A Senate panel on Wednesday advanced a nominee for a Social Security oversight post over Democratic objections that the candidate is a tool of the Koch brothers.
The Senate Finance Committee approved the re-nomination of Charles Blahous to be a public trustee for Social Security and Medicare by a vote of 14 to 12. All Republicans voted in favor of the nominee, and all Democrats voted no.
Over the past several weeks, Democrats pushed to slow his nomination for a new term on the basis of his associations with groups that have received funding from the Kochs, the billionaire brothers who have backed conservative Republicans and free market groups. Blahous, who has already served as trustee, was re-nominated by President Obama as the non-Democratic public trustee, but Democrats opposed him nevertheless.
“We cannot allow a few billionaires like the Koch brothers to stack the government agency tasked with protecting Social Security with their allies,” Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown said at Wednesday’s vote.
Several Senate Democrats had prepared for Wednesday’s votes by penning a Huffington Post op-ed detailing their opposition to Blahous. In the op-ed, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, and Sheldon Whitehouse described Blahous as “a prominent opponent of Social Security and the architect of President George W. Bush’s efforts to privatize benefits,” and charged that he “is part of an army of aggressive conservative ideologues groomed for government service and bankrolled by the Koch brothers.”
At issue are not just Blahous’ public arguments for the need to shore up Social Security’s finances, but also his tenure at the Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank that has received funding through the Kochs.
Orrin Hatch, the Republican chairman of the committee, called the Democrats’ efforts to discredit Blahous “downright shameful.”
Hatch accused the Democrats of “setting up a series of straw man controversies in order to score political points and raise campaign cash in an election year.”
The trustees are tasked with overseeing the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and helping to produce reports on their finances. Blahous was advanced along with his Democratic counterpart, Robert Reischauer.
