Subject: Re: CREDO: Secretary Clinton must oppose Social Security benefit cuts
From: Brent Budowsky <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2015 16:23:30 -0400

If it is an accurate quote I would strongly advise she make her position clear
ASAP.  If I am getting emails about the quote from liberals, it is out there and
spreading as we speak.  Better to set the record straight and if she does, I can
be very helpful getting the correct word out, I have a lot of credibility on this
and a large audience and will do it once I have something to work with....Brent

Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 29, 2015, at 4:20 PM, John Podesta <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> It may be an accurate quote but she is against raising the age and cuts.
> 
>> On Thursday, October 29, 2015, Brent Budowsky <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> I will hunt down the alleged quote and if the Bernie people are bullshitting I
>> will blast Bernie and I will go to the group that sent me the email I forwarded
>> to you and insist they retract it or I will blast them too.
>> 
>> In the meantime I am definitely going to publicly propose some increase in
>> social security, probably through a COLA-plus, and finance it responsibly
>> through some combination of a high frequency trading speculation tax and
>> some form of means testing probably extending the social security tax to upper
>> incomes....and I am serious seniors are going to be truly pissed when they fully
>> realize they will get screwed on the COLA next year when their costs for food
>> etc keep rising....a huge issue in states like Florida and with seniors everywhere.
>> 
>> HRC would be very wise to take up this issue, either as I suggest it or with
>> a similar formula....
>> 
>> I wanted to do that column this week, but the debt deal confused the social
>> security and medicare issue and this would have been a bad week for that
>> column....
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On Oct 29, 2015, at 4:03 PM, John Podesta <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> This is more Bernie bullshit. She's against raising the retirement age and cuts.
>>> 
>>>> On Thursday, October 29, 2015, Brent Budowsky <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>>> If Hillary Clinton is seriously considering supporting any cut in social security and/or an increase in the retirement age there may be an argument for voters to cast a protest vote for Bernie in Iowa and New Hampshire. I will soon be writing a column calling for an increase in social security financed by a speculation transaction tax and will directly address HRCS position based on whatever it is when I write the column. Seniors will be livid when they realize they will get no social security cola when their cost of living keeps rising.
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.
>>>> From: Josh Nelson <[email-masked]>
>>>> Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 3:02 PM
>>>> To: Josh Nelson
>>>> Subject: CREDO: Secretary Clinton must oppose Social Security benefit cuts
>>>> 
>>>>  CREDO Action released the following
>>>>  statement in response to a
>>>>  report that Secretary Hillary Clinton did not rule out cuts to Social Security and raising the retirement
>>>>  age in her remarks at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday: 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> “Democratic primary voters deserve to know exactly where Secretary Clinton stands on Social
>>>>  Security,” said Murshed Zaheed, CREDO’s deputy political director.
>>>> “Sec. Clinton needs to draw a line in the sand and make it clear that she will veto any
>>>>  bill that cuts Social Security benefits or raises the retirement age.”
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Secretary Clinton’s full remarks on
>>>>  Social Security at Wednesday’s “politics and eggs” luncheon at Saint Anselm College can be found below:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Yes you know, I think there are three parts to what we have to do with social security and the first is we really have to defend social security from
>>>>  the continuing efforts by some to privatize it, which I have been studying and opposing for a long time because the numbers just don’t work out. And in the Bush administration when I was in the Senate I was one of the leaders in the fight against the Bush
>>>>  plan to privatize and it is something that I number 1, we’ll focus on: we are not going to privatize social security. Secondly, I am concerned about those people on social security who are most vulnerable in terms of what their monthly payout is. That is primarily
>>>>  divorced, widowed, single women who either never worked themselves or worked only a little so they have either just their own earnings to depend on or they had a spouse who also was a low wage worker and the first and most important task I think is to make
>>>>  sure that we get the monthly payment for the poorest social security recipients up. So that would be the first thing I would look at. Thirdly, we do have to consider ways to make sure that the funding of social security does maintain the system. I think we
>>>>  have a number of options, this would be something that I would look at, I do not favor raising the retirement age. And I don’t favor it because it might be fine for somebody like me, but the vast majority of working people who have worked hard and have had
>>>>  a difficult, maybe last couple of decades trying to continue to work, it would be very challenging for them. If there were a way to do it that would not penalize or punish laborers and factory workers and long distance truck drivers and people who really are
>>>>  ready for retirement at a much earlier age, I would consider it. But I have yet to find any recommendation that I would think would be suitable. And I want to look at raising the cap, I think that’s something we should look at how we do it, because I don’t
>>>>  want it to be an extra burden on middle class families and in some parts of the country, you know, there’s a different level of income that defines middle class. So what do we skip and what level do we start at? And we have to consider that. So those are my
>>>>  three priorities in looking at social security.
>>>> 
>>>> BACKGROUND
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> CREDO has played a leading role in the fight to stop any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,
>>>>  and expand the programs. Here are some highlights of CREDO’s work so far in 2015:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 200,000 ACTIVISTS TO BOEHNER: NO CUTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS:
>>>>  In response to House Republicans’ January rule change that stopped the routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program, more than
>>>> 200,000 CREDO
>>>>  activists signed a rapid response petition telling Speaker Boehner and House Republicans not to use
>>>>  the rule change to force benefit cuts.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 175,000 CREDO ACTIVISTS CONDEMN RAND PAUL’S ATTACK ON SOCIAL SECURITY:
>>>> When Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said that a majority of people who receive Social Security disability
>>>>  benefits are “gaming the system,” CREDO activists fought back. More than  175,000 activists
>>>>  nationwide signed our petition telling Senator Paul to “stop attacking disabled Americans and keep
>>>>  [his] hands off of Social Security.”
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 235,000+ ACTIVISTS URGE CONGRESS TO EXPAND SOCIAL SECURITY:
>>>> CREDO activists went on offense earlier this year, with
>>>> more
>>>>  than 239,000 signing a petition telling Congress to expand Social Security benefits.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 185,000+ FIGHT TO STOP REPUBLICANS’ SNEAK ATTACK ON MEDICARE:
>>>> In June, more than 188,000 CREDO activists signed a
>>>> rapid response
>>>>  petition urging Democrats in Congress to reject a Republican plan to pay for Trade Adjustment Assistance
>>>>  with an extension on the sequester on Medicare payments.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> DONATED $84,000+ TO SOCIAL SECURITY WORKS IN MARCH 2015
>>>> As part of its innovative model for funding progressive non-profit organizations, CREDO Mobile donated
>>>>  $84,292 in March 2015 to Social Security Works, a leading organization in the fight to preserve and expand Social Security.
>>>> Learn more about CREDO’s
>>>>  donations program.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> CREDO Action,
>>>>  part of
>>>> CREDO Mobile,
>>>>  is a social change network of 3.8 million activists, sending millions of petition signatures and more than 100,000 phone calls to decision-makers each year. CREDO Action members also participate in meetings, protests and other direct actions for progressive
>>>>  change.
>>>> Follow CREDOmobile on Twitter.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> Josh Nelson
>>>> Communications Director, CREDO Action
>>>> 
>>>> Mobile: 202-550-6175
>>>> Twitter: @josh_nelson & @CREDOmobile 
>>>> 
>>>> Connect with your values.
>>>> Join America’s progressive phone company.
>>>>  
>>>>