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In reply to the discussion: THANK YOU BERNIE SANDERS for speaking the blatant truth when so many won't [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)40. The Hill: Trump is wrong, Dems are fighting to save
Medicare and Social Security
President Trump has shown an uncanny ability to project issues onto his perceived foes ascribing to them his own troublesome actions, especially when he tries to deflect bad news. Thats exactly what he did at a political rally in Montana Thursday night amidst a firestorm of White House controversies, unleashing a whopper about Americans earned benefits:
[The Democrats] are going to hurt your Social Security so badly, and they are killing you on Medicare. I am going to protect your Social Security. A few days before the Montana rally, President Trump told reporters, The Democrats wants to destroy Medicare. And we will save it.
These are classic examples of Trumpian projection because the exact opposite of what the president said is true. Far from protecting Social Security and Medicare, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have been actively working to undermine them. In fact, GOP Congressional leaders promised to reform (which really means cut) Social Security and Medicare to help pay for trillions of dollars in Trump tax cuts benefiting the wealthy and big corporations. ...
The majority party is already hard at work on those cuts. Republicans have released a plan that would raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 and impose stingier cost-of-living adjustments meaning massive benefit cuts for Americas seniors. The presidents 2019 budget slashes Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits by a staggering $64 billion over ten years. His budget director once disingenuously claimed that SSDI is not part of Social Security even though the words Social Security are in its name.
The president and his partys efforts to cut Medicare are just as glaring. House Republicans propose to axe $537 billion over the next decade from the program that provides health coverage to nearly 60 million older and disabled Americans. And since when does saving Medicare mean privatizing it? The 2019 GOP budget proposals would convert Medicare into a voucher program which would make it harder for seniors to choose their own doctors, and eventually end traditional Medicare. (Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich famously gloated that traditional Medicare would wither on the vine if privatized).
Saving Medicare certainly does not mean compromising the programs solvency but thats exactly what the president and Republicans have tried to do. The Affordable Care Act had extended Medicares solvency, but the Republicans inexhaustible efforts to destroy Obamacare have had the opposite effect. According to the 2018 Medicare Trustees report, Medicare has lost three years of solvency since President Trump took office.
The presidents claim that Democrats will destroy Social Security and kill Medicare is patently absurd. Although they are currently in the Congressional minority, Democrats have committed themselves not only to protecting these programs for future generations but expanding them, as well.
During the 115th Congress, Democrats have introduced no fewer than seven bills to preserve and boost Social Security. These include Rep. John Larsons Social Security 2100 Act, which would keep the system solvent for the rest of the century while modestly expanding benefits and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) like-minded Social Security Expansion Act.
Other Democratic bills would link cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to a more generous inflation index specially geared to the elderly known as the CPI-E Rep. John Garamendi by (D-Calif.), which Rep. Larsons bill also includes; offer Social Security beneficiaries a one-time emergency benefit payment equal to a 3.9 percent raise by Rep. Rick Nolan, (D-Minn.); and repeal a law that allows earned benefits to be garnished by the federal government by Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore).
On the Medicare side, the minority party has been no less vigilant. Democrats defended the Affordable Care Act which strengthened Medicare against repeated attempts to repeal it and the Trump administrations efforts at sabotage. The party champions a policy of allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies which could save the program billions of dollars every year. Bills introduced by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) would empower the Department of Health and Human Services to do just that.
But those are only two of the positive pro-Medicare measures percolating on Capitol Hill. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) has introduced legislation protecting Medicare from benefit cuts by making it procedurally more difficult to increase the Medicare eligibility age and privatize the program. Bills from Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) would together add much-needed vision, hearing and dental coverage to Medicare Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Bob Casey (D-Penn.) along with Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) have sponsored legislation that would permit the importation of drugs from Canada, reducing Medicares costs.
These are only a handful of more than ten Democratic bills to strengthen Medicare and help the seniors who rely on it. Unfortunately, none of their proposed improvements has made it to the floor of either house of Congress under Republican control. That may change after Novembers elections.
