Driven by Campaign Populism, Democrats Unite on Expanding Social Security
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The Democrats’ new consensus was driven by the populist election-year politics of Senator Bernie Sanders and by a realization that many workers have neither traditional pensions nor any significant retirement savings.
Mr. Sanders campaigned hard on promises to expand Social Security. Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, helped set the tone as well, breaking with Republican orthodoxy by vowing not to cut Social Security benefits. That position puts him potentially at odds with Republican lawmakers eager to rein in entitlement programs, though an aide has suggested that he might be flexible on the issue.
The Democrats’ proposals would amount to the biggest changes in Social Security since 1983, when the program faced a financial crisis and Congress enacted measures recommended by a bipartisan commission headed by Alan Greenspan. To save the program, spending was trimmed, taxes were raised and the eligibility age was set to increase slowly as the population ages.
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But the politics have shifted. Mr. Obama summarized the new Democratic consensus in a speech in Elkhart, Ind., on June 1.
“It’s time we finally made Social Security more generous, and increased its benefits so that today’s retirees and future generations get the dignified retirement that they’ve earned,” Mr. Obama said. “And we could start paying for it by asking the wealthiest Americans to contribute a little bit more.”
Democrats appear likely to include those proposals in their platform. “Senator Sanders, working with other progressives, has transformed the debate, so that expanding Social Security is today a central and consensus tenet of the Democratic Party,” Nancy J. Altman, the president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group, said at a hearing of the platform-drafting committee on June 9.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/us/politics/driven-by-campaign-populism-democrats-unite-on-expanding-social-security.html?_r=1&referer=https%3A%2Fwww.google.com%2F
= new reply since forum marked as read
Having said that, we must remain vigilant, the two parties have become most accustomed to playing the good cop/bad cop game treating the people as suspects to be manipulated.
Peace to you, elleng.
may be one of my last here for some time to come. Time will tell, BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE, BELIEVE IT OR NOT... THIS sudden awakening by the DEMOCRATS in Congress right now is BECAUSE OF BERNIE SANDERS & what he's bee trying to build!
Haven't heard ANYTHING like this coming from the NOW DEMOCRATS in years and no matter who TAKES CREDIT for the "new awakening" those of us who have supported Bernie from the beginning KNOW the TRUTH!
I'm sure many of us have seen people come forward to run for office who would have NEVER dared to do so because they KNEW how much "blow-back" they would get, and they KNEW that there were the "hand-picked" favorites from the DNC for so many years! I've seen it posted here at DU so many times and during THIS Primary I've read far too many posts saying BERNIE WOULD NEVER be able to get down-ticket candidates elected!
Well, say what you want and believe what you want AND DENY what you want... THIS is what Bernie has started and NOW we're beginning to see some of these NOW DEMOCRATS slowly come forward and BEGIN to realize that the butter is shifting more to the left!
Keep posting this GREAT stuff Uncle Joe! I've already begun to get requests in the mail from HILLARY for $$$$! Not giving any, but I did return the "paid postage" envelope back on 2 of them... Empty, but with a message.
NEW blood coming in maybe, like Tim Canova? How long has it been since we've heard a "peep" like this? Gonna keep talking my talk and optimism could be something we'll be feeling.
I don't tend to be an optimist, but it did occur to me so thought I'd get it out.
this endeavor, but I believe we need to take the word back from them and instill the positive connotations.
If they say, "it's just an entitlement" we need to yell back "you're damn straight it's an entitlement, we earned it!"
Peace to you, Beartracks.
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