Category: Social Safety Net

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Lauren Boebert Gets Schooled By Social Security Official After Proving Her Ignorance Of Math

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) once again proved her seemingly unlimited ignorance on Wednesday during the questioning of an official from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

According to HuffPost, Boebert chastised the SSA official and suggested that employees for the agency are lazy.

Boebert told Oren “Hank” McKnelly, an executive counselor for the SSA, that the agency was allowing “delinquent employees to sit on their sofas at home” instead of “actually getting to work and doing their jobs” as she took aim at telework policies during a House Oversight Committee hearing.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” said Boebert, known for her bizarre behavior in and outside Washington, D.C.

McNeely told the congresswoman that all employees who work from home are monitored.

That led Boebert to ask, “Then why is the backlogs for Social Security applicants increased from 41,000 to 107,000?”

McNeely replied, “Because we’ve been historically underfunded for a number of years now.”

The congresswoman tried to be snarky, telling the official:

“I don’t think you’re underfunded. You’re funded at the Nancy Pelosi levels, at the democrat levels. We just continued that same funding.”

McNeely dropped the hammer on Boebert by using simple facts to refute what she’d just said.

“So I’d say we’d have an increase of over 8 million beneficiaries over the last 10 years. At the same time, we experienced our lowest work staffing levels at the end of FY 22. That’s a math problem. I mean, that is a problem. If you have those workloads increasing and you don’t have the staff to take care of those workloads, you’re going to have the backlogs that you’re talking about, representative.”

The video, which has more than 2.4 million views in less than 24 hours, also drew plenty of comments from other social media users.

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GOP Social Safety Net WTF?!

Republican Senator Admits GOP Only Wants To Fund Social Security On A ‘Year-By-Year’ Basis

Ever since President Joe Biden put Republicans on the defensive with his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, members of the GOP have been complaining that Biden misrepresented their plans for Medicare and Social Security.

However, on Sunday a GOP senator admitted that his party wants to fund Social Security on a “year-by-year” basis, which would be the first step to cutting or even eliminating the program.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) was a guest with host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” and had this to say about Social Security:

“I kind of look at Social Security the way I would at the Department of Defense and our defense spending. We’re never going to not fund defense.”

However, it was what Rounds said next that should set off alarms in every home in this country:

“But, at the same time, we — every single year, we look at how we can make it better. And I think it’s about time that we start talking about Social Security and making it better. We have got 11 years before we actually see cuts start to happen to people that are on Social Security. And I think it’d be very responsible for us to do everything we can to make those funding programs now and the plans right now, so that we don’t run out of money in Social Security and that it continues to provide all the benefits that it does today.

“Simply looking away from it and pretending like there’s no problems with Social Security is not an appropriate or responsible thing to do. So, I guess my preference would be, let’s start managing it.”

The comparison between the defense budget and Social Security by Sen. Rounds is telling. Yes, he and members of his party will gladly commit to providing some funding for each, but they won’t say how much or how little. Allowing them to vote each and every year on Social Security would mean they could make massive cuts or even decide the program is no longer needed.

Make no mistake: If the GOP ever regains control of both houses of Congress and the White House, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are dead. They just don’t want the voters to know that because it would be the end of the Republican Party.

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Congress GOP Social Safety Net

GOP Congressman Admits Republicans Plan To Slash Medicare And Social Security

A Republican congressman admitted Monday that since his party now has the majority in the House of Representatives, they plan to make massive cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and other entitlement programs.

Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) was being asked about remarks made by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who said Sunday that he and members of his caucus would be looking at possibly cuts to defense spending, which led Fox Business host Stuart Varney to inquire, “Congressman, should military spending cuts be on the table and put on the table by a Republican?”

Waltz replied:

“Well, look, I agree with Jim Jordan that we are going to carve out work policies out of the military. We are going to look at the out of whack ratio of generals. I, I invited them to come on the Armed Services Committee and and work with us on that.”

Waltz then added:

“But Stu. And by the way, I’m all for a balanced budget. We’ve got to get spending under control, but we are not going to do it on the backs of our troops and our military when at the same time we’re talking about China is the greatest threat. We’re going to have a select committee on China. They’re tripling their nuclear arsenal. Iran is racing towards a new North Korea is about to launch an ICBM. Russia is on the on the march.

