Why hasn't Obama cut Social Security yet? What's he waiting for?

[ProSense]

The House passed of Ryan's budget several times. Why hasn't it reached Obama's desk?

I mean, there are 47 Republicans. It would only take four Democrats.

(Wednesday), except for a couple of hypocrites worried about reelection, Senate Republicans joined their House brethren and voted to end Medicare as we know it. The only really interesting vote was on Rep. Paul Ryan's budget, the one that the House passed and that Mitt Romney has endorsed. It failed 58-41.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/17/11743158-senate-gop-backs-radical-ryan-plan

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00098

They could have easily compromised on this and carry out Obama's sinister plan.

Why haven't they?

[joshcryer]

1. "This is less a budget plan and more a right-wing fantasy."

But apparently Obama, by being open to anything, actually advocates the plan.

[ProSense]

2. This should be

easy. He wants it. People can taste that he wants it. Yet he missed several key opportunities to strike.

[jberryhill]

3. Don't you get it?

It's like Wayne LePissant of the NRA said about guns.

Sure, he didn't do it in his first term, but that was just a head fake. You see, he's trying to lull us all into complacency with the first term, so he can get re-elected, and then BLAM he's going to do a 180 - he will personally drown sick old poor people in the Rose Garden Fountain with his own bare hands.

Michelle will bury them out back in the garden.

Oh, and, yeah, they'll all be WHITE sick old people. Everyone else will get debit cards with enough funding to get flat screen TV's, alcohol, and intimate electric shavers

[ProSense]

4. I don't expect

too many responses. I don't think anyone knows why this hasn't happened yet.

[jberryhill]

5. It was a secret executive order!

He already did it!

Have you noticed that just about everyone who warned us of the FEMA camps has "disappeared" from DU!

Wake up, sheeple!

[freshwest]

22. LOL! No wonder it's so quiet since the election...

[sabrina 1]

6. Not even the Republicans will touch SS before an election. No one is worried

about that now. Even Ryan, who declared a few years ago that SS was no longer the 'third rail' of politics, found out just how wrong he was and won't be talking about SS cuts before the election.

I can't wait to see him wiggle and squirm when that question comes up.

But we all know that privatizing SS has been the hallmark of his career up to now.

But as I said, he's not going to do it before the election. That would be political suicide. And the same goes for Dems, which is why people want a commitment from them, now.

[ProSense]

7. Wait

"But as I said, he's not going to do it before the election. That would be political suicide. And the same goes for Dems, which is why people want a commitment from them, now."

...so he wasn't planning on doing it last year or earlier? Are you saying that House Republicans voting for the Ryan plan was a bluff?

[sabrina 1]

11. No, it was not a bluff. But that was last year. They think the people have very short

memories. They say and do one thing one day, and then the next tell you you misunderstood them. And it works with far too many people.

How many people even know about that?

But this is where Dems can win. That's all everyone is saying, first by not letting the people forget, then positioning themselves as the protectors of SS. And they need to cover everything, the lie that it caused the deficit, eg.

They talk to Bernie Sanders and get his speeches on SS. NO ONE is more clear on the facts than he is. AND on eviscerating the lies that any 'fixing' or 'stregtheninig' is needed. Raise the cap and explain what that means as you'd be surprised how many people do not know.

If they do it right, this issue alone could give the Dems a huge victory. It's all up to them. Ryan was a gift, let's see what they do with it.

[ProSense]

12. Good points. Still

I'd like to know, based on the claims that the President wants to cut Social Security, why he hasn't done so yet.

[SidDithers]

8. DU rec...nt

Sid

[TheKentuckian]

9. Because his commissions and gangs didn't have the votes.

I see no indication he wishes to go as far as Ryan nor does he wish to accept all that goes along with it. There are light-years of space between Ryan and Simpson-Bowles and even more space between that pile of crap and the status quo. I'm sure Obama's mind is not so limited that there is Ryan or nothing, though it seems far removed from any expansion of benefits or reducing the age of eligibility.

