Obama's call to expand Social Security shows Sanders' Clout

[portlander23]

Obama's call to expand Social Security shows Sanders' Clout
Sahil Kapur and Mike Dornig
Bloomberg

Just five years ago, Obama called for reducing future Social Security benefits -- an idea that at the time was in vogue for many Republicans and some Democrats, who treated it as a badge of fiscal responsibility.

No more. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, says Social Security benefits shouldn't be cut -- a departure from other Republican leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Sanders, as part of his Democratic presidential campaign, has been calling for an expansion of benefits, and the party's likely nominee, Hillary Clinton, took a similar position earlier this year. Obama joined the chorus on Wednesday.

"It is a much different universe today," said Warren Gunnels, policy director for the Sanders campaign. "Go back to 2011, when the debate was not whether Social Security would be cut, but how much it would be cut. Now the debate is not whether we're going to expand Social Security but how much we'll expand it."

Though Sanders is unlikely to win the Democratic presidential nomination, the emerging orthodoxy of his party calling for an expansion of Social Security owes as much to him as anyone.

In March 2015, as the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders pushed for a vote on an amendment by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposing expanded Social Security benefits. Forty-two Democrats voted for the amendment and only two were opposed.

Sometimes you can win even if you lose.

[Broward]

1. This is why the Left needs to remain vocal

and continue to apply pressure to the corporatists. We must hold their feet to the fire. We see what they're capable of (selling us out to the right) when we don't.

[MattP]

2. I think it shows Warrens clout but good on Sanders for backing HER amendment

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/can-elizabeth-warren-expand-social-security