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Obama to blink first on Social Security
By: Robert Kuttner
 

The tax deal negotiated by President Barack Obama and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is just the first part of a multistage drama that is likely to further divide and weaken Democrats.


The second part, now being teed up by the White House and key Senate Democrats, is a scheme for the president to embrace much of the Bowles-Sim­pson plan — including cuts in Social Security. This is to be unveiled, according to well-place­d sources, in the president’­s State of the Union address.


The idea is to pre-empt an even more draconian set of budget cuts likely to be proposed by the incoming House Budget Committee chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), as a condition of extending the debt ceiling. This is expected to hit in April.


White House strategist­s believe this can also give Obama “credit” for getting serious about deficit reduction — now more urgent with the nearly $900 billion increase in the deficit via the tax cut deal. 

How to put this politely? For a Democratic president, this approach is bad economics and worse politics.


 

Did Democratic voters put Obama into office to cut deals with Republican­s to end Social Security, Medicare, and the New Deal and Great Society programs that are the last wall between hundreds of millions of Americans falling into poverty, living on the streets and eating out of dumpsters.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost