The Republicans in the House have made it clear. They plan to cut Social Security and Medicare. Paul Krugman writes:
CNN has obtained a screenshot of a slide presented at a closed-door Republican meeting on Tuesday. The first bullet point calls for balancing the budget within 10 years, which is mathematically impossible without deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The second calls for reforms to “mandatory spending” — which is budget-speak for those same programs. And the final point calls for refusing to raise the debt limit unless these demands are met.
Given that most Republican voters are older -- and that all three programs are widely popular with that cohort -- why would Republicans do something that is so obviously stupid?
Put it this way: Advocating a welfare state for white people might well be politically effective. But in America, it’s a road not taken.
Here’s what I think is going on: Even now many, perhaps most Republicans in Congress aren’t culture-war zealots. Instead, they’re careerists who depend, both for campaign contributions and for post-Congress career prospects, on the same billionaires who have supported right-wing economic ideology for decades. They won’t stand up to the crazies and conspiracy theorists, but their own agenda is still tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor and middle class.
Republicans aren't paying attention to voters -- even their own voters. They're doing the will of their donors. And, by doing so, they're feathering their own nests. It's selfishness pure and simple.
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12 comments:
The GOP is a coalition of oligarchs who want to pay no taxes and don't care how many workers they hurt, customers they cheat or communities they destroy, and mostly Christian white nationalists who want to wage cultural jihad on women, non-whites and gays. The oligarchs need Y'all Qaeda to get people to vote against their own interests, while Y'all Qaeda needs the oligarchs to finance their unpopular policies.
The oligarchs have already grabbed most of the financial gains to be had from the government through privatization, and Medicare and social security are about all that's left. I expect the GOP to start banging the cultural jihad gong real hard so people don't notice their pockets being picked.
Cap
"Y'all Qaeda" -- that's a remarkably good encapsulation of the Republican base, Cap.
Is there still time for the GOP worm to turn? https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/arizona-plots-to-eradicate-extremists/ar-AA16givh?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=c55b36ec2ec04d8292989ed11bab6ab4&fbclid=IwAR3c6UK3hcMoid6fCrpIyhDsj0OyKj5BSL5DvNN-JzjaZT60bnL_NxHZfxI
Kari Lale claimed she had driven a knife through the heart of the "McCain Party," Mound. It sounds like the reports of its death were premature.
This doesn't make sense. There's not enough billionaires in the USA to get the Republicans elected. So why would they cater to the billionaires? Sure, it may result in the Republicans getting a lot of money, but there's got to be a lot more going on than just catering to billionaires.
I just noticed that RossK at The Gazetteer is blogging about the same topic but he adds a bit of detail that more or less addresses my previous comment.
You'd think so, Gordie. But then selfishness is pretty easy to understand.
I think that the GOP will getaway with cutting Social Security, all they have to do is to rely on the absolute ignorance of the average voter and convince the other half that it will be their pensions not yours that will be cut and Boom SS is gone.
They are indeed a coalition. Gordie. I'd suggest that the oligarchs know that the cultural warriors are easy marks. Good con men know their victims.
It's easy to play to ignorance, Ben -- particularly when there's more than enough to go around.
Eliminating the two programs will most likely hasten the death of many Americans and that maybe the game plan. People living longer and longer costs money. Time for them to go.
Elimination of Social Security may cause some states to implement their own programs which may be what is wanted.
getting people to vote against their own interests is easy. Advertising has come a very long way over the past 100 yrs. Trump was able to convince hundreds of thousands to vote against their own interests. He made them feel like they belonged to "something" and that some how, this alleged billionaire, "needed them, liked them, told them they were smart, that they deserved more and that those in office were out to do them out of what they were "entitled" to. He blamed people for things they were not responsible for: he banned people from Muslim countries from entering the U.S.A. He blamed people coming across the southern border for the drug epidemic,
Politicians like Trump and Hitler, etc. relieve people of things they might be responsible for and that makes them feel better. Those rallies, which were show pieces, made people feel better about the misery of their lives.
Part of the problem in the U.S.A. is the amount of money in politics and lack of regulations. The amount of money spent on American elections could probably house most of the unhoused. Do politicians care? Of course not. They were the guest of some oligarch for the weekend on their yacht or had the use of their beach house, attended a party with an A lister. Most politicians in the U.S.A. enter a phase of their lives where they have an elevated life style they could normally not afford. Their spouses, friends, family all reap rewards.
As I was taught at an early age: the first order of business for any political party is to stay in office/power.
In the case of the Republicans, e.a.f, it's all about power. They have no policies.
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