A necessary letter of support
by digby
Why have only 16 Senators signed on to this letter from Bernie Sanders? Why on earth haven't the vast majority of Democrats done so?
This is the gist:
No one knows if the president's budget will contain the Chained-CPI and other cuts to vital programs again this year and the White House refuses to take the 2011 offer off the table. They seem to be very sure that the Republicans will not take them up on it, so it appears they're leaving it there as some sort of emotional rebuke. But this is the first Democratic White House to put Social Security cuts in its budget proposal and it was a very bad precedent. Regardless of whether the GOP is too stupid to take yes for an answer, it should not have been in there and it most certainly should not be in there again.
The entire caucus should sign this letter to emphasize that the Democratic Party is the protector of Social Security not an agent of its demise. It's sad that they pissed away 60 years of trust on that issue but they did. Now they need to start rebuilding it. Unless they do, any rationale for their existence as anything more than the only alternative to the crazies is unclear. And I hope they know that it's unlikely the GOP will stay this crazy forever.
Update: My bad. This letter is no longer in circulation. They could never get more than 16 signatories.
However:
On Friday, White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked at the daily briefing whether chained CPI will be in the budget, and he declined to say.
"What I can tell you is the president has demonstrated in the past and continues — and will continue to demonstrate his commitment to achieving additional deficit reduction that addresses our medium- and long-term challenges through a balanced approach," he said.
So that's just great.
BTW, these are the signatories:
Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Jack Reed (R.I.), Tom Harkin (Iowa), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Edward Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Al Franken (Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.).
That's all we've got folks.
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