican Party Civil War Roils Illinois And Alaska
      • "Free" Trade-- Another Way For Conservatives To Un...
      • Marco Rubio: "Keep On Dreamin'"
      • How Badly Will Obama's Chained CPI Error Hurt Demo...
      • New & Noteworthy-- If Not News And Newsworthy
      • EPA Director Confirmation Hearings Turn Into A Deb...
      • How Unfair Are Taxes?
      • Help Save Social Security... And Win A 311 Platinu...
      • Death Penalty For Crooked Congressmen And Their Cr...
      • The case of Penney CEO Ron Johnson: Managerial "ge...
      • How Badly Does The GOP Want To Obliterate Unions? ...
      • Sunday Classics: From brooding depths to sparkling...
      • Republican Party Makes A Decision-- They'll Hold O...
      • TV Watch: "Army Wives" soldiers on, taking large c...
      • Pot, Aliens And Politicians... And The Unending Sa...
      • Paul LePage's Shocking Bully Politics In Maine
      • Chained CPI... Is Suddenly An Orphan
      • Wall Street Was Right About Elizabeth Warren-- She...
      • Sunday Classics preview: A haunting little piece t...
      • Some straight people really are grasping that LGBT...
      • Joe Barton (R-TX) And A Buy Bull Environmental Str...
      • Buck McKeon Throwing In The Towel?
      • Ted Cruz's NRA Filibuster Crushed
      • Take a bow, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara -- scourge...
      • Boehner Comes Through For China Again-- Defeats Ma...
      • Intellectual Dishonesty Bi-Partisan Style
      • Anyone Want To Run Against ConservaDem Adam Schiff...
      • Any Congressional Democrat Who Backs Cutting Socia...
      • Showdown At the OK Corral... Tomorrow
    • ►  March (14)
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Ashish Chaturvedi
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