Of course, these efforts to improve earned benefits come as no surprise to advocates and policy analysts. Democrats enacted these legacy programs in 1935 (Social Security) and 1965 (Medicare) and have worked tirelessly against formidable opposition to strengthen and expand both programs. The presidents claims simply dont make sense.
There is not one shred of evidence that Democrats are attempting to destroy Social Security and Medicare. By the same token, Trumps suggestion that he and his party are trying to save these programs can only be described as fake news. President Trump can project as much as he wants to, but it is obvious who truly supports Americans earned benefits and who is working nonstop to undermine them.
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/405809-trump-is-wrong-dems-are-fighting-to-save-medicare-and-social-security
President Trump has shown an uncanny ability to project issues onto his perceived foes ascribing to them his own troublesome actions, especially when he tries to deflect bad news. Thats exactly what he did at a political rally in Montana Thursday night amidst a firestorm of White House controversies, unleashing a whopper about Americans earned benefits:
[The Democrats] are going to hurt your Social Security so badly, and they are killing you on Medicare. I am going to protect your Social Security. A few days before the Montana rally, President Trump told reporters, The Democrats wants to destroy Medicare. And we will save it.
These are classic examples of Trumpian projection because the exact opposite of what the president said is true. Far from protecting Social Security and Medicare, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have been actively working to undermine them. In fact, GOP Congressional leaders promised to reform (which really means cut) Social Security and Medicare to help pay for trillions of dollars in Trump tax cuts benefiting the wealthy and big corporations. ...
The majority party is already hard at work on those cuts. Republicans have released a plan that would raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 and impose stingier cost-of-living adjustments meaning massive benefit cuts for Americas seniors. The presidents 2019 budget slashes Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits by a staggering $64 billion over ten years. His budget director once disingenuously claimed that SSDI is not part of Social Security even though the words Social Security are in its name.
The president and his partys efforts to cut Medicare are just as glaring. House Republicans propose to axe $537 billion over the next decade from the program that provides health coverage to nearly 60 million older and disabled Americans. And since when does saving Medicare mean privatizing it? The 2019 GOP budget proposals would convert Medicare into a voucher program which would make it harder for seniors to choose their own doctors, and eventually end traditional Medicare. (Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich famously gloated that traditional Medicare would wither on the vine if privatized).
Saving Medicare certainly does not mean compromising the programs solvency but thats exactly what the president and Republicans have tried to do. The Affordable Care Act had extended Medicares solvency, but the Republicans inexhaustible efforts to destroy Obamacare have had the opposite effect. According to the 2018 Medicare Trustees report, Medicare has lost three years of solvency since President Trump took office.
The presidents claim that Democrats will destroy Social Security and kill Medicare is patently absurd. Although they are currently in the Congressional minority, Democrats have committed themselves not only to protecting these programs for future generations but expanding them, as well.
During the 115th Congress, Democrats have introduced no fewer than seven bills to preserve and boost Social Security. These include Rep. John Larsons Social Security 2100 Act, which would keep the system solvent for the rest of the century while modestly expanding benefits and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) like-minded Social Security Expansion Act.
Other Democratic bills would link cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to a more generous inflation index specially geared to the elderly known as the CPI-E Rep. John Garamendi by (D-Calif.), which Rep. Larsons bill also includes; offer Social Security beneficiaries a one-time emergency benefit payment equal to a 3.9 percent raise by Rep. Rick Nolan, (D-Minn.); and repeal a law that allows earned benefits to be garnished by the federal government by Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore).
On the Medicare side, the minority party has been no less vigilant. Democrats defended the Affordable Care Act which strengthened Medicare against repeated attempts to repeal it and the Trump administrations efforts at sabotage. The party champions a policy of allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies which could save the program billions of dollars every year. Bills introduced by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) would empower the Department of Health and Human Services to do just that.
