Durbin Once Opposed Raising Social Security Retirement Age: ‘It’s Tough To Say Just Stick Around’

[ProSense]

Durbin Once Opposed Raising Social Security Retirement Age: ‘It’s Tough To Say Just Stick Around’

Today, President Obama’s Deficit Commission voted on the recommendations laid out in its deficit reduction report. Included among the report’s recommendations is gradually raising the Social Security retirement age to 69 by 2075. Although the commission failed to get the 14 votes it is required to get in order to pass the plan on to Congress, its recommendations are expected to be taken up in some form by legislators at some point.

Yesterday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced that he will be voting in favor of the commission’s recommendations. The same day, he wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune explaining why he was voting in favor of the plan. While explaining that he believes that Social Security “is the most important social program in America,” he explicitily endorsed raising the retirement age, citing the need to make “hard choices“:

<...>

Yet Durbin’s position is a disappointing reversal from his previous stance on Social Security. In October, he told Congress Daily that he “opposed increasing the retirement age for Social Security.” In explaining his opposition, he said, “It’s tough to say just stick around and deliver mail for another couple of years, be a waitress for another couple of years“:

<...>

On many issues, Durbin has been one of the Senate’s strongest fighters for progressive priorities. He led the fight against the Bush Administration’s privatization of Social Security, has been one of the Senate’s top advocates for the rights of undocumented immigrants, has worked towards greater fairness in the justice system, and has been on the right side of nearly every economic justice issue during his time in the Senate.

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Makes no sense. Durbin didn't have to support a report that was going to be rejected anyway. Andy Stern came out against it.

[rocktivity]

1. Why is raising the salary cap not even a part of the conversation?

Eliminate it, and EVERYONE could pay a lower rate!

:headbang:
rocktivity

[Nite Owl]

2. This isn't surprising:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/04/29/durbin-says-bleeding-heart-liberals-should-be-open-to-medicare-and-social-security-cuts/

"Well this is encouraging. Dick Durbin is one of the “liberals” on the President’s Debt Commission, which is currently studying cuts to Social Security and Medicare as a way to reduce the deficit.

And he certainly has mastered the fine art of messaging to the Democratic base:

admonished “bleeding heart liberals” to be open to program reductions to restore fiscal balance."

[ProSense]

6. I don't buy that

Jan Schakowsky not only came out against it, but also offered a really good alternative plan, as did others.

Still, the FDL point doesn't address the shift in Durbin's position.

Max Baucus opposed the plan.

[Mass]

3. Makes no sense, except if Obama wanted the report to pass.

Durbin has been loyal to Obama to a fault (as have other senators I like and respect). --It is only speculation, I dont have any proof of this. --

The other possibility is that, while it was very bad, the report does not include privatizing social security. Knowing the report would not pass, he may have tried to make an easy vote.

[ProSense]

7. Then why would Stern oppose it?

Again, what difference does it make if the plan wasn't going to pass anyway?

[Mass]

9. Glass half full or half empty.

There are bad and good things in the report. There are good and bad things in the other reports (replacing income tax by sales tax is a terrible idea, for example -- not because it sounds European, as Cantor claims, but because it is regressive).

In addition, when it comes to Durbin, there may be some misplaced loyalty there. After all, this commission is the president's baby and the two chairmen were named by him.

Durbin is generally a good guy. Sometimes, he may be wrong. It happens to the best of us (including the President).

[Tatiana]

4. I wonder whether he is supporting the President's position on the issue.

Durbin is right on the issues 99% of the time. His stance this time is clearly wrong, which leads me to believe that he has been persuaded to vote against his own personal convictions and principles. After all this is the same man who said the following:

Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has been battling the banks the last few weeks in an effort to get 60 votes lined up for bankruptcy reform. He's losing.

On Monday night in an interview with a radio host back home, he came to a stark conclusion: the banks own the Senate.

"And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place," he said on WJJG 1530 AM's "Mornings with Ray Hanania."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/dick-durbin-banks-frankly_n_193010.html

[Mass]

10. +1

[karynnj]

5. I take this as an awful sign that Obama is putting heavy pressure on Democrats

This is Obama's commission and it looks like it will have an impact (and not a good one), because Paul Ryan, who wants worse, will chair the budget committee in the House and Conrad, who also endorsed it, chairs the Senate budget committee.

