Sen. Sanders says he's 'not confident' Obama will protect Social Security

[brentspeak]

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/275765-sen-sanders-not-confident-obama-will-protect-social-security

Sen. Sanders says he's 'not confident' Obama will protect Social Security
By Sam Baker - 01/05/13 10:17 AM ET

Sanders said he's "not confident" that President Obama will try to protect entitlements — particularly Social Security — during upcoming talks about raising the country's debt ceiling.

"Well, we've got to make the president and Republicans and any Democrats that want to cut Social Security an offer they can`t refuse, and that is tens of millions of people have got to make it very clear to Congress -- Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit," Sanders said Friday night in an interview with MSNBC's Ed Schultz.

During the recently concluded talks to avoid the "fiscal cliff," the White House had agreed to changing the way inflation is calculated for Social Security benefits. Sanders and other liberal Democrats strongly resisted the idea, and have also protested cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Obama has proposed raising the Medicare eligibility age in previous talks with congressional Republicans. That idea could resurface as Republicans look for spending cuts to accompany another hike to the debt ceiling.

"What we have got to say is, no, Mr. President, you`re not going to cut Social Security. You`re not going to cut Medicaid. You`re not going to cut Medicare," Sanders said.

[patrice]

1. KICK

[ProSense]

2. What we should say

is Congress voted for and the President signed into law an exemption of Social Security from the negotiations.

The Left's Sequester Leverage
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022129660

[No Compromise]

3. I wish Obama cared about Social Security like Republicans do...

[Doctor_J]

4. The excuses being floated by both the 3rd Way and

the Kool-Aid drinkers are extremely discouraging. I quite seriously don't know how someone who supports cuts OR the president who would enact them can call him/herself a Dem. Both SS and Medicare should be expanded, the way FDR and LBJ intended. Imagine the spectacle of a Dem president siding with Phil Gramm, Bill Kristol, and the Heritage Foundation AGAINST Sanders, Grayson, and the Progressive Caucus. He will give credence to his recent declaration that he's a Republican. Quite honestly, when Obama signs off on the cuts, I am pretty much done with him and the party.

[RandiFan1290]

5. They are the 'Noble Lie' people

Democrat or Republican mean nothing to them. They will play what ever roll gets them elected.

[Autumn]

6. Neither am I Bernie.

I have no confidence in that at all K/R

[stultusporcos]

7. I don't know anyone who thinks PBO will protect SS

but all my friends are liberal and progressive so maybe we are a bit biased or we actually pay attention as to what is going on.

I fully expect him to chain CPI and by 16 we get a GOP WH, 60 GOP Seats in the Senate and Clear GOP Majority in the house in other words he f's with SS he and all the Dems will kill the Democratic Party for a generation.

[Doctor_J]

11. There are lots at DU

look back a few weeks.

[stultusporcos]

12. A Dem will kill/gut SS and a Pub will Legalize weed

[yodermon]

8. "Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit"

But when the Trust Fund starts to be depleted, revenue to redeem those treasury notes will have to come from the general fund, i.e. borrowing or taxation. In the year that this happens, Social Security "will have something to do with the deficit."

[TheProgressive]

13. That's not our problem....

We Americans deposited our hard earned dollars into that Trust Fund.
Our government used our money - they need to pay it back...period...

[woo me with science]

9. Obama in 2006: ""Too many of us have been interested in defending programs as written in 1938"

Also, defending a long-term strategy for cutting these safety nets:

Barack Obama: "This is not a bloodless process."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1540315

[KoKo]

10. Sigh......

"...not a bloodless process."

chilling...

[DearHeart]

14. Unfortunately, I don't either. I had my hopes, but no longer. nt