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TexasTowelie

(112,260 posts) Sun Jan 15, 2023, 04:25 PM Jan 2023

Biden Comes Out Swinging As Republicans Consider Cuts To Social Security & Medicare - Ring of Fire

Republicans have backed themselves into a corner over their debt ceiling objections, and the Biden Administration is capitalizing on that chaos. The administration is putting out messaging calling out these Republicans for their desire to cut Social Security and Medicare in order to "balance the budget", a move that would leave millions without the necessary programs to survive. And if we head toward a shutdown, that also backfires on Republicans. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Republicans are planning to hold the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for cutting programs like Social Security in Medicare, which provide relief and assistance to millions of people in this country who, well, many don't know what they would do if they didn't have these programs. They would not have healthcare, they would have no monthly income whatsoever. And of course, they've paid into these programs for their entire lives. They have given their money, they have done their part. So they are entitled to get these benefits. And Republicans have made it clear all the way back to last year when Rick Scott released his disastrous Republican party platform that Mitch McConnell begged him not to do, where he talked about cutting social security in Medicare, making them a part of the yearly budget, which would subject them to decreases in funding. Republicans are also toying with the idea right now to raise the retirement age for social security. You know, you gotta go stay in the workforce a little bit longer before you can get these benefits that you've again paid for your entire working life.

The Democrats luckily see what's happening. They understand how bad it is. So the Democrats are actually going at the Biden White House. I should specify the Biden White House full credit where it's due, has gone out there on the offensive attacking Republicans for these planned cuts to social security in Medicare. You had White House chief of staff, Ron Klain gone on Twitter and wrote this. They're going to try to cut Social security in Medicare. It could not be clearer. He then shared a clip of, uh, Republican representative Michael Waltz saying on Fox Business Network, that major spending cuts would likely require changes to entitlement programs. So he used their own words against them. Like, this is what they're saying in the media. This is what they're gonna do. They're gonna take away your social safety net programs

Can't be any more clear. And again, they're doing this as part of the debt ceiling battle because Republicans said, oh, we can't raise the debt. People care about the debt. Nobody cares about the debt. And people who say they care about the debt can't even tell you what the debt means. Like there's like, well, we, it's debt. We owe money. Like that's bad. Okay, but who do we owe money to? Like where does the money go? Where's the money come from? What did we spend the money on? Can you tell us anything about the budget other than that there is a debt? No, you can't. But that's what Republicans want. They don't want people to understand the issue. They just want them to think that it's bad without looking further into it and realizing what's really happening. So they want this balanced budget thing, which definitely doesn't work for a country.

And by the way, their first order of business was trying to, uh, repeal the appointment of all those IRS agents and the funding for those agents that would've recouped 180 billion, uh, from the wealthy elite. So yeah, you're not serious about lowering the debt and the deficit because you just killed the biggest progra actually you tried to kill. It's not gonna be permanent. You don't really have the authority to do that.