James Clyburn has just been appointed to the Super Congress Catfood II Commission, and will now have powers above those or an ordinary member of Congress when it comes to determining the future of Social Security and Medicare. So I thought it would be a good time to re-run Mike Stark’s interview with Clyburn from May of 2010 regarding Clyburn’s support for cutting Social Security benefits.

Progressives need to send a strong message that a COLA cut is unacceptable, no matter what it is called and most especially when it is being used to show that Democrats are willing to give up their historic support for Social Security in exchange for getting Republican sign-on to a disastrous deficit-reduction deal.

I called Hoyer’s office this morning to ask if he considers cutting the COLA a benefit cut, but haven’t received a response.

Democrats are all unanimous in their opposition to “massive cuts” to Social Security, so they have decided to just call it something else.

No company takes on this kind of brand damage for nothing. AARP’s support for benefit cuts is a stalking horse. And they would not be doing this unless a) it was already in the works, and b) they expected something in return.

Then again, maybe they already got it.

If there were actually a real, looming Social Security crisis—say, for example, without reform by the end of the year, Social Security checks would be cut in half—only then might there be a political case for agreeing to an unpopular compromise. Fortunately, this is entirely not the case. There is no Social Security crisis at all. Without any changes, the fund will be able to pay full benefits for the next 30 years.

Looking at the current political environment and gaming out the possible actions that could be taken it seems abundantly clear that progressives best course of action on Social Security is to simply refuse to even think about allowing any changes in the program. Progressives should also follow Harry Reid’s advice by sticking to this “just say no” position for decades to come.

President Obama has packed the Debt Commission (also known as the cat food commission) with members who have an overwhelming history of support for both benefit cuts and privatization of Social Security. The “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” is operating in secret over the objections of both parties. John Boehner and John Conyers [...]

John Spratt, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, was recently appointed by President Obama to the Debt Commission. You can put him down as “open to Social Security benefit cuts” and a history of support for some type of privatization dating to the Clinton administration.