Watch Out
As Congress looks past Election Day and toward automatic spending cuts set to kick in on Jan. 1, there is increasing talk about a potential deficit-reduction deal during the lame-duck session of Congress after the election. Watch out.
As the discussions go on behind closed doors, Sen. Bernie Sanders has been out front and very public about defending Social Security. "I fear very much that there is a possibility that in a lame-duck session, President Obama and Democratic leaders will be pressured to make cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid in exchange for some modest revenue increases - much of which will end up coming not from the wealthy but from the middle class," Sanders told The Nation. "That's not the way to go, but I'm convinced there are Democrats who are prepared to make that compromise." In a separate interview with The New York Times, Sanders was equally blunt. "If Obama wins and retreats on those issues, there would be an enormous amount of disappointment."
Sanders is the head of the Senate Defending Social Security Caucus. In a letter signed by 28 other senators, Sanders recently laid out the case for keeping the budget knives away from the program that has not contributed to the deficit or to the national debt, has a $2.7 trillion surplus and, according to actuaries, will be able to pay every benefit owed to every eligible recipient for the next 21 years.
Listen to Sanders interview Wednesday on Ed Schultz »
Read more about the 29 Senate Defenders of Social Security »
