Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn't backing down on the
fight Third Way picked with her over Social Security. In an
interview with Mother Jones, Warren brought facts to counter Third Way's fear mongering.
"If we made no changes at all to Social Security," Warren said, "it would continue to make payments at the current level for about 20 years," meaning there is no immediate crisis facing the program, which assists some 58 million Americans. "Modest adjustments," she added, "will make certain… we could increase benefits for those who need it most." [...]
In the interview, Warren emphasized that Third Way, as well as many in Congress and the media, are framing the debate over Social Security in the wrong way. "We should stop having a conversation about cutting Social Security a little bit or a lot," she said.
Warren's
increasing clout with actual Democrats stands her well in this conflict. That's largely because she's actually helping them get elected. At the same time, she's actually building working relationships with Republicans. Bloomberg
cites projects she's taken on with both Sens. John McCain and Marco Rubio. Third Way and the Wall Street Democrats seem to have underestimated the seriousness and the clout of Warren as a policy-maker.
They're also missing the basics of what being an actual Democrat is, as candidates like Rep. Allyson Schwartz, running for governor in her home state of Pennsylvania, and John Bohlinger (lieutentant governor under Brian Schweitzer) running for Senate in Montana. Just more proof that standing up for Social Security has never been bad for Democrats, and it's always been both good politics and good policy. So it seems like Third Way's foray against economic populism has backfired on them.