Biden, the Democrats, and the dark cloud of austerity economics

David Dayen is keeping his eyes on the let-grandma-eat-catfood caucus. Which never goes away. Republicans like Mitt Romney and nominal Democrats like Joe Manchin will never stop pushing to cut Social Security and Medicare. This is just how they roll (Mitt Romney Wants to Use the Crisis to Cut Your Social Security The American Prospect 07/23/2020):

Romney has been pushing publicly for including a bill of his in the relief package called the TRUST Act. Written with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Romney’s TRUST Act would create bipartisan 'rescue committees' to come up with plans to make each federal trust fund — Social Security and Medicare primarily, but also the Highway Trust Fund and others — solvent for the next 75 years. It’s modeled after the "Catfood Commission" in the Bowles-Simpson process [during the Obama-Biden Administration]. Like with that, once the plans are approved, they get a fast-track delivery to the House and Senate floor, with no ability for amendment. The plans would still need to reach a 60-vote final threshold to pass the Senate. ...

This would be appalling. No federal trust fund, by definition, can reach bankruptcy; Congress can always replenish it. What Romney wants to do here is create a process to force a resolution to earned benefit programs on his terms. While it doesn’t fully eliminate the filibuster for Social Security cuts, it builds a process to invite those cuts to be made. Just a decade ago, Barack Obama favored some cuts, remember.

Moreover, it’s designed to trap Democrats. Mitch McConnell wants nothing more than to kill social insurance spending while keeping his fingerprints off it. Passing the TRUST Act would set in motion a runaway train that has to move inexorably toward chipping away at Social Security and Medicare. It would restart the fiscal mania in Washington, and pressure Democrats to be 'serious' by degrading the most popular programs the party ever created. Fierce grassroots pushback stopped this cold during Bowles-Simpson, but the deficit hawks only have to be right once. It would also conveniently be an enormous distraction during what’s expected to be an extended economic downturn. [my emphasis]

We in a big recession already in the US. The last thing the country needs is for the Democratic Party to fall into the snakepit of budget-balancing Hooverish austerity economics.

Here's a reminder from Sam Seder and The Majority Report 11/29/2012 in 2012 of what that means, Simpson - Bowles Make BIG Money For Saying Your Pension Should Be Cut!:

Also, why is Dick Durbin a Democrat? Here he is in 2011 demanding to adopt the let-grandma-eat-catfood program while talking smack with the CNN Business reporter about deficits and debt. Without real pressure from the Democratic base and incumbent fears of primary challenges from progressives, we'll be right back here in 2021 under a Biden Administration. Sen. Durbin: Adopt Bowles-Simpson plan now 06/29/2011: