Senator Corker of the great state of Tennessee once again wants to hold the debt ceiling gun to America’s head so he can cut Social Security and Medicare benefits (and Medicaid, disability, veteran benefits and who knows what else). Because threatening to take down our country’s economy – again – is his party’s leverage to screw over the vast majority of the American people.
Corker pointed out that Republicans could use the debt ceiling to “do the same thing we did last time.”
“If the president wants to raise the debt limit by $2 trillion, we get $2 trillion in spending reductions. And hopefully this time it’s mostly oriented towards entitlements,” he insisted.
Between refusing to compromise on tax cuts for the rich and the refusing to raise debt ceiling (something I have to remind Republicans that they had no trouble with doing during the 8 years that President Bush erased the Clinton surplus and ran up massive deficits) we see that Republicans in Congress simply don’t give a damn about what happens to the American people. What they care about are the Big Banks and other Mega-Corporations, and the wealthy people who control them. As for all those people who paid their FICA taxes for Social Security and Medicare? Screw ’em. That in a nutshell is the Republican Party’s domestic policy.
But only one party loves Jesus, Steven. Remember that.
Call him a domestic terrorist, ship him to Gitmo for the rest of his life, then say the same will occur to any other Rethug who talks this way.
Nah, we should be closing Gitmo.
Drone strike. Much easier.
He’s bluffing. The Republicans got killed “last time,” and would take an even bigger hit if they tried it again.
Thinking of your previous post on Rep screwing the pooch, the consequences of raising Medicare age and screwing with Social Security could easily have consequences of running families into bankruptcy or at the least financial peril. Getting a job much less holding it at 65 is limited.
I’m still of the mind that we need to modify govt’s priority on infrastructure to rebuild America to include health care. Seniors in their 60’s and beyond are more than capable of contributing to society but that contribution diminishes when they don’t have access to care.
Also the older folks remaining on the rolls of the employed would seem to me to be counter productive where unemployment is concerned. Shouldn’t we be encouraging retirement to make a few more job opportunities for younger generations?
I would think so, however if we re-frame the discussion on health care/medicare/social security and medical research to make those issues an ‘infrastructure’ the people who are working so that they can hold onto good medical coverage and can’t make it on Soc Security alone would be in a more stable situation and perhaps more inclined to retire thus opening up more jobs to the next generations.
I have said for years that Medicare should be available at age 62 for those taking early Social Security.
And for those of us of age for for SS but still working (I’m 67, a friend at work is 78), we need assurance that the Democratic Party will not be complicit in taking away our benefits via chained CPI or means testing or other bullshit. Else, we will stay in the workplace until we drop.
I suspect the Republicans care more about power than they do about the big money guys. Money wants a predictable economy, and the GOP’s games of chicken over the debt ceiling and the budget make the economy less predictable.
Unless the big money VIPs are directing the stage show and have written the outcome. Not even a new play — but one that rank and file Democrats and liberals refuse to acknowledge because that would require being honest about so many of the horrible people they have elected. Easier to blame Republicans for all the wretched federal legislation passed during Clinton’s tenure and the collusion with GWB’s tax cuts, wars, etc.
Democrats keep missing the point of this threat. The GOP wants to intimidate the Democrats into being the ones suggesting and pushing through cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
Then, the GOP can run in 2014 as the defenders of Medicare and Social Security while attacking out-of-hand costs of entitlements in the abstract. They did it in 2010 and got rewarded.
They wouldn’t even need to run as defenders of Medicare and Social Security, but merely remind voters that Democratic Party betrayed them. That’s what worked in 2010 and it would work even better if Obama gets his “grand bargain.”
ECONOMIC TREASON
boys and girls.
ECONOMIC TREASON
Right you are Ricky, but then, that’s been the Way of the Republican since Tricky Dick:
Nixon: Secret Plan to End the War
Reagan: October Surprise/Contra Funding
Bush I: Phoenix Program
Bush II: Plans to Invade Iraq prior to being elected.
There’s more. Just google “Secret plan {fill in the blank}”
Can anyone with a grey cell in her head really doubt anymore that the Republican party is now largely – not entirely (yet), but largely – just a mob of sub-literate, brain-damaged, fucking savages who don’t even deserve to live in a free society, much less run one?
Where is this going?
If you mean, where is Corker’s plan going?
I strongly suspect it’s going nowhere.But let’s see if I’m right.
Corker is talking to the tea baggers back in TN. He fears a primary challenge from the right. Keeping his job is the only reason he is in DC.
He needs to get a clue that the TParty today is weakened and if the trend continues where people are fed up with their full-stop methods in Congress, a TParty primary will be the least of his problems.