Democrats take harder line on trimming benefits
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s re-election has stiffened Democrats’ spine against cutting popular benefit programs such as Medicare and Social Security. The new resolve could become as big a hurdle to a deal that would skirt crippling tax increases and spending cuts in January as Republicans’ resistance to raising tax rates on the wealthy.
Just last year, Obama and top Democrats were willing during budget negotiations with Republicans to take politically risky steps such as reducing the annual inflation adjustment to Social Security and raising the eligibility age for Medicare.
Now, with new leverage from Obama’s big election victory and a playing field for negotiations that is more favorable, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats are taking a harder line.
“I’ve told anyone that will listen, including everyone in the White House, including the president, that I am not going to be part of having Social Security as part of these talks relating to this deficit,” said Reid, D-Nev.
Reid’s edict would appear to take a key proposal off the table as an ingredient for a deal on avoiding the “fiscal cliff,” the year-end combination of expiring President George W. Bushera tax cuts and harsh acrossthe-board spending cuts.
At issue is the inflation adjustment used by the government to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security and other federal programs. A less generous inflation measure could reduce deficits by more than $200 billion over the next decade.
Sixteen months ago, Obama’s White House took a different view during talks with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on a possible budget deal. A White House draft offer by top Obama aide Rob Nabors, made public by Washington Post author Bob Woodward, proposed several controversial changes to benefit programs, including the lower inflation adjustment, raising the eligibility age for Medicare and higher Medicare premiums.
But now conditions favor Obama.
He decisively won re-election and Republicans seem fearful of being tagged with the blame if an impasse results in the government going over the fiscal cliff. Obama and Democrats already are portraying Republicans as hostage-takers willing to let tax rates rise on everyone if the lower Bush-era tax rates are not also extended for the top 2 percent to 3 percent of earners.
The new balance of power means that Democrats who once would have acquiesced reluctantly to GOP demands for stiff benefit cuts are now balking.
“The price for that kind of thing has gone up,” said a senior House Democrat who required anonymity to speak frankly on party strategy. “No one should expect to get the same kind of deal.”