Posted on 03/02/2023 12:30:15 PM PST by GulliverSwift
Donald Trump is driving a wedge through the GOP over one of American politics’ thorniest issues: the future of Medicare and Social Security.
The former president’s attacks on potential GOP primary opponents, and his warning to party leaders to stay away from the popular entitlement programs in their push to cut spending, are cleaving Republicans at every level. Lawmakers who once backed entitlement overhauls are now openly at odds with colleagues who’d prefer to soften their positions before they face voters in 2024. And a GOP presidential race that’s a referendum on Trump himself is now also becoming one on Medicare and Social Security.
While the GOP once more actively pushed for changing both programs’ benefits, Trump has separated the party into two distinct camps as he attacks Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a “wheelchair over the cliff kind of guy” for supporting a congressional budget that alters Medicare. [snip]
“It got him elected the first time, and I think it will get him elected the second time,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Budget Committee’s top Republican, said of Trump’s rhetoric. “But it doesn’t do anything for our children and grandchildren that aren’t going to have a program that I’m enjoying right now.”
Others say the GOP has changed for the better in the past 10 years — finally accepting that the voters aren’t as divided as elected officials over whether to touch the two decades-old programs, as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) put it.
“I distinctly remember somebody basically ran a presidential campaign on this in 2012: the Paul Ryan budget, the austerity budget,” Hawley said, invoking the former GOP vice presidential nominee’s famous fiscal hawkishness. “I don’t recall that ticket performing very well. I personally don’t care to go back to that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
This billionaire servant crap with tax cut welfare needs to end. People paid into Social Security and are counting on it for their retirement. Republicans should go with Trump's lead and actually serve their voters rather than oligarchs.
There are so many people who HATE conventional Republicans but realized Trump wasn't like them. It's why he won.
Ryan’s approach of cutting the entitlements was the wrong approach.
Trump’s approach of getting the economy firing on all cylinders so that we could afford to pay the entitlements was the right approach.
Who is Politico kidding? The Republicans aren’t ever going to propose cutting entitlements even if Trump dies tomorrow. they gave up on that in the 1990s as political poison. Bush is the one who killed the drive to cut entitlment spending.
Good for Trump. He isn’t a politician and shouldn’t act like one.
That way the people who still want it will still have it, and the people who want out of it and keep more of their paychecks can do that too. And to the folks who say it'll make SS insolvent and needing bailed out, I say, are we really worried about that cost now? With as much as the government overspends on everything else, propping up the SS system is child's play and a lot better than keeping the Ponzi scheme always in growing larger mode.
1. These entitlements are unsustainable in the long term and are a major contributor to the fiscal insolvency of this country.
2. Any political leader who proposes to cut these entitlements while supporting billions of dollars in open-ended military and financial commitments in corrupt dumps all over the world should be tossed out of office on his ass.
Medicare is always a target, but MedicAID is on mega-spend and untouchable.
Others say the GOP has changed for the better in the past 10 years
Smart people know that Social Security and Medicare are destroying the country.
Wise people know that cutting them is impossible.
The GOP needs wise leaders not smart ones.
You can never grow the economy faster than the growth of entitlements without cutting government. Even precovid trump was spending almost a trillion more than we brought in revenue. There is no going back now with a globalized world where companies and people can move to get what’s best in their interest. Just as people flee to other states, rats flee to other countries. Without cuts to entitlements there is not potential to stop the debt bombs. That’s just math.
Folks get old, and many very get sick.
That’s a certainty.
Many folks won’t have a big pile of money to take care of their basic needs like food and shelter, and medical expenses can instantly wipe out any life savings.
Because we can’t all get Goobermint Golden Sinecures, what do we do for our fellow Citizens?
Mortgage Interest is deductible, but principal residence rent isn’t? First $12,000 is not federally taxed, but it costs $20-$25K just to breathe? Medicare and Soc Sec are Evil Bloated Transfer payments with many getting less than $1K a month, but the War Pigs push $200 Bil to the Ukraine Mob, with 10% for the Big Guy. Local LEO’s retire with 10K a month public pensions (NY & NJ)? Some Teachers get public pension Lifetime Health Care (NJ)?
Why is it that Medical Professions can mandate/require 15 years of schooling, impoverishing students and making schools rich, but not require 5 years of Charity care, and Hospitals use that Teaching time to care for the poor?
Who is the highest paid State Employee? Often a Medical School Dean.
“Take care of each other” was a simple idea that a poor, persecuted Jew Carpenter had a long time ago.
It’s never too late to start again.
I do not think President Trump is driving a wedge in the Republican Party. I think the 2016 election exposed the wedge and we have seen the gap produced by that wedge grow over the past six and a quarter years.
I also think it is now irreparable, but we shall see in November 2024.
ARTICLE FROM POLITICO
I don’t think they have our best interests at heart.
The original 1935 Social Security Act established in Law that if the social security trust fund runs dry and we hit Pay As You Go, Everyone takes a 20% Cut.
That is still the law. If Congress allows the trust fund to run dry, the Cut is Inevitable.
Folks,
Get the facts aT any cost. Do not read headlines and assume something.
Right now the calculations for highest return is approx 70 years.
But full payment (what ever that is) in not 62 or 65. It may be 67.
You can take payment starting at 62 but it is at a discount.
You can take payments After age 67 but they might still increase up to age 70.
So bottom line, RETIREMENT AGE IS A SHINEY THING TO DISTRACT YOU.
AND IT WORKS.
Exactly, your post nailed it.
If the republicans try to mess with social security or medicare then they are on a suicide mission.
They already spent 200 billion on this stupid war without blinking an eye.
Trump is on the right side of this issue.
That’s quite an alternate history you’ve got going there. “Cuts” isn’t the correct term, but Ryan heavily pushed for entitlement reform which caused him to get into conflict with Trump, and Bush heavily pushed for such reforms as well - even going on countrywide tour to promote it - particularly Social Security reform to allow for private investment.
“Social Security reform to allow for private investment.”
The problem with this is that most people are financially illiterate and what do you do when they blow most of their retirement on poor investments.
This is just a push by wall street firms to get more assets under management.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.