Obama’s call to expand Social Security highlights a populist shift propelled by Bernie Sanders.

[portlander23]

A bow to Sanders’ populist clout
Sahil Kapur and Mike Dornig
Bloomberg News

Just five years ago, Mr. 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. Donald 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. Mr. 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. Mr. Obama joined the chorus Wednesday.

Five years ago, Mr. Obama offered to change the way Social Security benefits are calculated to make them less generous as part of a “grand bargain” on taxes and spending with then-House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. He officially abandoned the policy in his fiscal 2015 budget, then went further in a speech in Indiana on Wednesday in which he excoriated Republican economic policies and called for Social Security benefits to be expanded.

In March 2015, as the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, Mr. 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.

Two months later, when Mr. Sanders announced his presidential bid, he put the policy front and center. “Instead of cutting Social Security,” he said, “we’re going to expand Social Security benefits.”

Give 'em hell Bernie.

[beachbum bob]

1. do you mean when obama ended the "file and suspend" feature that benefiited a some retirees?

The proposed end of file-and-suspend wipes out a valuable claiming strategy for two-earner couples. One spouse could file for benefits at full retirement age, then suspend them, thereby allowing those benefits to grow in value until age 70. Meanwhile, the second spouse could file only for spousal benefits based on the other’s earnings record, while allowing his or her own benefits to grow.

[Trust Buster]

2. The President said that the current system must be shored up first. You heard what you wanted

to hear.

[portlander23]

4. Are you arguing with me or Bloomberg?

The historical record is that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have supported cutting Social Security.

[Trust Buster]

5. I watched the Presiden't statement myself. He first said that the current SS system must be

shored up first. Some chose to politically ignore that part.

[portlander23]

6. You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts

Dems reject Obama's chained CPI formula for Social Security
Pete Kasperowicz
The Hill

Obama used his 2014 budget plan to call for imposing a so-called chained CPI formula. That formula would reduce Social Security cost of living adjustments by taking into account alternative purchases people can make in order to avoid goods and services whose costs are rising quickly.

Since Obama's budget was released, Democrats have criticized it as a way to shrink Social Security payments to seniors and have repeatedly rejected it in speeches on the House floor.

The resolution finds that Social Security payments average about $14,000 per year, and that more than 53 million people receive them. It also adds that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that chained CPI would cut Social Security benefits by 0.25 percent, and would reduce outlays by $112 billion over the first decade.

[Trust Buster]

7. That has nothing to do with the President's statement the other day.

[portlander23]

8. Just saying is all

[Trust Buster]

9. What you're posting does not respond to the OP at all.

[CrispyQ]

3. And a few days later he stands behind DWS.

[Cheese Sandwich]

10. Bernie has led the way on social security.

[Skwmom]

11. I think it's called election time and he is backing Clinton. n/t