Take the dam limit off on the amount that Social Security Taxes are withheld and you solved the problem forever.
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McConnell: Senate GOP Wonāt Touch Social Security Without Dem Support
Shorter McConnell: āWeāll find a Dem Judas or twoā
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Agree, and Boehnerās comment is especially shameless and disingenuous considering that in 2011, when he and President Obama had a handshake agreement on a $5 trillion deficit reduction package that was almost entirely spending cuts, it was the insurgent Republicans ā led by Reps. Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor ā who killed it.
McConnell must also realize by now that he is also walking a tightrope with his restive caucus, just like Boehner has been since 2011.
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Agree, and given that any SS āreformā will entail long, time-consuming debate that will probably go into the 2016 election year, itās unlikely we will see any major changes soon. The 2016 senatorial electoral map already favors Democrats, and Mitch is aware the optics of tinkering with this could hurt the Republicans.
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or as I call them ā¦ bought and payed for yella bellied blue dog shit dem
Yep, and letās not forget that the 2015 clown car debates begin in a mere 6-7 months. Thereās nothing in it for the establishment to kick off this debate.
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McConnell, and rest of the GOP leadership, wants to use the next 2 years to bolster their chances of winning the WH in 2016. Itās as simple as that. But they desperately want to try a few things now they have a majority in both houses, merely to see how far they can push Obama before the Veto Pen comes out.
He knows he doesnāt have the votes in the Senate, and there just arenāt enough Blue Dogs left for him to overcome that deficit. But if they can force a ānegotiationā that has Obama putting ANY sort of cut on SSI on the tableā¦they will grab it and run with it, laying all the blame/responsibility at the Democrats doorstep.
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Just bear in mind that McConnell has a double edged sword in his hands on this issue. On the one hand he needs to keep the GOP from running off the crazy ledge and destroying any hopes for 2016. But on the other hand, they have a lot of folks that wanted the majority so they couldā¦do something. So he canāt just sit on his hands for a year and half.
That means the āsomethingā they want to do, has to happen sooner than laterā¦so they can get it out of the media before the debates start up.
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Obstruction is easy. Governing is hard. Enjoy your two years as Majority Leader. Hope the last 6 years of scorched Earth politics was worth it to you. You could have got a lot more out of the process if you compromised a teeny, tiny bit, but no, you had to go the mat on everything and ended up getting a lot less than you could have. Nice job.
I agree with you, and I look forward to that happening.
If the Republicans do make a proposal, I imagine President Obama will present a detailed counter-offer that will be fair and forward-looking. There might be some cuts, but only in exchange for some things that Republicans might find difficult to accept.
Of course the Republicans will reject it, and liberals will condemn Obama for forcing seniors to eat cat food. And nothing will get done for the next two years to overcome this stalemate.
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So it looks like my reaction --and I think yours ā to that GOP/ACA story last night may have been accurate after all: Iād love to know if McConnell had anything to say about that House rule on SSTF-to-Disability transfers, but whether he did or not Iām now pretty sure he thinks it was an idiotic move. And while Boehner always covers for his loony caucus by blustering about how Obama wonāt play with them, it sounds like he may think so too, which would make this just one more case of #Speakerfail. And itās all set to blow up in 2016. Maybe I donāt have to be so panicked about the impact of that rule after allā¦ (knockwoodfingerscrossedturnaroundthreetimesandspitovermyshoulder).
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Thereās 54 Republicans. I think there are a few blue dogs who would accept some cuts āto saveā SS. So, I can see it being close. Thereās the veto. But, I can see a so-called bipartisan plan here.
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Hopefully, heāll get Democratic support only if this āreformā means a lowering of the retirement age and an increase in monthly benefits.
I agree, and just like last night on a āfixā to the ACA in the event of an adverse Supreme Court ruling, I think a little of this is uncharted territory. New legislators getting settled in, a situation where alliances might be fluid on various issues, uncertainty on where Obama might be going with this ā I think it all contributes to a bit of a āwait-and-seeā attitude.
I definitely donāt think the Republicans are going to have a historic 100-day period of productivity. Like DaveyJones said, a lot of what theyāre doing is just posturing for 2016.
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I donāt think there are six; and I think at least a few of what we call blue dogs in the Senate are actually economically populist but socially conservative (ie, NRA tools rather than Wall Street tools).
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Agree, and I actually donāt think this is a particularly āBlue Dogā issue.
I also think there is a possibility this can be resolved without earth-shattering drama and seismic convulsions.
There arenāt 6 Blue Dogs, howeverā¦and that is what McConnell needs. For him to get 6 Dems to vote with his party on cutting SSI, he would have to be offering up some serious bling. And that is not only too costly, it would require far too much of a long public fight for the future plans McConnell and the GOP have.
They make a half hearted stab at something, like I said, just to see what Obama does. But he isnāt going to go to the mat trying to sway 6 Democrats to join his caucus. That is far too costly a fight to have publicly, with very little chance of success.
Their thinking is, if they can hold on to the Senate, even if just by a voteā¦and take the WH, they can do ALL those things they have dreamed about for 70 years. So look for them to keep their eyes on that prize.
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In line with the recent emergence of Obama Unbound, Iād love his counter-proposal to consist of the raising of the FICA income cap, in a public speech explaining a) that there IS a cap (surprise, 90% of Americans!), b) that the cap itself was a compromise with conservatives back in the day, and c) that even the 1983 conservatives agreed that the FICA tax should collect 80% of national income, but it no longer collects nearly that much because earnings at the top over the past 20 years have grown so astronomically. Hopingā¦
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Agreed, there will be some noise, a little back-and-forth, and then the Republicans will complain that the President is not serious about āentitlement reform.ā
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