“And oh, by the way, we still have a global terrorist state now in Afghanistan. Thanks to Joe Biden. So this is I mean, we can work on prioritizing defense spending, but that’s really nibbling around the margins. If we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it’s the entitlements program that’s 70% of our entire budget, that 1.7 trillion. And defense within that is only 30%. So if we want to talk about big reforms, I look forward to hearing that from those folks who are pushing towards a balanced budget.”

Waltz’s comments drew an immediate response from White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.

If you’re wondering how exactly the Republicans will try to cut Medicare and Social Security, consider what they’ve already said about not raising the debt ceiling unless President Biden agrees to massive cuts in social welfare programs. They want to hold the nation hostage so they can enact their radical agenda.

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Elections GOP Social Safety Net

Republicans Planning To Use Debt Ceiling Limit To Slash Social Security In 2023: Report

Imagine a year from now when it’s time to raise the debt ceiling or default on the loans the United States has around the world.

In the past, Congress has always agreed to raise the debt ceiling.

But if Republicans win control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections, it certainly sounds like they intend to hold the nation hostage and demand cuts to Social Security in exchange for an agreement to raise the debt ceiling.

HuffPost reports that the fear of such a move comes from remarks made by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the leading candidate to be Speaker of the House if the GOP wins control the House.

“You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News in an interview published Tuesday.

“And if people want to make a debt ceiling [for a longer period of time], just like anything else, there comes a point in time where, OK, we’ll provide you more money, but you got to change your current behavior,” McCarthy said. “We’re not just going to keep lifting your credit card limit, right?”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) echoed McCarthy’s remarks:

“The debt ceiling is the natural place from which you can operate to affect spending change.”

Other Republicans have also suggested that both Social Security and Medicare would be on the chopping block if they happen to regain control of the House, with  Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), saying that he wants to at least raise the eligibility age for both programs, which would in itself be a form of cutting by making people work longer to receive their benefits.

In case you’re wondering what might take place if indeed the the U.S. defaulted at debt, consider what Forbes reported last October:

In fact, an analysis by Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi estimates that defaulting on the national debt would wipe out as many as 6 million jobs and erase $15 trillion in household wealth. 

“We can’t emphasize enough how disastrous it would be for Congress to consider a government shutdown if consensus cannot be met in advance of the funding deadline. Small businesses are especially vulnerable and many would not survive a government shutdown at this time due to the pandemic, particularly with the rapid spread of the Delta variant, and trying to move from crisis to recovery,” wrote Candace Waterman, President and CEO of Women Impacting Public Policy, in a letter to U.S. House and Senate leadership. 

Of course, President Joe Biden could veto any cuts to Social Security and Medicare, but if the GOP decides to play a dangerous game of chicken and wreck the economy with their demands, all of us will wind up paying the price, and that price would likely be steeper than anyone can possibly imagine.

 

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Elections Fox News GOP Social Safety Net

WATCH A Fox News Host Call Rick Scott Out For Lying About His Plans To Kill Social Security

Earlier this month, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) who serves as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, laid out an 11-part plan that would drastically cut social programs and raise taxes on the poorest Americans.

One of the programs that Scott’s plan would “sunset” is Social Security, which is often referred to as the third rail of American politics; touch it and you die.

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Scott was asked about his plan by host John Roberts:

“That would raise taxes on half of Americans and potentially sunset programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Why would you propose something like that in an election year?”

Rather than respond, Scott tried to weasel his way out of actually discussing the specifics of his plan:

“That’s, of course, the Democratic talking point.”

But Roberts was having none of Scott’s dissembling, noting:

“No! It’s in the plan! It’s in the plan!”

The senator then began trying to dig his way out:

“Let’s think about reality for a second.”

Roberts interjected:

“But, Senator, hang on. It’s not a Democratic talking point. It’s in the plan.”

Scott:

“Also in the plan, it says we ought to every year to talk about exactly how we’re going to fix Medicare and Social Security. No one that I know wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security. But what we’re doing is we don’t even talk about it. Medicare goes bankrupt in four years. Social Security goes bankrupt in 12 years.”

Flailing badly and trying desperately trying to recover, Scott concluded with this bit of tripe:

“I want to change this country. The woke left controls everything! We’ve got to win.”

The woke left? That the best you got, Rick? If so, you might want to go ahead and concede the 2022 midterms right now.

Here’s the video from Fox News: