IT’S NOTHING new. I’ve written this was coming. The nakedness of the pronouncement before Barack Obama is even reelected sends quite a message.
President Obama and his campaign obviously believe that Democrats and progressives support, quoting the email sent under the name of Stephanie Cutter, “gradual changes to make sure Social Security stays solvent over the long term.”
The conventional wisdom that Social Security is in trouble is so ingrained that President Obama can assert, before he’s even reelected, that he and Mitt Romney agree that Social Security is in trouble.
That’s not close to being agreed upon by progressives and many Democrats, who fundamentally disagree with President Obama and are ready to challenge him on it, something that should have happened months ago.
From the OFA email:
In Wednesday night’s debate, Mitt Romney deliberately tried to confuse voters about where he stands on many issues. I want to clear up where President Obama and Mitt Romney agree — and where they disagree — on one particularly important issue: Social Security.
President Obama and Romney agree that we need to make gradual changes to make sure Social Security stays solvent over the long term. The disagreement is over how to do it — and that’s where President Obama and Romney have fundamentally different ideas.
President Obama will under no circumstances agree to put your retirement at risk by privatizing Social Security, and he will reject any plan that slashes Social Security benefits. Because Romney opposes any effort to raise a single penny in new revenue, his Social Security plan is forced to rely solely on big benefit cuts to maintain solvency — analysis of a similar plan showed current workers would see cuts of up to 40 percent that would badly hurt their financial security.
Romney and Ryan also supported the Bush privatization plan that would have had exposed Social Security benefits to the financial crisis that devastated many pension funds and retirement accounts.
Take a look at this post that details the clear choice voters have on Social Security in this election, and be sure to share it with everyone you know who’d be affected:
Thanks for all you do,
Stephanie
Hopefully more people will join those who’ve been talking about this for quite some time now.
But thinking about why this “pronouncement” is made only weeks before the election — it actually makes sense. The Obama campaign focus is on the absolute necessity of beating Romney. Who’s going to pay attention to details? Or facts.
This is such B.S.!!!!
It was Obama, not Romney, who introduced the notion that he and Mitt were in agreement on Social Security. If there is any confusion, it was caused by Obama.
Taylor, you, me and many others have known where Obama stood on this for a long, long time. It makes me laugh now when other progressives/liberals are using the term “betrayal”. How can it be betrayal when his support for making changes to SS is old news?
Of course there are the doe-eyed-Obama-can-do-no-wrong sheeple that will go along with anything he does because of fan politics. Then there are the others who are “shocked” because they just haven’t been listening or have been hoping against hope he was saying these things just to get re-elected.
In my mind, this along with his phoned-in debate performance puts me squarely back at, why should I bother voting for this man? I don’t live in a swing state and I have a Green Party Choice.
Obama doesn’t deserve to be re-elected.. But Romney and is ilk are extremely loud and very dangerous and he doesn’t deserve to be handed over the reins either. Frankly, I think the country would be better off if we didn’t have a President at all if these 2 clowns are our only choices.
Some choice….NOT!!!
ladywalker68…………… AMEN!!!
ladywalker68, whitepaw………..AMEN!!!!! I too don’t live in a swing state and if I vote for another candidate other than a Dem or Rep it will be a protest vote. I’m so sick of the horse manure that I’ve been listening to.
Yes but who will fund a education effort on cutting ss? who? labor? doubt it. aarp? maybe? it takes money to run a campaign- ppl dont know what chained cpi etc is. they dont. unless someone helps fund ads etc there is not a chance
Let’s start a “raise the cap to save social security” petition. This is self-explanatory and is basic arithmetic. We don’t need change; we need improvement.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is once again leading the charge, which many progressive activists are now joining. There is also talk that other campaigns are mobilizing.