From Semafor:
The closely watched effort by a club of Senate moderates to craft a bipartisan Social Security reform plan may be stalling out for the foreseeable future. ...
No Democrats so far are willing to sign on as original co-sponsors of a potential final proposal, despite the fact that Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, D-Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, another independent who caucuses with Democrats, form part of the bipartisan gang. Both are up for re-election in 2024. ...
And no Republican would have been a sponsor for a bill that increases taxes so the whole thing was a waste of time. Nobody in Congress is willing to admit they favor a "bipartisan" approach. Nobody.
The end result is that the 20% across the board cut in benefits is going to happen. It's a policy win for Republicans without the need to take the electoral hit for cutting benefits. Meanwhile, Democrats will just introduce some bill to eliminate the FICA cap and when it fails, blame Republicans for its failure.
ReplyDeleteBipartisan action was possible in 1983. In 2023, though, it's all about messaging to keep those sweet donations rolling in.
That cut will never happen. Roe v Wade didn't impact the general public's bottom line, whereas politicians' lives will be danger if they let the cut go through. There is a 0.0% chance this happens and, of it does, the Republicans will pay for it bigly at the polls in 11/2034.
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