Warner and Chambliss. Would-be gangsters.
What is it with the senate and their damned gangs? Let's call
this one the "austerity gang."
Republican and Democratic senators are considering resurrecting a gang of deficit-busting lawmakers with an eye on a grand bargain with President Barack Obama. [...]
“We have never stopped talking,” said Sen. Mark Warner, who was a member of the disbanded Gang of Eight that tried to take on deficits. “The only way we get something done is bipartisan.”
The Virginia Democrat has been in informal discussions with Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), who is also open to trying to return to deficit talks with a bipartisan group.
Never mind that the House has no interest in any kind of grand bargain, the intrepid gangsters of the Senate just have to do their thing. But here's a reminder for Sen. Warner, who's running for reelection in 2014. Going all in for a grand bargain might just not go over to well with the people who will be most likely to show up at the polls in 2014.
The AARP surveyed Virginia in its latest round of polling, and Virginians who vote (the ones older than 50) love Social Security, to the tune of 85 percent who say it is very important to them that it is not cut. Among them, 69 percent are opposed to the chained CPI and 68 percent of them will be less favorable to a representative or senator who votes for it.
Enough said?