Obama Stands Firm On Protecting Social Security In 2016 Budget

The repugicans hope to create a social security crisis, but President Obama has declared that he has no desire to indulge them in that fantasy.…

On Monday, President Obama unveiled his fiscal year 2016 budget proposal. Obama’s budget outlined a wide range of proposals likely to be popular with middle-class Americans, and unpopular with congressional repugicans. Progressives concerned about the President buckling to repugican cabal pressure to weaken social security can also take comfort. The White House appears determined to stand firm on protecting social security retirement and disability funding. Obama’s budget proposes clean reallocation of funds from the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund to the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund.

This clean reallocation would put Obama at odds with repugican cabal House leaders, especially repugican House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price. Price, and other repugican cabal leaders, have signaled their intent to pit retirees against the disabled. The conflict between the two groups could be stirred up, to force a crisis over Social Security, which repugicans could then exploit to push privatization schemes.

The White House provided a vigorous defense for social security in Monday’s budget proposal, arguing:

To address reserve depletion of the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund, the Budget proposes to reallocate existing payroll tax collections between the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and DI trust funds while a longer term solution to overall Social Security solvency is developed with the Congress. At various points over the course of Social Security’s history, Congress has passed reallocation legislation as the need arose for reallocating revenue from DI to OASI, and vice versa. This proposed reallocation will have no effect on the overall health of the OASI and DI trust funds on a combined basis and is critical to ensuring that workers who have paid into the Social Security system and become disabled get the benefits they need.

In doing so, President Obama has declared that he intends to fight for both retirees and the disabled. He has dropped the gauntlet, and let repugicans know that he has no intention of weakening the program for either retirees or those on SSI disability. The program, as it currently exists, is solvent until at least 2033. Raising the cap on taxes for high-income social security earners would make it solvent for much longer. There is no reason to curtail existing benefits. Nor is there any logical reason to cut disability benefits.