Despite receiving a
smattering of pressure from the right for attacking President Obama's Social Security cut proposal, Rep. Greg Walden, the head of the House GOP's campaign committee, is standing by
his criticism of the president's budget as a "shocking attack on seniors."
In a statement provided to MSNBC's Chuck Todd, Walden's office says:
Chairman Walden supports the budget passed by House Republicans that preserves and protects Medicare and Social Security while also balancing the budget in 10 years. He disagrees with President Obama's political plan that hurts current seniors just so he can pay for more wasteful spending.
Yesterday, Walden
said he opposed the Obama budget because by cutting Social Security for current seniors, it was "trying to balance the budget on the backs of seniors." Given that Republicans have been demanding Social Security cuts, including chained CPI, Walden's comments were cynical, but more importantly they were premature and politically dumb.
As I argued earlier, if Walden were brighter, he'd have waited for Democrats to line up in support of cutting Social Security. But by jumping the gun and launching the GOP's attack before any votes have been cast, Walden is giving Democrats all the warning they need to steer clear of supporting Social Security cuts. And now that Walden has made it clear that supporting Social Security cuts won't just create political problems from the left but also the right, congressional Democrats should be clamoring for this proposal to come to the floor—so they can vote against it.