GOP wants to “fix” Social Security
Republicans are still fuming at President Biden’s calling them out in his State of the Union Address for wanting to unravel Social Security and Medicare. They insist he stop spreading lies about what they clearly want to do.
Social Security privatization is another “zombie idea” that should have died long ago, yet continues shambling along, New York Times economist Paul Krugman told Ari Berman Monday on his MSNBC show, “The Beat.” Yet there is former Vice President Mike Pence resurrecting an idea floated in 2005 by then-President George Bush (and soundly defeated in the court of public opinion). Bush meant to turn a portion of people’s Social Security over to Wall Street (and more of it later).
“You have to be really naive not to know that what [President Joe] Biden said is true,” Krugman said. “Rick Scott, former chair of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee was foolish enough to actually put it on paper that we’re [the GOP] going to sunset Social Security and Medicare within five years. But everyone knows that he’s actually speaking for what a lot of Republicans would like to do, what Republicans have been trying to do for 40 years.”
You have to pretend that history never happened to claim otherwise, Krugman continued.
The economy exists “for people’s lives,” Krugman insisted. The programs’ impact on the economy is probably neutral. But the bottom line is that “Medicare, Social Security, and increasingly now Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, they’re all part of the fabric of American life. Americans, to the extent that they can hope to have a decent, dignified retirement, is because they know that Medicare and Social Security are going to be there.”
Suggesting that they go on the chopping block every five years introduces “massive uncertainty.” Even without enacting anything, “you’ve degraded the quality of people’s lives.” Who cares what it does to the GDP? You’ve made America a bleaker place.
Republicans hope to turn federal retirement insurance “into a giant 401k,” and make people’s retirement another profit center for Wall Street. For those who have them, 401k plans are at risk of market crashes, Krugman reminds viewers. But those retirement investors are people earning enough to divert income each paycheck above and beyond federal withholding.
Washington politicians simply don’t understand that that’s not how most Americans live, Krugman explained.
“For most people, Social Security is their retirement plan. There are relatively few Americans that have much besides that,” Krugman said. A few may have some savings, but Social Security is “the bedrock.”
Sure (me, not Krugman), put even more of people’s retirement, people living paycheck to paycheck, into the hands of Wall Street speculators. Put American seniors living on Social Security alone one market dip away from eating dogfood.
That’s Republicans’ plan for “saving” Social Security and greasing the palms of their investor-donors.
SILENCE!
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo provides a quick summary of other Republicans’ designs on the country’s thin social safety net:
It’s not just that Republicans have been pushing for cutting or phasing out Social Security and Medicare for decades. They are now demanding that President Biden agree not to say what their policy is. The demand amounts to this: despite the fact that Republicans have been demanding cuts and a phase out for decades and despite the fact they will continue to do so after the current burst of media attention abates, Biden must stop telling voters about this because Republicans have momentarily agreed to deny what their policy is. Indeed, what’s especially weird is how many Republicans can’t help restating their demand for cuts even while denying their demands for cuts.
There are so many examples of this it’s hard to know where to start. But since you have to start somewhere I’ve begun a list of quotes supporting cuts from Republican members who now claim they’ve never supporting cutting Social Security.
Have other examples? Send me them.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): Johnson denies President Biden’s claim that Republicans want to cut Social Security. But after saying this he then called Social Security a “legalized Ponzi scheme” and says that Congress should no longer automatically pay Social Security benefits each year but rather decide each year whether to pay them and how much the benefit should be. “That doesn’t mean putting on the chopping block,” Johnson told local radio. “That doesn’t mean cutting Social Security. But it does mean prioritizing lower priority spending.”
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT): Mike Lee also denies President Biden’s claim that Republicans want to cut Social Security. But running for Senate in 2010 he told supporters: “It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it.”
Are there no workhouses?
Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA): Steve Scalise also denies President Biden’s claims that Republicans want to cut Social Security: But just late last year Scalise support the proposed budget of the Republican Study Committee which, according to Politico, “rais[es] the eligibility ages for each program, along with withholding payments for individuals who retire early or had a certain income, and privatized funding for Social Security to lower income taxes.” After the State of the Union, Scalise said Biden’s claims have been “inaccurate for a long time,” by which he presumably means ten weeks. But even while insisting the President was lying he endorsed yet more cuts. “We want to strengthen Social Security by ending a lot of those government checks to people staying at home rather than going to work.”
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL): In his official agenda for 2022 Republican Senate candidate Scott proposed sunsetting (i.e., ending) every federal program, including Social Security and Medicare, after five years.
Into their tender mercies, you should commend your old age.