Obama Angers GOP By Brushing Over Social Security

The GOP liked a lot of what it heard in President Obama's address Tuesday night about deficit reduction and personal responsibility.

But Republicans didn't like what they didn't hear: talk about Social Security reform. Obama zipped past the issue with a one-line reference, saying, after a few lines about reforming health care, that "we must also begin a conversation on how to do the same for Social Security, while creating tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans."

The way to kill an issue in Washington is to suggest we begin to talk about it. Republicans took notice.

After hoping that Obama might be open to some sort of bipartisan reform that would reduce benefits and raise the eligibility age -- and perhaps plant the seeds for private accounts -- Republicans are now less hopeful that he'll come their way.

"I was not happy," Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told the Huffington Post. "That was the one area of his speech I was not happy with. He appears to be backing away from what I thought was an earlier commitment to tackling Social Security reform."

McConnell said that when Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, had previously spoken to Republicans, they struck a tone that indicated a willingness to work on Social Security. "That was the place that I hoped, based on what both he and the chief of staff had said earlier, we'd be able to move on a bipartisan basis. He kind of brushed over that issue" in his speech, said McConnell.

He said he has noticed a change in the administration's rhetoric over the last few weeks. "They seem to be kind of back-pedaling some," he said.

The back-pedaling McConnell sees comes after several weeks of intense lobbying from liberals concerned that Obama might be opening a door to weakening Social Security. And if the GOP isn't happy, it means the lobbying campaign has had an impact.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) noticed the shift in rhetoric, too. "I think they're getting pressure from the left," he said. "They're just going to have to look some of the unions in the eyes and some of the other groups and say that everything's on the table: benefit recalculation for high income Americans and realistic age adjustments."

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) likewise heard the silence. "I would say from what I'm not hearing is, I'm not hearing a commitment to make Social Security more actuarially sound. They're talking a lot about health care," said Sessions. "Maybe because President Bush tried to do it and was met with a stonewall from the Democrats. They wouldn't even meet him in the room, much less halfway."

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said he wished there had been more talk about entitlement reform. "There's more of an opportunity for a Democrat president to deal with entitlements, because Republicans will join a Democrat president," he said. "I'm hoping that they'll get back to it." (Otherwise, said Ensign, the speech was "terrific.")

Graham, who was in Obama's Social Security breakout session on Monday at the White House, wished that the focus Obama put on health care had been given to Social Security. "I was very disappointed it wasn't mentioned more... It's the one entitlement reform that's achievable," he said.

"There were a couple of applause lines: 'We're not going to delay health care reform any longer.' I wish he'd said, 'We're not going to put off Social Security solvency any longer,'" Graham said.

Comments

[SisterAnn]

When there are more retirees than the workers can pay for, then the surplus money kicks in. Right now it is treasury bonds that are as good as any treasury bond. The boomers can cash them in as they need them. That is how the government ended up owing around 3 trillion dollars to the Social Security funds. When treasury bonds are bought, that is really a loan to the government. They will have to pay cash for the treasury bonds that are cashed in.

The republicans are already saying they can't afford to pay the money back. Oh yes they can.

[gfulmore]

Bravo, Barack! Any talk or inference that Social Security and/or Medicare has had anything to do with the current $10.8 trillion federal deficit is absurb. In fact, that federal debt INCLUDES about $2.7 trillion that is OWED to Social Security. The "entitlements" argument is, for the most part, an argument to roll back the New Deal,. "Compassionate Conservativism" has proved to be a farce. We need to move forward, trying to make sense of our federal budget in the short and long term. An excellent book to learn the basics from is "Where Does all the Money Go?" Bravo, Obama!

[caleb36]

President Obama's reference to Social Security was the one thing I disliked about his speech to Congress. He and all other politicians need to understand that Social Security is an insurance program, not a welfare program. It is unjust and in bad faith to deny Social Security benefits to tens of millions of Americans who have paid into this system all of their working lives, and who often rely on Social Security as the primary source of retirement income. Actuarial studies have shown that the Social Security Trust Fund is in no financial danger for the foreseeable future. In fact, the Trust Fund is still earning a surplus. It is my belief that the real impetus for today's Social Security "reform" movement is that the big banks want to raid the Social Security Trust Fund to increase the amount of their bailouts. Social Security must be preserved!

