Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Sunday that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are “off the table” as his party seeks to win a concession from the Biden administration in exchange for raising the debt limit. His statement comes after Republicans have indicated for months that they will take the debt limit hostage until spending cuts are made to the government budget, and after some Republicans have indicated Medicare and Social Security are prime choices for the chopping block.
First, let’s be clear that the R’s don’t understand that the reason why we have a debt ceiling issue is because it has come time pay the bills. Apparently McCarthy had to hold a Government Finance 101 class to make his morons understand what is being talked about.
It didn’t take long for the R’s to realize cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are non-starters, but watch where they will try to cut. More cuts at the EPA, Health and Human Services, FBI, CIA, and on down the line. “Starve the Beast”
Grover Norquist, a well-known proponent of the strategy famously said in 2001, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Ideal scenario: McCardboard pisses off the far (okay, farthest) right loonies in his caucus and they withhold their votes out of spite, which means that the larger contingent of less-loonies who are in purple/Biden districts and want to keep their jobs in '24, voting together with the united (mirabile dictu) Dems, can pass something non-catastrophic.
Oh, their leaders know this, because they have people who know about such things telling them about it. They’re just pretending to not know it, for political reasons. Of course most of the back benchers and their voters wouldn’t know the difference between the debt ceiling and a Mansard roof if it fell on them.
Ok, so here’s what Republicans do every damn time they want to fuck with SS and Medicare: they say out loud that cuts to entitlements are “off the table” and then add the quiet inside part: “for anyone currently receiving them…” This is what they always mean. This is what W tried to do: protect current retirees (and their votes) while reforming the programs on the backs of voters they know are too disengaged to realize that their future retired selves are being screwed, because of course what is never on the table for Republicans is the easy solution: raise the taxable maximum for SS and Medicare, which is currently at $167,000. So that means that 100% of my salary gets taxed to pay for grandma’s heart medication, but some investment banker making a $1 million a year only gets taxed on 16.7% of his salary. That’s totally fair – according to Republicans.
I know there’s a willingness on our side to find a way that we can find a reasonable and responsible way to get this done.
What’s reasonable is that House Republicans first figure out what their demands are before getting the President and Democrats involved. If they won’t (because they can’t), then the responsible approach is for them to accept a clean raising of the debt ceiling.
Anything less is quite literally unreasonable and irresponsible.
The body language read tells me that McCarthy isn’t going to have the juice for a sustained debt ceiling crisis or government shut down.
The GOP controlled House has done next to nothing since McCarthy emerged from the drama of the Speaker’s battle. He’s had to bear hug MTG publicly and has handed the party’s brand over to MTG and Santos (which, I believe, is an accurate reflection of the true barometer of the GOP). One can imagine a different GOP Speaker not having to pander to the kook right nearly as much. Yesterday’s appearances on the morning shows underscored just how McCarthy can’t go anywhere without being branded in association with MTG, Santos and the kooks and weirdos of that party. McCarthy has been a disaster for the GOP and a boon for Dems.
If the GOP is not willing to cut medicare and social security then these arbitrary debt ceiling targets are a joke and no one will take them seriously. The GOP members of the US Senate really don’t care for this debate. I haven’t even heard anything out of Ted Cruz!
Biden’s investment programs like the ARP and IRA are very popular. People don’t want to see those big infra and green energy projects cut either.
McCarthy’s early tenure has been so bad that one can legitimately question his ability to hold his caucus together as they threaten budget cuts, shutdowns and defaults. If that sentiment begins to take hold among the GOP caucus, he could face a leadership challenge sooner than expected.
