This is what counts as a progressive victory these days. The Democratic President won't say he's cutting Social Security in the State of the Union. Yay (for now)! It's sad that it's come to this so quickly -- and it may be temporary. But, we'll have to take our victories where we get them:
President Obama has decided not to endorse his deficit commission's recommendation to raise the retirement age, and otherwise reduce Social Security benefits, in Tuesday's State of the Union address, cheering liberals and drawing a stark line between the White House and key Republicans in Congress.Phew.
Over the weekend, the White House informed Democratic lawmakers and advocates for seniors that Obama will emphasize the need to reduce record deficits in the speech, but that he will not call for reducing spending on Social Security - the single largest federal program - as part of that effort.
Now, this counts as a loss for groups like Third Way. Over the weekend, Joan McCarter eviscerated that group's effort to undermine Social Security:
This is just GOP-lite, turning Social Security into a welfare program for the very old and very poor and privatization for the rest, because we know how well stock and real estate investments worked out.Third Way won't stop trying to destroy the Democratic brand. And, they've got fellow corporate apologists like Bill Daley and Bruce Reed in key positions in the White House now.
So, consider this a temporary victory as there was this blurb in the Post article:
Administration officials said Obama is unlikely to specifically endorse any of the deficit commission's recommendations in the speech, but cautioned that he is unlikely to rule them off the table, either. On Social Security, for example, he is likely to urge lawmakers to work together to make the program solvent, without going into details, according to congressional sources.