But those are only two of the positive pro-Medicare measures percolating on Capitol Hill. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) has introduced legislation protecting Medicare from benefit cuts by making it procedurally more difficult to increase the Medicare eligibility age and privatize the program. Bills from Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) would together add much-needed vision, hearing and dental coverage to Medicare Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Bob Casey (D-Penn.) along with Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) have sponsored legislation that would permit the importation of drugs from Canada, reducing Medicares costs.
These are only a handful of more than ten Democratic bills to strengthen Medicare and help the seniors who rely on it. Unfortunately, none of their proposed improvements has made it to the floor of either house of Congress under Republican control. That may change after Novembers elections.
Of course, these efforts to improve earned benefits come as no surprise to advocates and policy analysts. Democrats enacted these legacy programs in 1935 (Social Security) and 1965 (Medicare) and have worked tirelessly against formidable opposition to strengthen and expand both programs. The presidents claims simply dont make sense.
There is not one shred of evidence that Democrats are attempting to destroy Social Security and Medicare. By the same token, Trumps suggestion that he and his party are trying to save these programs can only be described as fake news. President Trump can project as much as he wants to, but it is obvious who truly supports Americans earned benefits and who is working nonstop to undermine them.
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/405809-trump-is-wrong-dems-are-fighting-to-save-medicare-and-social-security
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THANK YOU BERNIE SANDERS for speaking the blatant truth when so many won't [View all]
garybeck
Sep 2018
OP
One only needs to watch C-span occasionally to see that Democratic senators and congress people...
George II
Sep 2018
#165
K&R Is there no legal consequence for "elected" officials lying to voters about social security??!!
diva77
Sep 2018
#6
Very true. I had moved out of Fl prior to his election, but never could figure why he wasn't in jail
dameatball
Sep 2018
#13
Really? Nobody else is saying this? No Democratic officeholder is calling out Trump's lies?
Hekate
Sep 2018
#12
Was that a gaslight? I think that may have been a little gaslight. Awwww, cute.
Magoo48
Sep 2018
#158
Both of my Senators have spoken up, many times. Both of the Senators in my neighboring state....
George II
Sep 2018
#213
Actually, The OP infers that others "won't" say it, when multiple Democrats have been calling Trump
ehrnst
Sep 2018
#194
Many wish Bernie would spend more time "pissing" on Republicans than on Democrats.
betsuni
Sep 2018
#128
Your part-time Californian cousin needs to check the political makeup of my state...
Hekate
Sep 2018
#198
Amazing the tunnel vision that seems to occur among some. In fact the Democratic nominee was
still_one
Sep 2018
#47
Yep, the Democratic nominee warned us over & over, laid out great plans, pointed out Trump's nature
Hekate
Sep 2018
#61
I'd love to see your favorite highlights from the campaign where Clinton was really nailing Trump
ProfessorPlum
Sep 2018
#78
I guess you must have been out of the country. I went to several of Democratic nominees rallies,
still_one
Sep 2018
#95
Ah, the ol' "gimme a link", "gimme a video". Did you follow the campaign from the conventions....
George II
Sep 2018
#103
curiouser and curiouser. One has to wonder the motives of some posts sheshe. Or maybe not.........
still_one
Sep 2018
#49
Thanks again, Hortensis, especially for using the Los Angeles Times as a source. They are ...
Hekate
Sep 2018
#203
I'm sure there's a similar plank in the 2012, 2008, and even earlier Party Platforms.
George II
Sep 2018
#64
Talking point: Since the 70s, the Democratic Party abandoned New Deal ideas ...
betsuni
Sep 2018
#79
That's my point two is now "many" so therefor the OP title must be incorrect.
Uncle Joe
Sep 2018
#173
He says "so many won't" that's implies that many *refuse* to say that Trump is lying
ehrnst
Sep 2018
#177
A washed-out has-been desperately trying to stay relevant stating the obvious but with pizzaz!
honest.abe
Sep 2018
#186