Democrats have been warning Americans for years. Republicans have been denying it for years. Now, the cat is out of the bag. Republicans are aiming to pull the rug out from under Grandma and Grandpa and cut Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.
Current Events
After endorsing a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest Americans (just as Democrats have long predicted they would do) and signing off on a $675 billion budget for the Department of Defense, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has sounded the alarm. On Tuesday, he announced that the federal deficit is so out of control that the only way to lower the record-high debt is to cut entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Or, in other words: “We don’t have the funds to pay our rich buddies and everybody else at the same time. So, we need to do a ‘reverse Robin Hood’ and steal from the poor in order to pay the rich.”
The debt is “very disturbing and driven by the three big entitlement programs that are very popular, Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid,” McConnell said while declaring a $779 billion deficit in fiscal year 2018. “There’s been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs. Hopefully, at some point here, we’ll get serious about this.
It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem,” McConnell continued, adding “it’s a bipartisan problem: Unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Florida Senator Marco Rubio have each echoed Republican desire to cut what they consider to be “entitlement” programs in order to pay for their tax cuts for the rich.
“We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” Speaker Ryan said.
“You have got to generate economic growth because growth generates revenue,” Rubio said. “But you also have to bring spending under control. And not discretionary spending. That isn’t the driver of our debt. The driver of our debt is the structure of Social Security and Medicare for future beneficiaries.”
In response to the GOP bombshell, Democrats jumped on McConnell’s words as proof that Republicans have long targeted cutting Social Security and other senior citizen programs in order to fund their tax cuts that largely benefit corporations and wealthy Americans.
“The truth comes out! This was their deceptive plan all along,” said Representative Lois Frankel of Florida.
“When Republicans in Congress said their tax cuts to wealthy multinational corporations would pay for themselves, they lied,” said Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan. “Now, they’re going to try to come for hardworking people to foot the bill by slashing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. We can’t let them.”
While discussing the inflated deficit, Republicans failed to mention that the national debt has increased by 77% since McConnell assumed the post of majority leader in 2015. Republicans are also quick to refer to Social Security as an “entitlement” program while refusing to acknowledge that elderly Americans spent their entire lifetime paying into the fund. The money is already and has always been theirs and was placed into a government protected “savings account” to be made available to them at the time when they needed it most. It is not a gift. They are indeed ENTITLED to their own money.
Instead, Republicans admit that they are ready to rob our grandparents’ piggy bank and even smash it to smithereens and do away with it all together.
So, to all of the older Americans who have been supporting and voting for Republicans over the years, the Democratic Party has a message for you: “We hate to say we told you so, but… WE TOLD YOU SO!
DJ, my friend, you certainly earned that vacation you recently took because goodness you’ve put in real work FOR YEARS keeping your readers informed, daily, as to what Our government is up to, good, bad, and ugly. And I thank you!
Okay so this is an informative post about the Obvious and Ugly truth of what the Repubs have always wanted to do. But here’s where I’m conflicted, yet again: Trump and the Repubs, were elected by mostly middle-aged and OLD White voters. Obviously, those voters don’t care if their benefits (security security checks, medicaid and medicare) are cut so why should I? I don’t.
If those people lose their benefits they’re fine with it. And I’m fine with it. And frankly, I don’t care about the 100 million voters who didn’t care enough to vote in the 2016 elections.
But I do care about the rest of Us.