Free Republic

A Trump-aligned super PAC released a new attack ad on Ron DeSantis, which mocks him for eating pudding with his fingers and hammers him on his record of voting to cut Social Security, Medicare, and increasing the retirement age to 70.

A Trump-aligned super PAC is hitting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for sticking his “dirty fingers” into entitlement programs for senior citizens — and allegedly using them to eat pudding as well, according to a stomach-churning ad released Friday. “Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong, and we’re not just talking about pudding,” the ad’s narrator says, referring to an alleged 2019 incident where the 44-year-old Florida governor ate chocolate pudding with three of his fingers while on a private plane ride to Washington, DC. “DeSantis has his dirty fingers all over senior entitlements like cutting Medicare, slashing...

Former President Donald Trump swung left in his latest bizarre attack on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on Tuesday accusing him of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare and calling him a “wheelchair over the cliff kind of guy” in an all-caps blast. ​Trump, 76, who announced Nov. 15 that he was seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and is expected to face his most significant primary challenge from DeSantis, initially touted his poll numbers showing him leading the 44-year-old governor before cribbing from Democratic attack ads of the past. “Great Poll numbers are springing forth for your favorite President,...

Many Americans eagerly look forward to a time when they can stop working and officially set their status to “retired.” But when asked what age they anticipate that could be, there isn’t a consensus. The average age when people say they hope to retire is 62, according to one survey. SNIP Meanwhile, the House of Representatives last week approved a retirement bill that would push out the age for required minimum distributions on certain savings accounts to 75, up from the current age of 72. That change, if it passes the Senate, would be gradually phased in by 2032. SNIP...

A recent report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget raises concerns that proposals by this year’s presidential candidates would further increase the national debt. America’s major entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and Social Security—are driving the nation’s greatest fiscal challenge, and yet Americans have heard very little about how the candidates will address these programs. Autopilot entitlement spending on federal health care programs and Social Security, along with the net interest the nation must pay on the federal debt, are projected to consume all federal tax revenues by 2033.

According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), entitlements and ObamaCare spending will comprise 53 percent of all federal spending over the coming decade, totaling $24.9 trillion. In its updated Budget and Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday, the CBO projects that Social Security will account for $11.149 trillion in spending from 2014 to 2023 while federal health care entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare, will spend $13.85 trillion. (That total includes TRICARE, CHIP, and “other” spending listed by the CBO under healthcare.) ObamaCare’s insurance subsidies, exchange costs, and other spending are expected to cost the government $949 billion...

"Moonbats enjoy barking self-righteously about sustainability. Yet they seem to consider this sustainable: In 11 different U.S. states, the number of government dependents exceeds the number of private sector workers..... ... In California, there are 139 “takers” for every 100 private sector workers. … If you can believe it, entitlements accounted for 62 percent of all federal spending in fiscal year 2012...... Entitlement spending is worse than waste. A dollar spent on green energy is more or less the same as a dollar used as fireplace kindling. But a dollar spent on welfare makes America $1 weaker by strengthening government...

The financial health of the government's two biggest benefit programs may have slipped over the past year, reflecting the deep recession that has already bitten into other areas of the budget. The trustees for Social Security and Medicare are scheduled to provide their annual report on the finances of both programs on Tuesday. In advance of the release, many private analysts said they expected both programs could run out of cash sooner than last predicted.

Meet Richard Milhous Bush A polarizing Republican president, reviled by liberals, unseats the Democrats, talks like a conservative, but then sails blithely into a cataract of red ink. President Bush's record is beginning to shape up that way, uncannily resembling the record of—Ronald Reagan? Well, yes, the resemblance is there for all to see, and Bush no doubt draws reassurance from it. A sharp fiscal deterioration fed by reductions in taxes, increases in defense spending, and a recession: Where have we seen this before? From a fiscal point of view, however, the early 2000s resemble not just the early 1980s...

Vicious cycles in entitlement spending The Long-Term Budget Outlook, released last week merely puts the Congressional Budget Office's imprimatur on what taxpayers under the age of 40 have known for years: We're fucked. The CBO's projections indicate that our current spending policies will become unsustainable over the next half century. We face a choice between unprecedented rates of taxation, steep (and politically unpalatable) cuts in government benefits, or simply racking up debt until we've crippled the economy while nevertheless requiring some combination of tax hikes and benefit cuts. The last, most insane option is also the most politically probable. The...