TRUMP: "We're saving Social Security. The Democrats will destroy Social Security. We're saving Medicare. The Democrats want to destroy Medicare. …We will keep it going. We're making it stronger. We're making Social Security stronger."
TRUMP, promoting Montana Republican Matt Rosendale's Senate campaign: "I'm going to protect your Social Security. We're going to take care of your Social Security. Matt Rosendale is going to make sure we're not touching your Social Security and your Medicare is only going one way. That's stronger."
Collected by the Associated Press
10 comments:
Trump’s statements are all lies. The GOP is doing everything they can to starve Social Security and Medicare.
Dumb Donny hasn’t a clue. What’s new.
The GOP approach to saving Social Security - From the Vietnam war - "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.". Substitute your favorite social program's name for the word "town".
Why don't we take him at his word and hope for the best? Believe it or not the Democratic party is more interested in protecting the benefits of migrants than American Citizens. What have the Democrats done lately for me, as I am still expecting a homeless inducing 21% cut soon? Such a cut will destroy the little self respect I have left as I walk the streets.
When I hear republicans say they want to save Social Security, I picture SSA as a healthy but forcibly restrained patient on an operating table. Elephantine doctors approach with knives and grins and begin harvesting whatever parts they can for sale to the highest bidder. An arm here for lower taxes on the rich. A leg there for subsidies for big business and corporate welfare. Once they are done they point at whatever is left on the operating table and solemnly announce they have saved the patient.
7:41 AM,
I was following your narrative until I got to the "solemn" announcement about saving the patient. I'm picturing something more like an orchestrated series of self-congratulatory Tweets, followed by a keg party in the Rose Garden.
Again, the democratic party has brought this on themselves. The old playbook from the post New Deal period was for the dems to run on republicans destroying the program. The Clinton period effectively ended this. Guess what? Dems old tactic of running on protecting social security, medicare, jobs worked! When you stop doing something you leave a vacuum. Trump is a political entrepreneur at heart rhetorically. He will grab or try anything for votes. Democratic silence in the room has given Trump an opportunity to co opt and lie about this issue also.
If that guy said it, you know it is a bald faced lie. Truth does not linger around this so called president.
All recent Republican legislative proposals are based on net benefit cuts. There are some provisions to raise benefits at the lower end of the income scale, but those are offset in net by cuts at higher income levels, retirement age increases and COLA decreases. A very few proposals countenance revenue increases.
Most democratic proposals raise taxes (mostly on higher incomes), and some raise benefits as well. A few make some benefits cuts and increases (more progressive benefit structure on net) while also raising revenues.
When Republicans say "saving Social Security" they only mean making it financially solvent. Cut now so you don't have to cut later, for the most part.
When Democrats say "saving Social Security" they mean preserving (and now perhaps increasing) a certain level of benefits. Keep benefits as they are and just pay for it.
I don't believe anything Trump says, but I'm glad he said these things - it might make it less likely he'll agree to big cuts to these programs that many Republicans really want. He could argue that cuts are necessary to "save" Social Security (although, of course, there are other ways to do so), but he says here "we're not touching your Social Security." He's said this before, and the fact that he's still saying it (and that Social Security has not been cut even after almost 2 years of full control by Republicans) means that he might not be willing to agree to cuts.
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