I don't get the argument that Obama isn't pushing for austerity because if he wasn't we'd never have seen a single one of these commissions and gangs. If it wasn't on his agenda then it wouldn't be on the table.

If it is a show then it should be clear that TeaPubliKlans aren't buying it, independents either don't buy it or are spooked by it, so it seems the sham is only fooling a few liberals and Democratic leaning independents and that means it is time to work a different formula.

The genius chess move shtick is played out and has proven nonsensical and ineffective in this area.

"Why hasn't he done it yet?" is a piss poor excuse when he keeps trying and keeps talking about and no one is impressed and the only people that pretend to be are ardent supporters who also claim it is a rouse and generally claim to be against cuts (though some push Koch positions or call for idiotic compromise with a bunch of devils).

[ProSense]

10. The OP has

"Because his commissions and gangs didn't have the votes."

...has nothing to do with the "commission." Still, the fact that it's dead hasn't stopped the speculation.

"Why hasn't he done it yet?" is a piss poor excuse when he keeps trying and keeps talking about and no one is impressed and the only people that pretend to be are ardent supporters who also claim it is a rouse and generally claim to be against cuts (though some push Koch positions or call for idiotic compromise with a bunch of devils).

So you believe all he's doing is "talking"?

I asked, based on the facts in the OP, why hasn't the President cut Social Security yet, especially given the speculation surrounding Ryan?

[HiPointDem]

13. because the republicans wouldn't meet his terms? that's how it was reported.

What happened? Obama and his advisers have cast the collapse of the talks as a Republican failure. Boehner, unable to deliver, stepped away from the deal, simple as that.

But interviews with most of the central players in those talks — some of whom were granted anonymity to speak about the secret negotiations — as well as a review of meeting notes, e-mails and the negotiating proposals that changed hands, offer a more complicated picture of the collapse. Obama, nervous about how to defend the emerging agreement to his own Democratic base, upped the ante in a way that made it more difficult for Boehner — already facing long odds — to sell it to his party. Eventually, the president tried to put the original framework back in play, but by then it was too late. The moment of making history had passed.

The actions of Obama and his staff during that period in the summer reflect the grand ambitions and the shortcomings of the president’s first term.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-evolution-behind-the-failed-grand-bargain-on-the-debt/2012/03/15/gIQAHyyfJS_print.html

[ProSense]

14. So

"because the republicans wouldn't meet his terms? that's how it was reported."

...why didn't he meet theirs? I mean, he allegedly wants to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, why wouldn't he move in their direction. He had the cover. All he had to do was get a few Senators to join the Republicans.

[HiPointDem]

15. you again? assuming the WaPo report is accurate, he has to get enough in return to cover what

he gives up.

that's how it is with bargaining, usually.

[ProSense]

16. Really?

"assuming the WaPo report is accurate"

That's the definitive indication that he wants to cut Social Security and couldn't?

He had a chance. Republicans wanted it, and he allegedly wanted it. In fact, he really wants it. So why hasn't he done it yet?

Certainly if they could come to an agreement on defense cuts, they could have thrown in cuts to benefits.

Again, this strays from the OP point, which is specifically about the Ryan vote.

[HiPointDem]

17. I told you what i thought, you're blowing smoke.

[ProSense]

18. No, I'm not

You didn't address the specific point in the OP based on the examples given. You referenced the "commission," which has nothing to do with the OP.

[HiPointDem]

19. you must be mistaking me for someone else. i haven't said a word about any commission all night.

[ProSense]

20. You're right

You referenced the debt deal, which is also not the point of the OP.

The point is to address the claims about the President's desire to cut Social Security and Ryan's plan now that he's Mitt's running mate.

The OP cites a specific set of votes on Ryan's plan.

[HiPointDem]

21. entitlement spending was reportedly part of the bargain, so it *is* the point. i've had enough of

you, goodnight.