Dean: Big deficit suits GOP's plans

USA Today ^ | deep

[deep]

By Susan Page and Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON ? Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean accused Republicans on Thursday of running up the federal budget deficit so they can undermine the fiscal underpinnings of Medicare and Social Security.

"I think their principal motivation is to undo the pillars of the New Deal, particularly Medicare and Social Security, by making the budget deficit so big that those programs can't be sustained," he said at a lunch with USA TODAY and the Gannett News Service.

[deep]

Here we go with the social security scare tactics again.

[JohnGalt]

Most conservatives wish the GOP's end game was the end of Social Security and Medicaid.

Dare to dream.

[.cnI redruM]

Wow, I thought Medicare and Social Security were labeled "off budget", so that noone would know how much they cost.

Dean is not insufferably right, he's just insufferably smug.

One of these days millions of people are going to line up for their medicare and social security benefits only to be told there really is no money left for these programs. Then let's see how well insufferable, rich white @$$-holes like Howard Dean do when the blood runs in the street.

[OXENinFLA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/763012/posts

DNC's Social Security Cartoon [Dubyah pushes wheelchair-bound invalid over cliff]

[KantianBurke]

correct me if I'm wrong but with S.S. and Medicare being entitlement programs, aren't they guranteed to be funded regardless of the budget situation? While I wish Dean were correct in that the programs could be driven to bankruptcy, and therefore privitized, I thought that hell would freeze over before those programs would ever run short of funds.

[JimVT]

Dean and Kennedy! There's a pair. Both spouting the same bushwa about the world coming apart because they aren't in charge.

Hey, fellas....I'd like to see things from your point of view but I can't get my head that far up my a**!

[deep]

Here is the GOP's response.

http://www.rnc.org/SavingSocialSecurity/savingsocialsecurity.htm

[VRWC_minion]

Yes Deane, we must raise taxes. Go for it.

[Ronaldus Magnus Reagan]

Well, with the supply-side tax cuts starting to work their magic, the deficit might not be much longer. And people are sitting on nice gains in the stock market this year, much more than the loss carryforwards of previous years. (I'm one of them). So stock market capital gains revenues should be increasing too.

What's Dean going to say then? I think he just stuck his foot in his mouth.

[reelfoot]

I wish this was the GOP's plan. Not so, however. They're trying to triangulate--lower taxes to try to keep their conservative base intact, and increase spending hoping to pick up a few moderates/liberals. But they can't outspend the RATs and they're only antagonizing conservatives with the deficit spending.