Don’t be fooled by the language that’s being used. Frank Luntz and others are out to convince you otherwise.
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Democrats are drawing an early line in the sand for this fall’s budget negotiations, saying they will reject any effort to make changes to entitlement programs as part of the talks, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
via Politico.
Related Reading:
The five biggest lies about entitlement programs.
- Lie No. 1: The payroll tax hike is killing the retail economy.
- Lie No. 2: “Entitlement” benefits for millionaires and billionaires are a costly problem.
- Lie No. 3: Social Security and Medicare are $60 trillion in the hole.
- Lie No. 4: You’re paying too much (or too little) for your benefits.
- Lie No. 5: Medicare, Social Security — it’s all the same.
For more information about Social Security and Medicare, visit our website here or click the previous hyperlinks.
According to JP Morgan’s own financial disclosure the Too Big To Fail bank has decided to use its massive wealth and power to promote cuts to entitlement programs for current and future senior citizens. The group “Fix The Debt Coalition” received $500,00 from JP Morgan.
More on ‘Fix the Debt’ here.
Social Security and Medicare are inching slowly toward insolvency, according to annual trustees reports on the entitlement programs released Wednesday.
Social Security’s retirement and disability trust funds, combined, are on track for insolvency in 2034 — one year later than the entitlement program’s trustees predicted one year ago.via The Hill.
Related Reading:
The Truth about the 2015 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report.
But Obama acknowledged that Social Security and Medicare — big drivers of federal spending — wouldn’t survive without some changes to save money. Obama added that Republicans must first agree to more revenue hikes before the White House would concede on changes to entitlement programs, senators attending the luncheon said.
President Obama to Democrats: Entitlements may have to change via Politico.
Any efforts to reduce the deficit through mandatory spending would likely be controversial, particularly in an election year, because of the effect on popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Price has not said how deficit reduction would be achieved, except that the savings would come from mandatory programs.
via The Hill.
Related Reading:
The House Tea Party threatens to cut #Social Security & Medicare.
“I think after the administration’s been in place, then we will start to take a look at all of the programs, including entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare,” Clovis said at an event hosted by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
via REUTERS.
Related Reading:
- Trump Campaign Admits They’re Open to “Entitlement Changes”.
- The Trump campaign was a participant in yesterday’s annual Pete Peterson
fiscal summit which each year brings together the nation’s so-called
“fiscal hawks” for a full day of doom-and-gloom prognosticating about
how Social Security and Medicare will bankrupt America.
After instituting a $1.5 trillion tax cut and signing off on a $675 billion budget for the Department of Defense, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the only way to lower the record-high federal deficit would be to cut entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem,” McConnell said of the deficit, which grew 17 percent to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018. McConnell explained to Bloomberg that “it’s a bipartisan problem: Unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.” The deficit has increased 77 percent since McConnell became majority leader in 2015.
New Treasury Department analysis on Monday revealed that corporate tax cuts had a significant impact on the deficit this year.
via Newsweek.
Related Reading:
Senator McConnell blames Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for rising debt.
In fact, tax expenditures – especially the Trump/GOP tax cuts – are the number one drivers of the debt, not Social Security or Medicare. Social Security is self-funded and does not contribute to the debt.
However, under the ‘leadership’ of McConnell in the Senate and Paul Ryan in the House, none of these bills has been properly considered. Instead, McConnell and his cohorts insist that the only way forward is benefit cuts for future retirees.
On Tuesday, House Republicans released a 2018 budget plan that would make cuts to Medicare and Social Security, despite President Trump’s campaign pledge to keep those entitlement programs intact.
The proposal calls for more than $200 billion in cuts to mandatory programs. It also serves “as a vehicle for changing taxes,” CNN reports, which is “the primary legislative focus of the 2018 budget.”
via The Atlantic.
House GOP Recklessly Pursues Privatization of Medicare in Budget Process.
- Congress is targeting the health and financial well-being of America’s seniors by making yet another attempt to privatize Medicare. Today the House Budget Committee is marking up the GOP’s FY 2018 budget resolution, which includes Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Medicare premium support” scheme – an innocuous name for turning time-tested senior health care coverage into “Coupon-Care.”
Nevertheless, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other budget hawks prefer to perpetuate the “entitlement” myth. This week, Ryan said that fiscal responsibility means “reforming our entitlement programs.” “Reforming” is code for undermining Social Security and privatizing Medicare, two politically unpopular ideas that nonetheless seem to drive Ryan’s agenda. Never mind that Social Security and Medicare Part A are funded by workers’ payroll contributions and don’t contribute a penny to the deficit.