Social Security expansion now very real. Thanks, Third Way!

Social Security expansion now very real. Thanks, Third Way!

by Joan McCarter

Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA.), honorary co-chair of Third Way and gubenatorial candidate, is now a cosponsor of a bill to expand Social Security. That's after Third Way president Jon Cowan, Jim Kessler, the group's senior vice president for policy called the legislation "exhibit A of this populist political and economic fantasy." The "fantasy" that is going to doom, DOOM, Democrats. Of course, Schwartz isn't leaving Third Way. And she's also coming pretty late to the "expand Social Security" party.

In April 2012, Schwartz voted for a deficit reduction plan that would have effectively cut benefits by adopting the measure of inflation known as chained CPI.

Schwartz was one of only 22 House Democrats to support the bill, known as the Cooper-LaTourette budget plan, which only received 38 votes overall. She touted her vote for the bill in an announcement on her House website that she had received the "Economic Patriot Award" from the Concord Coalition, a deficit-reduction group co-founded by Pete Peterson. Peterson is a billionaire who has spent nearly half a billion dollars advocating for cuts to Social Security and other government programs as part of a campaign for austerity.

Interesting that Schwartz isn't running on that, on her pro-austerity, cut Social Security record, but is instead essentially repudiating it. Not just that, she's now embracing that "populist political and economic fantasy" that Third Way swears is political ruin for any Democrat. Go figure.

When Sen. Sherrod Brown signed on to the bill to expand Social Security, it made news. It gave the movement real momentum. When Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined the team it catapulted the issue into what could be a centerpiece in the 2014 and 2016.

And that's what put Third Way and the whole world of Wall Street "Democrats" into panic mode, coordinating a full-frontal assault against her and this issue. That assault has fallen completely flat. Nothing proves that more than Allyson Schwartz's name on the Strengthening Social Security Act.

So thanks, Third Way! Now we've got ourselves a real rallying point for real Democrats.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/06/1260700/-Social-Security-expansion-now-very-real-Thanks-Third-Way