Not so mavericky after all.
For weeks, senior White House staff have been
meeting with the handful of Republican senators, including John McCain (AZ) and Lindsey Graham (SC), who have shown a willingness to defect from Mitch McConnell's extremist orthodoxy, trying to keep the Grand Bargain alive. Turns out,
there's only so far the defectors will go, and closing tax loopholes is too far.
The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts Thursday to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes. [...]
Through multiple meetings with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the group discussed a range of options, including a "grand bargain" that would involve a complete restructuring of Medicare, according to people familiar with the meetings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.
The group also discussed a smaller deal that would replace much of the remaining sequester savings—about $500 billion over the next eight years—with narrower reforms to Medicare, Social Security and other mandatory-spending programs, such as farm subsidies.
So that's good news. A "complete restructuring of Medicare" isn't going to happen for now, nor are cuts to Social Security. Nor will they be robbing Peter (Social Security and Medicare) to pay Paul (replace the sequester). But:
Administration officials said the White House remains open to meeting with the senators and that Obama's $1.2 trillion plan to replace the sequester—which pairs $600 billion in new taxes with significant cuts to health and retirement programs—remains on the table.
Meanwhile, the
deficit continues to shrink and
retirement insecurity grows. So perhaps this isn't the best time for significant cuts to health and retirement programs. President Obama seriously needs a new playbook. Maybe it's time he start meeting with and hearing from Democratic senators about that.
Tell Congress: Now is time to expand Social Security, not cut it. Join Daily Kos and CREDO in telling the Senate to support the Harkin and Begich plans to strengthen Social Security.
