5 Biggest Threats To Social Security From New Republican Congress

http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-biggest-threats-social-security-new-republican-congress



1. The Democratic center-right is not dead yet: Business-friendly Democrats were some of the biggest losers in November. They are also the Democrats most eager to prove their devotion to bipartisanship by working with Republicans to cut Social Security. Seemingly, their loss was a backhanded victory for pro-Social Security progressives, many of whom kept their seats in part by defending the program.

2. President Obama is still president: The Obama administration has put Social Security on the table repeatedly in its budget negotiations with congressional Republicans. The president said nothing as he campaigned for Democrats last year to suggest his views have changed. In 2015, the top item on his economic agenda will be to push a secretive trade treaty, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, through Congress. He has made clear that he will defy his own party's lawmakers to do so.

3. Paul Ryan is more powerful than ever: In the new Congress, the Republican from Wisconsin will chair the House Ways and Means Committee. This makes him an even bigger force on Social Security policy than he was as Budget Committee chair, when he repeatedly called for hobbling the program. The new Congress will likely have to make adjustments to keep one portion of Social Security, the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund, from running short in the next two years. With Ryan heading up their response, the Republicans are more likely to insist on drastic changes to the entire program rather than going the less harmful route of shifting assets from the DI fund's counterpart, the Old Age and Survivors' trust fund.

4. Rightward shift at the CBO: The Congressional Budget Office is the Hill's numbers cruncher on the economic and budgetary impact of present and proposed policy. The incoming Republican leadership have made clear they will replace director Doug Elmendorff, a centrist, with someone more to their ideological liking.