If we have lost Durbin, who last year tie with Kerry as 6th most liberal, it will be tough to figure where a block of 40 Democrats to block things can come from. I have never been more pessimistic - this sounds like the classic case of only a Republican could reach out to China and only a Democrat reduce welfare. It bothers me because from what I read, it actually benefits the very rich in terms of lower taxes - unless all their deductions are remove and they were valuable enough to save more than they get with the lower rates. The gap between the haves and have nots is already far far too large.

(One thing to think of with the Bush tax cuts stuff is that it likely won't be an issue for more than 2 or 3 years if they really totally revise the tax code - as this plan suggests.)

[ProSense]

8. If that was the case

Baucus would have supported it, he didn't. Conrad supported the first release. Durbin also said he couldn't vote for the plan as is in the Senate.

Does the President support increasing the retirement age?

[Mass]

12. Here is Ezra Klein's view, and I think it is the correct one. Getting enough votes gives cover to

Obama and Congress to use it as a starting point, if they want to.
Stern has different objectives, which makes sense given he is not a government member, but an union leader.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/12/simpson-bowles_succeeds_--_sor.html

With liberals like Durbin and conservatives like Tom Coburn both endorsing the plan as a good start, it's got enough credibility for Congress or the president to take it on -- and that's really all it could ever have done. If Congress and the president want an excuse to work on deficit reduction, they've got one. If they don't want to work on deficit reduction, then no plan ever had a chance.

[ProSense]

15. It's an interesting point

but I think that's Ezra's spin. He's been pointing out the good and the bad of the plan since the first release.

It's true that more votes make it more credible, but 10 or 11 isn't much of a difference.

I agree with this point:

If Congress and the president want an excuse to work on deficit reduction, they've got one. If they don't want to work on deficit reduction, then no plan ever had a chance.

Still, 8 to 11 votes, the proposal was going to be an excuse anyway.

The thing I'm wondering is if the President supports raising the retirement age?

[Mass]

16. You mean you're looking for an excuse to blame everybody but the president?

I continue to think the idea of the commission was wrong. So, I could not care less what a vote that has absolutely no consequences and is not even recorded says. The catfood commission is dead. Hopefully, Obama will forget the question and work on more immediate issues.

Because at this point, I am not sure I get the point of your question?

[ProSense]

17. Was that necessary?

It's the President's commission. He owns it. He owns the decision to make the deficit a priority.

That still doesn't explain Durbin's vote.

And to my question: "The thing I'm wondering is if the President supports raising the retirement age?"

The retirement age was the focus of the OP.

[Mass]

19. So, send him a letter and ask him. Because he is the only person knowing this.

[karynnj]

13. That is good to hear - I read on earlier report that Durbin had said

he would support it in the committee. Was that wrong? I have a problem with the logic behind backing it on the committee and opposing it in the senate. Good to hear Baucus is not supporting it.

[OHdem10]

11. Just a guess. This Commission is Obama's Commission.

If after all these months only a tiny few had supported
the resulting Report, this could have been an embarassment
to the President. Did some Dems support it, KNOWING
full well it would fail. Their intention being more
protecting the President than the Commission Report.
Dubin being from Chicago was one of the first to promote
Obama to be President. Just a thought.

[ProSense]

14. Not so sure

This was a smaller commission than the 1990s commission, which had 32 members and failed to get unanamous approval by two votes.

The 14-vote threshold here was more attainable, but the divide is much greater and the propal was extremely skewed to the right.

[displacedvermoter]

18. Maybe he's supporting "his" President even though

it makes no sense, ProSense?

[ProSense]

20. I believe

Senator Durbin, like the other Democrats on the committee, can think for himself.

[lldu]

21. He said he would NOT vote for this if it was a bill and on the floor for passage.

[Mass]

22. Obama: I'll Incorporate Fiscal Commission Report In My Budget

Does that make sense to you? Does that answer your questions?

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/obama-ill-incorporate-fiscal-commission-report-in-my-budget.php

[ProSense]

23. I expected him to say that and thank the commission

That still doesn't explain Durbin's support for the plan when Baucus rejected it.

Oh, I posted the President's statement in another thread.

[AtomicKitten]

24. According to my SS statement, I don't get full benefits til age 70.

It seems they've already made the move.