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January 7, 2015 12:45 pm - NewsBehavingBadly.com

[su_right_ad]It’s a little-known and arcane arrangement, and Republicans are counting on no one noticing.

The incoming GOP majority approved late Tuesday a new rule that experts say could provoke an unprecedented crisis that conservatives could use as leverage in upcoming debates over entitlement reform.

The largely overlooked change puts a new restriction on the routine transfer of [su_thin_right_skyscraper_ad]tax revenues between the traditional Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program. The transfers, known as reallocation, had historically been routine; the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said Tuesday that they had been made 11 times. The CBPP added that the disability insurance program “isn’t broken,” but the program has been strained by demographic trends that the reallocations are intended to address.

The House GOP’s rule change would still allow for a reallocation from the retirement fund to shore up the disability fund — but only if an accompanying proposal “improves the overall financial health of the combined Social Security Trust Funds,” per the rule, expected to be passed on Tuesday. While that language is vague, experts say it would likely mean any reallocation would have to be balanced by new revenues or benefit cuts.

House Democrats are sounding the alarm. In a memo circulated to their allies Tuesday, Democratic staffers said that that would mean “either new revenues or benefit cuts for current or future beneficiaries.” New revenues are highly unlikely to be approved by the deeply tax-averse Republican-led Congress, leaving benefit cuts as the obvious alternative.

D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

18 responses to On Day One, Republican Congress Moves To Puncture Social Security

  1. mea_mark January 7th, 2015 at 1:17 pm

    Looks like an easy veto.

    • edmeyer_able January 7th, 2015 at 1:27 pm

      Nothing in the next 2 years will be easy, turtle and the sot will be painting Obama as an obstructionist for not passing their agenda.The question remains now who whose economy will this become Obamas or the R’s?

      • alpacadaddy January 7th, 2015 at 2:51 pm

        Indeed… I can only hope the Repugs & Tealinquents make such a mess that it wakes up the sleeping American electorate for 2016!

      • mea_mark January 7th, 2015 at 3:28 pm

        Poison pill legislation is not real legislation. Obama just needs to explain why he is vetoing something everytime he does. It is an opportunity to make the republicans look like the selfish idiots they are.

        • Hirightnow January 7th, 2015 at 6:04 pm

          Gods, he’d have to have his own 24 hour channel!

          • fahvel January 8th, 2015 at 12:53 am

            why not?

    • Jimmy Fleck January 7th, 2015 at 5:58 pm

      I am not sure this is something that would be subject to a veto. It reads as if this is an internal House rule on how the transfers would be approved. The House controls the money and any change in the budget would have to be approved there first before being signed by the President.

      • mea_mark January 7th, 2015 at 7:21 pm

        Then that would certainly give Obama the chance to use the bully pulpit to ridicule the republicans and further weaken their base. Every time the republicans alienate someone, it should be publicly pointed out.

  2. tracey marie January 7th, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    So it begins, the teabaggers got who they wanted in office and now they will see a reduction in their SS and disability payments…who will they blame

  3. arc99 January 7th, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    I linked this story in the Tuesday Open Forum yesterday.

    Glad Alan picked it up. I wonder who those red state voters will blame when their disability checks are cut or completely eliminated?

    BENGHAZI!!!

    That’s my guess.

  4. rg9rts January 7th, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    This is day one…

    • AnthonyLook January 7th, 2015 at 3:49 pm

      We need a Blog Calendar of daily Republican assaults, that begins with last’s month’s wall street gift in the budget deal.

      • Kick Frenzy January 7th, 2015 at 9:13 pm

        I REALLY like that idea!
        I’d love to see a site like that… I can see the simple, yet detailed, design and method of info delivery in my head.
        I’m playing with that site right now, in my head.. unfortunately, as col as it is, I don’t make websites and don’t have a company that does either.

        Also, I’m lazy. 😀

        (But I’d still love to see that idea as a standalone website!!! It would be EXTREMELY useful come the next election cycle!)

        • AnthonyLook January 7th, 2015 at 9:27 pm

          It could be in sections for the DAILY—Republican Racist comment, another Section for women’s issues and Sexist/rape enabling comments; another section for bigoted comments; and so and so on. So when these idiots deny their racism/sexism/bigotry… and demand you give them proof; link them to the web site.
          I’m web site illiterate, wish I knew someone.

  5. tiredoftea January 7th, 2015 at 7:59 pm

    The conservative eighty year war against social security continues with stealth like parliamentary moves that cannot stand the light of day. Welcome to the beginning of the return to the nineteenth century!

  6. Bunya January 7th, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    Oboy! I’m sure this will go over big with the senior citizens.