AFL-CIO policy director: Obama should 'tell Boehner the offer is no longer valid'

Early Thursday afternoon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka seemed to be equivocating on the stance the union federation was likely to take toward a fiscal curb deal that contained a Social Security benefits cut by way of chained CPI. But he quickly tweeted "let me be clear'we are opposed to ANY cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid." Damon Silvers, the AFL-CIO's policy director, then took it another step in an interview with Greg Sargent:

"He needs to recognize what everyone else recognizes, which is that he made an overly generous offer to Boehner, and Boehner threw it back at him," Damon Silvers, the policy director for the AFL-CIO, told me this afternoon. "The appropriate response is to tell Boehner the offer is no longer valid." [...]

"We want the president to come forward with an offer that reflects the reason why he won," Silvers said. "We want the president to fight for two things: One is an end to the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent, and the other is to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid." Silvers confirmed that the AFL-CIO wants Obama to pull back on the $400,000 threshold and Chained CPI offers.

This is just the message Obama needs to be hearing from his allies: Stand firm. We'll be with you if the policy is good, but capitulating won't make good policy or good politics. There's absolutely no reason the president shouldn't rescind a good-faith (if bad-policy) offer that Republicans have already laughed at as they busily moved the goalposts yet again.

Tell President Obama to take Social Security cuts off the table.