Top Republicans are already talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security next

[workinclasszero]

Top Republicans are already talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security next
The idea of cutting popular programs in an election year has vulnerable Republicans asking, why not infrastructure?
By Tara Golshan Updated Dec 20, 2017, 12:56pm EST

Having passed their tax bill, top Republican leaders have already identified the next frontier for 2018: a push to enact sweeping budget cuts on programs the poorest Americans depend on.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and other top Republican leaders, fresh off a tax bill that is estimated to add at least $1 trillion to the national debt, are already sounding the alarm about an out-of-control deficit problem. Their targets for closing the gap include Social Security, Medicare, and food stamps.

“We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” Ryan said on a talk radio show. One of his top spending appropriators echoed the sentiment.

“If someone wants to get serious about debt, come talk to me about entitlements," Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) told CNBC. "Tax cuts produce growth; entitlement spending doesn't.”

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/18/16741730/gop-agenda-medicare-social-security

[RKP5637]

1. Translation: We, the GOP, plan to kill off as many Americans as we can! n/t

[Irish_Dem]

3. Old people and sick children have to go first. They are useless in a capitalistic society.

No profit centers in those groups. They are just money sponges.

Then a big chunk of the middle and working class have to go, since robots, AI, and cheap foreign
labor will replace them.

Then keep some of the working poor who will work for peanuts.

Guess it turns into more of a plantation style economy, Master/Slave paradigm.

It is not really complicated or hard to do with intense propaganda and rigged elections.

[RKP5637]

5. And soon Soylent Green. Don't let the road kill of people go to waste in a capitalistic society. n/t

[Irish_Dem]

7. It is getting too expensive to bury people, so cremation will be the way to go.

Yep, government might start asking for our loved one's ashes.

[Girard442]

2. This tax bill alone would doom the Republican Party in the 2018 elections.

The way they're acting, makes you wonder if they plan to have any more elections, ever.

[Irish_Dem]

8. They can either rig the elections or let the Dems take power for a short period.

The Dems are the ones who fill up the Treasury after the GOP drains it.
Same cycle over and over.

[Willie Pep]

11. Not unless we make an issue out of it.

Most people are not as informed as the people on this message board. A lot of Americans hear "tax cut" and think "great, I want lower taxes!" but don't think about the big picture and how the GOP will be going after Social Security and Medicare next or how the tax cuts are skewed to the benefit of the super rich. Then you have to add in the fact that the media concentrates on sensationalism rather than policy and many people pay more attention to sports and entertainment than politics and we have an uphill battle in front of us.

[shanny]

4. They are just braindead enough to try that.

One thing you can say about the last election: it served to strip the mask off these evil f@ckers.

[spanone]

6. and mark my words, they will bring up 'the deficit'

[Irish_Dem]

9. Exactly. They create a crisis, then benefit from it in many ways. nt

[jalan48]

10. LOL

So who's going to be buying the shit to make this "growth" happen if you cut the incomes of millions of people?

[EarlG]

12. I think they know they're going down next year

and they're trying to steal what they can, or break what they can't steal, on the way out.

I wonder if this tax bill would have played out the way it did if Republicans HADN'T lost control of the VA legislature, or the Senate seat in Alabama. I wonder if, facing a slightly less intimidating political climate, some of them might have thought they were still in with a chance of keeping their seats and decided to vote against it.

Instead, they know what's coming -- they see the writing on the wall, so they've got 12 months to try and smash n' grab what they can before they lose their jobs next year. Big handouts to their wealthy, ideological donors, and then a nice golden parachute once they get kicked out of office.

Dangerous times.

[tblue37]

14. Martin Longman ("Booman Tribune") thinks that at least some of them are

sucking up to the donors so they will be sure to land a nice, cushy wingnut welfare job after they lose their seat in Congress.

[MiniMe]

13. Poor people spend what they have, the rich don't

So I would say the opposite. Give them Social Security so they will spend it and it will help the economy

[Demsrule86]

15. They must really want to lose badly.