Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday voted against the White House’s move to reappoint two Social Security Trustees.
Lawmakers cited three decades of precedent and one nominee’s ties to think-tanks and his views on downsizing crucial welfare benefits. Republicans approved of the nominations—one from each party—in two separate votes, split 14-12 strictly along partisan lines.
“As has been the case, I’m supporting the President on both these nominees,” a bemused committee chair, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), noted at the conclusion of the meeting. “These are his nominees, not mine.”
Democrats on the panel, however, hit out at Hatch for backing the move to re-appoint the pair, saying the committee has, since the 1980’s, only approved of one-term appointments for trustees.
“I don’t think that’s a case for our committee breaking with a thirty year tradition,”ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, brushing aside the fact that they were voting on one member from each party.
Two senators on the panel, Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also hit out at the Republican nominee, Charles Blahous, for his ties to right-wing influence peddlers, saying it brings trustees’ work into disrepute.
Schumer pointed out that the Blahous started working for the Mercatus Center in 2011, after he was first confirmed by the Senate, in 2010. The think-tank is financed, in part, by the libertarian industrialist billionaires, the Koch Bros.—known for their anti-Social Security and anti-welfare advocacy. It also receives significant gifts from other corporate benefactors, such as Exxon Mobil.
“As a private citizen, of course he is entitled to promote any misguided idea he sees fit,” Brown said. “The trouble is Dr. Blahous promoted many of these ideas while using the title ‘Public Trustee.’”
Schumer also noted that Blahous has been publicly rebuked twice by the Social Security Chief Actuary for assumptions in reports, as previously noted by The L.A. Times. He additionally admonished Blahous for a series of op-eds advocating cuts to benefits, and for speaking out last year against a bill to replenish the Social Security disability program as it faced crisis levels of funding. The legislation passed.
Blahous’ service on President George W. Bush’s social security privatization commission, too, was fodder for criticism from both lawmakers.
When the nominations move to the Senate floor, it is highly likely that Brown and Schumer will be joined in opposition by Democrats not on the committee. On Wednesday, Schumer co-wrote an op-ed explaining his position on the issue alongside Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Hatch attacked the Huffington Post article, describing its linking of Blahous to the Koch Bros. as “conspiracy-minded” and “downright shameful.”
“Some of my friends on the other side seem to believe Social Security will be a winning issue for them this year,” he said.