[undecidee]

Those poor rethugs cry babies. They don't like the speech because O did not talk more about social securities.... and they really really care about SS. Yeah right. That is obviously their new talking point and they will stick to that talking point until their leader tells them to talk about something else.

Obama gave a terrific speech that is filled with substance and instead of saying that they will work with O and the people of America, they decide to say, but, he did not mention SS. Is that the best they can do? Those politicians obviously don't care about people other them themselves and their talking point.

I am assuming that Fox have got that memo and will be talking about social securities for the rest of the week at least and will be inviting their ditto heads from the senate and house to ditto them into the weekend.

[yhgtup]

Rethugs are ALWAYS going to have something to b******h about. They don't care about S.S. Whatever & whenever Pres Obama submits a plan, they'll vote "NO", just like they did the stimulus pkg. They're the whiney, "NO" party.

[steve-oo]

They have to pick on something .. thats their way!

[UrbanInterloper]

Obama is correct, and wise, to prioritize health care reform over Social Security reform.

Furthermore, Social Security should remain exactly as it is so long as Republicans continue to use the euphemistic code word "reform" when what they really mean is "destroy and eliminate." Or at least until real reform can move forward despite them. All Social Security really needs is a tiny bit of tinkering to make it solvent for another century. It's no more threatened by all the borrowing against it than say, the entire nation is threatened by the doubling of the national debt under Bush. It's as stable as stable gets when the entire economy is one big house of cards.

[BetterDeadthanRedState]

Following is a list of people who care what Mitch McConnell thinks about anything:

[YouThinkAndTalk]

I don't really know what is wrong with Social Security now. But what I know is two things

1. Democrats and Republicans have been borrowing against Social Security for a long time, so the money people have paid to it is not all there, and

2. Why should Obama be nice to Republicans ahead of any issues? He made that mistake with the stimulus package and look what happened: not a single Republican Congressman voted for it. So, if his approach to Republicans is: if you want your voice heard, you raise it when the appropriate time comes along with what kind of support you are going to give me, if I adopt some of your views, is fine with me. Republicans play it nasty, but Obama said he is not a "sap."

[shimown]

Ah yes, where would we be today had the GOP had its way with Social Security? One can only imagine. You can be sure there would have been a lot more reasons to not re-hire Republicans for new terms. In a way, they lucked out and owe thier miserable continued existence to the fact that they weren't allowed to screw over everyone with a SSID.

[BetterDeadthanRedState]

Yeah, I was constantly wondering why W wanted to spend his political capatul on the relatively healthy Social Security while the nation's healthcare was in critical condition. Let's hope that decider never gets put in charge of triage.

[Emerald1943]

I get really sick and tired of hearing these guys talk about "entitlement" as if they were having to pay benefits out of their own pockets!!! This is money taken out of the people's paychecks! It's our money that we worked for!

One thing I don't understand is the cap on SS wages. Why don't the rich pay just like the rest of us?
Perhaps if they eliminated that cap or at least increased the amount, as well as keeping the rethugs' greedy little hands out of the fund, we would not have to do anything to SS!

I'm just sayin'.....

[TFlint]

I think raising the cap is in the works.

[Sweetbay]

"I was not happy," Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told the Huffington Post. "That was the one area of his speech I was not happy with. He appears to be backing away from what I thought was an earlier commitment to tackling Social Security reform."

Maybe the President was thinking that if you want to get the GOP to do something just send a little message that you're not really interested and then they will support it whole hog and get it done.

That's smart.

[BUTCHER111]

The only way Social Security would go broke is if the GOP was in charge of it and passed their privatize it idea.

[DocWylie]

The public already spoke of their opinion when Republicans trotted this out a few years ago.

Next.

[carolinealicia]

he made the GOP angry..? You mean t...hey can get angrier?

[Telemachus]

He might have to pass his next big bill with zero Republican votes.