Courting black voters, Bernie Sanders draws personal contrast with Trump

[Uncle Joe]

9. Hi Cha, I believe this article by The Nation gives a more in-depth analysis of the situation

(snip)

Sanders has a much better case to make, and for some reason he hasn’t fully made it. He had a very specific reason for suggesting a Democratic primary in 2012: In debt-ceiling talks with Republicans, Obama proposed cutting Social Security benefits and raising the Medicare age to 67. After initially refusing to negotiate over the debt ceiling, the White House pivoted to a full-scale embrace of austerity in the hopes of taking away the Republican Party’s main talking point ahead of the 2012 election.

(snip)

Obama actually proposed more deficit reduction in the summer of 2011 than Republicans were asking for—$4 trillion instead of the $2 trillion the GOP had been requesting—and at times the White House was reportedly willing to raise revenue only through closing tax loopholes. That meant in addition to the safety net cuts, the Bush-era tax cuts would either be locked in or even lowered in some cases.

This was a monumental diversion from Democratic Party principles. For years, Democrats ran for office on promises not to cut Social Security and Medicare. They railed against the Bush tax cuts in every election cycle since the tax package was enacted. Republicans already enjoyed bashing Democrats for supposed safety-net cuts; one of the most frequently run advertisements of the 2010 midterms noted the Affordable Care Act cut $700 million from Medicare. (These cuts were mainly on the provider side and did not affect benefits, which was never mentioned in the ads.)

Aside from being potentially catastrophic politics, the Social Security and Medicare cuts were bad policy. Increasing the Medicare age would have lowered federal health spending but increased overall health spending by much more, and would have left many seniors uninsured. Obama’s method for reducing Social Security benefits by changing the Chained-CPI formula would have resulted in fairly minimal long-term budget savings but would have cost the average senior $28,000 by age 95.

(snip)

https://www.thenation.com/article/yes-bernie-sanders-wanted-obama-primaried-in-2012-heres-why/