On a press call this morning, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.) announced their united opposition to any Social Security cuts the deficit commission might recommend.
Senator Sanders, along with eleven colleagues, introduced a resolution [pdf] in the Senate "Expressing the sense of the Senate in opposition to privatizing Social Security, raising the retirement age, or other similar cuts to benefits under title II of the Social Security Act." The resolution concludes:
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate to reaffirm our commitment to the Social Security program, one of the greatest legislative accomplishments in the history of our Nation, without privatizing Social Security, raising the Normal Retirement Age, or other similar cuts to benefits under title II of the Social Security Act.
Sanders' cosponsors are Akaka, Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Feinold, Gillibrand, Harkin, Inouye, Lautenberg, Mikulski, Stabenow, and Whitehouse. From the press release issued by Sanders' office:
The measure filed yesterday with 11 Senate cosponsors would put the White House commission on notice that raising the retirement age, privatizing the program, or cutting benefits would meet stiff opposition on Capitol Hill. The resolution called the worker-supported Social Security system, which has run surpluses for a quarter century, “America’s most successful and reliable retirement program.”
“Let’s be clear,” Sanders and others said in a letter to Senate colleagues. Social Security is not in crisis.” The Social Security Trust Fund has a $2.6 trillion surplus that is projected to grow to more than $4 trillion by the year 2023, the senators noted. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits to every recipient until the year 2039. Even then at least 75 percent of promised benefits would be available if no steps are taken to strengthen Social Security. “It will not be bankrupt,” the senators said.
In the House, 104 members have signed a letter [pdf] urging President Obama to reject any proposals to cut Social Security benefits.
"If any of the commission's recommendations cut or diminish Social Security in any way, we will stand firmly against them," warned Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and others.
On the press call, Rep. Dan Maffei and Senator Sanders focused on the fact that there is no substantive, systemic threat to Social Security--it will remain completely viable until 2039, and a fix on the revenue side would make it sustainable indefinitely. What they focused on was the existing political threat to the program. House Republicans have a blueprint in the form of Rep. Paul Ryan's roadmap for privatizing it and it's the target of almost every Republican candidate. Social Security cuts in the guise of raising the retirement age, downward cost of living adjustments, adjustments to the consumer price index are all apparently under consideration in the catfood commission.
Heidi Hartman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, who was also on the call, made an excellent point in regards to these cuts in answering a question from a reporter who suggested that privatization was a sort of a strawman at the moment, with President Obama's vow to veto any privatization plan. Any cut in Social Security, Hartman says, is actually "privatization through the back door." It would force people to put more of their money into riskier accounts and would be the shift from the money being held publicly--and securely--to the private sector.
The catfood commission will make its recommendations in December. That's unless, as commission member Sen. Dick Durbin speculates, it's not crippled by Republican recalcitrance on allowing any tax increases. At this point, deadlock and no recommendations could be the best outcome. The threat by these progressive members of Congress to vote against any Social Security cut could help get us that happen.