Huh. I was under the impression that ‘means-testing’ is all about taxing the rich over the poor. And raising the retirement age is not “cutting” SSI. Raising the ceiling to impose more taxes on those better off is also not taxing the rich over the poor. It’s taxing those who are wealthier, isn’t it?
Biden recognizes that the program is in trouble for people coming down the line, and something needs to be done to fix it for insolvency. Bernie doesn’t appear to notice this.
I’m not aware that he has. Are you conflating this with his apology for some campaign underling linking to an article questioning Biden’s personal integrity, which was entirely unrelated to this Social Security issue? AFAICT, when questioned about this video “scandal”, he’s done what he does, trying to turn the conversation back to policy and away from this kind of sideshow bullshit.
You, like Biden, appear to have bought into the Republican framing that Social Security is “in crisis”, and that we need to cut benefits in order to maintain the financial health of the program. Sanders and I disagree, and feel that the way to ensure Social Security’s long-term solvency is to tax the rich.
Of course raising the retirement age is cutting SSI. If the retirement age is raised to 70, SSI will be paying out less than it would if the retirement age was 65.
So are you going to apologize for doctoring Warren’s quote, or would you like to explain why it’s OK when you do it?
Oh yeah, while you’re at it, you could apologize for falsely stating that the Motley Fool article didn’t contain information backing up its headline.
Biden IS using sleazy tactics. He’s describing the video as “doctored”, which to any normal person implies that the video or audio were tampered with, like for example those videos of Pelosi where the audio was altered to make it sound as though she was slurring her words. It’s not synonymous with “edited”! But you’re so blindly supportive of Biden that you not only don’t denounce him for this lie, you repeat it yourself!
We’ll see. If it backfires, it means he didn’t do it right. Hopefully the eventual nominee has this skill, because if they don’t, I think they might be doomed to lose.
Really? A dead person cannot be president. SO you are saying you don’t want anyone to be president or you would vote for a live Manson over Trump? if so, you know Manson is a racist right? Is that what you want for president? And you actually think he would be better than Trump?
OK. I’m going to take some deep cleansing breaths and recite my mantra. I recommend this procedure to others.
Anyone who commits to voting Democrat in November is my friend and should be treated with respect. Most of us will be disappointed with the outcome of the primary process; all of us need to have our big person pants ready.
All of our candidates are intelligent and honest people who sincerely want to do what they think is best for the country. Focus on policies, not personalities.
Volunteering for the candidate of your choice and reaching out to actual undecided voters is an infinitely more productive and satisfying use of time than getting into message board pissing matches.
A primary is not a tea party. Rival candidates and their supporters will say and do things that piss us off. Be quick to forgive. Holding grudges only helps Trump. Let’s emulate Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren, who called each other liars on national television last week and walked arm in arm, smiling, at an MLK Day parade this week.
Namaste.
No, it’s not either. "cutting socsec’ is reducing benefits to those already on it. Raising the age helps save SocSec, and people arent retiring as early nowadays.
Cutting the video so that the rest of it, which explains what is going on- is 'doctoring" it. Taking a sound bite out of context is doctoring. The video is doctored to show Biden saying* exactly the opposite of what he meant. *
Sanders should be ashamed of himself. He needs to withdraw form the race. All he is doing is assuring a trump victory by such sleazy tactics.
I’ve added emphasis to the above important quote. It’s an attempt at humor to say we’d vote for a stale ham sandwich or a dead Manson, but the simple fact is that Almost Every Single Democrat would make a Better President than Almost Every Single Republican.
Mitt Romney and perhaps one or two of the Bush Brothers are the only major GOP politicians the thought of whose Presidency doesn’t make me want to vomit. Most of the GOP are totally insincere — think of Lindsay Graham or Mike Pence whose hypocrisies astound. Many top Republicans are — let’s be brutally frank — criminals. (Recall that the first two Congressmen to endorse Trump are now en route to Penitentiary.)
There may be a few sincere Republicans other than Romney and the Bushes — Rand Paul and John Kasich come to mind — but their ideas about what is good for America are so bizarrely wrong, they sicken even someone who might like Paul or Kasich personally.
I understand that progressives are not fond of the moderate Joe Biden. But calling him “Republican Lite” is so mind-bogglingly ignorant that I’ll make a note to completely ignore any opinions from any Doper who repeats such a confused thought.
