Senator Elizabeth Warren responded to cynical attempts by the 1% and their media institutions to pit the 99% against each other by taking to the Senate floor and calling for an expansion of Social Security. She denounced attempts by groups like Fix the Debt and their fellow travelers in The Washington Post Editorial Board to attack poor people in a time of economic stagnation and historic poverty.

“The absolute last thing we should do in 2013 – at the very moment that Social Security has become the principal lifeline for millions of our seniors — is allow the program to begin to be dismantled inch by inch.

Over the past generation, working families have been hacked at, chipped, and hammered. If we want a real middle class — a middle class that continues to serve as the backbone of our country — then we must take the retirement crisis seriously. Seniors have worked their entire lives and have paid into the system, but right now, more people than ever are on the edge of financial disaster once they retire — and the numbers continue to get worse.

Instead Warren endorsed expanding benefits and removing a special cap for the wealthy.

That is why we should be talking about expanding Social Security benefits — not cutting them. Senator Harkin from Iowa, Senator Begich from Alaska, Senator Sanders from Vermont, and others have been pushing hard in that direction. Social Security is incredibly effective, it is incredibly popular, and the calls for strengthening it are growing louder every day.”

The Harkin-Begich plan that Warren endorsed removes the cap on Social Security taxes  at$113,000 and provides for an additional $800 a year for all recipients. Removing the cap on Social Security taxes would ensure solvency for the foreseeable future.

Whether or not the movement to expand Social Security will succeed is anyone’s guess, but it is nice to finally see a Democratic politician not buying into the conservative premise.