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Since we are only seven weeks into 2014 I feel confident calling President Obama's decision to remove the chained-CPI Social Security benefit cut from his budget the biggest victory for progressives so far this year.
Since we are only seven weeks into 2014 I feel confident calling President Obama's decision to remove the chained-CPI Social Security benefit cut from his budget the biggest victory for progressives so far this year.

The change is bigger than simply the removal of a line from a budget. It symbolizes a victory over the entitlement-cutting "grand bargain" forces because it is an acknowledgement by Obama his hope is basically dead. This is a fight that has been going on for years against some of the best-funded organizations in Washington. A policy which would have hurt millions of Americans and made our retirement crisis worse appears to have been stopped - for now.
It is a sad comment about the current state of politics that the biggest progressive victory so far this year wasn't a victory with the Democratic President, but a victory against him. While Obama did technically remove chained-CPI, he was the one who put it there in the first place. He is the one who has been consistently pushing for a grand bargain for years. He was the one who forced the Democratic party to temporarily back such a destructive and deeply unpopular position.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Since we are only seven weeks into 2014 I feel confident calling President Obama's decision to remove the chained-CPI Social Security benefit cut from his budget the biggest victory for progressives so far this year.

The change is bigger than simply the removal of a line from a budget. It symbolizes a victory over the entitlement-cutting "grand bargain" forces because it is an acknowledgement by Obama his hope is basically dead. This is a fight that has been going on for years against some of the best-funded organizations in Washington. A policy which would have hurt millions of Americans and made our retirement crisis worse appears to have been stopped - for now.
It is a sad comment about the current state of politics that the biggest progressive victory so far this year wasn't a victory with the Democratic President, but a victory against him. While Obama did technically remove chained-CPI, he was the one who put it there in the first place. He is the one who has been consistently pushing for a grand bargain for years. He was the one who forced the Democratic party to temporarily back such a destructive and deeply unpopular position.
Since we are only seven weeks into 2014 I feel confident calling President Obama's decision to remove the chained-CPI Social Security benefit cut from his budget the biggest victory for progressives so far this year.

The change is bigger than simply the removal of a line from a budget. It symbolizes a victory over the entitlement-cutting "grand bargain" forces because it is an acknowledgement by Obama his hope is basically dead. This is a fight that has been going on for years against some of the best-funded organizations in Washington. A policy which would have hurt millions of Americans and made our retirement crisis worse appears to have been stopped - for now.
It is a sad comment about the current state of politics that the biggest progressive victory so far this year wasn't a victory with the Democratic President, but a victory against him. While Obama did technically remove chained-CPI, he was the one who put it there in the first place. He is the one who has been consistently pushing for a grand bargain for years. He was the one who forced the Democratic party to temporarily back such a destructive and deeply unpopular position.