Third Way

[octoberlib]

194. It's there.

Entitlement Reform

Democrats created the safety net and as such – with a demographic bubble unrivaled by anything in previous eras – one would expect Democrats to be the party that steps up to fix them. Instead, Democrats became deniers. With few exceptions, the party did nothing to either raise concerns or propose plans to fix entitlements.

We sought to change that and provide significant leadership on this defining issue. Our view was that entitlements – as important as they are – must be reined in so we can increase public investments, contain long range deficits, and limit future tax increases on the middle class. With few allies, we began a campaign to make the progressive case to fix entitlements. This was a controversial move within the progressive community, but we have already made enormous progress.

We supported and helped pass into law the Simpson-Bowles commission that came close to securing the bipartisan grand bargain budget agreement for which we fought. We proposed our own Social Security fix plan that combined tax increases on upper income earners with benefit cuts on well-to-do seniors and benefit increases to poor seniors. We first proposed then brought Democrats and Republicans together on a Social Security Commission plan that remains the only bipartisan legislation to fix Social Security. We became the lead center-left organization to promote chain weighted CPI and eventually counted President Obama as one of our supporters.
http://thirdway.org/case-study/entitlement-reform
http://thirdway.org/search?q=entitlement%20reform


Bipartisan House Bill To Create Social Security Reform Commission Coming

Reps. Tom Cole (R-OK) and John Delaney (D-MD) plan to introduce a bill this Congress that would create a Social Security commission to propose changes to the program, Cole's office confirmed to TPM on Monday.

The bill's language and timing has not been finalized, but Cole, a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and Delaney co-sponsored similar legislation last year. The Hill first reported Cole's intention to reintroduce the bill.

The legislation would land after House Republicans signaled that they want to force a debate over Social Security in the next two years by blocking the transfer of tax revenue between the retirement and disability funds unless the program's overall solvency is improved. The disability fund is projected to be unable to pay full benefits starting in late 2016.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/house-gop-cole-delaney-social-security-commission-bill



ANOTHER goddamned "DEMOCRAT" pushing for unnecessary Soc Security cuts - FASTTRACKING THEM.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026422548


But I sort of pity the Third Way guys. They’ve had a rough few months. Back in December, they were laughed out of the room when Kessler and Jon Cowan, Third Way’s president, argued in the Wall Street Journal that cutting Social Security benefits would prove popular electoral politics.
Not only did mainstream Democrats from all wings of the party immediately reject the premise, but one of the organization’s co-chairs, moderate Rep. Allyson Schwarz, quit Third Way, saying Bennett and Cowan’s op-ed was “outrageous.” It was a stunning rejection by the broader party establishment and proof that the Democrats’ “big tent” was united around the idea of preserving—and even expanding—Social Security.
Third Way’s and its “centrist” allies have spent decades building a Beltway elitist consensus on the need to slash the safety net. It must tear them up seeing all that hard work evaporate over the span of a few years—with their economic ideas now on the party fringe, they have nothing left to do but cry persecution.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/democrats-wall-street-kos-104959_Page2.html#ixzz3aL3WFf00