Here is who REALLY wants to cut SocSec:
Of course, there must be literally thousands of occasions for decades before and after that where Sanders did explicitly call for* expanding* Social Security, as he continues to do today. And Ms. Altman is correct, it is quite popular!
So. Bernie’s campaign notes the many times over the years Biden has been willing to freeze or cut Social Security. Biden’s surrogates respond with a 24 year old gotcha quote. Next step: Bernie returns the focus to policy, Biden responds by distracting the low information voters with shiny things. I’ve seen this movie before.
Joe Biden has never voted for cuts as a senator. He has the same rating from the ARA as Ted Kennedy. And the hypocrisy of the expression adjustment is the point.
Here’s some notable bills Biden co-sponsored regarding social security over the years:
**An Act to strengthen and improve the Older Americans Act of 1965, and for other purposes.
**
A bill to amend title II of the Social Security Act to increase the amount which individuals may earn without suffering deductions from benefits on account of excess earnings.
A bill to amend title II of the Social Security Act so as to liberalize the conditions governing eligibility of blind persons to receive disability insurance benefits thereunder.
A bill to provide for a 7 percent increase in social security benefits beginning with benefits payable for the month of January 1974.
**A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide optometric and medical vision care.
A concurrent resolution opposing increases in medical costs for the elderly.**
**A bill to provide a special payment to certain elderly and disabled social security recipients.
A bill to eliminate the disability waiting period for individuals with terminal illnesses.
A bill to amend title II of the Social Security Act to increase to $6,000 the annual amount which individuals may earn without suffering deductions from their social security benefits on account of excess earnings.
A bill to make permanent section 1619 of the Social Security Act, which provides SSI benefits for individuals who perform substantial gainful activity despite a severe medical impairment.
A bill to amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to provide mandatory coverage for certain low-income pregnant women and infants.
A bill to amend the Older Americans Act of 1965 to extend the authorizations of appropriations for that Act, and for other purposes.
A resolution protecting social security beneficiaries from cola cuts.
Social Security Fairness Act of 2007**
Elder Justice Act of 2008
https://www.congress.gov/member/joseph-biden/B000444
Some more info on the 90s stuff
OK, I really try to not to be the guy who bursts into the forum to brag every time his candidate gets a good poll, but this is pretty sweet.
Last night Nate Silver pointed out that Bernie’s numbers have been getting better nationally, but worse in IA and NH, in the last week. He said:
Essentially, this leaves us with three plausible interpretations of the post-debate polling:
And then this morning thisdrops:
NH: Sanders 29, Buttigieg 17, Biden 14, Warren 13.
From an A/B rated pollster yet. 
Here’s the full, non-doctored, text of the Nancy Altman quote that is now being used by Biden’s people to smear Sanders. Pretty damn hypocritical of them to complain about things being taken out of context.
Hereis a link to that statement on her website, which contains numerous links supporting its assertions.
And here’s a quote from Biden on the Senate floor in 1995:
So the statement that he’s never voted for cuts is just false, unless you want to embarrass yourself by resorting to the silly argument that taking away COLAs isn’t a “cut”. He has not only voted for cuts, he has vigorously advocated them on numerous occasions. Here is a good overview on Biden’s record on the issue.
Glad to see that new Bernie poll for NH. My totally non-scientific gut feeling (which failed miserably in the 2016 general election, BTW, if anyone is considering putting a high value on it… though it did pretty well in 2018 and very well in 2012) is that Bernie has some very good momentum at about exactly the right time, and has a solid chance of winning both Iowa and NH.
Yeah, Sanders is looking pretty good in NH right now. It’s not just that one poll, either: if you go to https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/new-hampshire/ and look at the five polls currently on the front page (which are the most recent), Sanders is ahead by more than the MOE in two of those (the one that Thing Fish cites, plus the Emerson College poll from a week ago) and is statistically tied with Biden in the other three.
And I have to call bullshit on Silver’s claim that Sanders’ numbers are getting worse in Iowa. The only polls that have been in the field in the past week and a half have been from one B/C-rated pollster and one unrated pollster. AFAIAC, the B/C pollster barely moves the needle, and the unrated pollster, not at all.