A new NPR PBS Newshour Marist poll shows that a solid majority of Americans (60 percent), including Republicans, oppose the GOP plan to slash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. To address the deficit, they support undoing the GOP tax cuts. Will public opinion move the GOP?
The GOP has historically slashed taxes and then argued for the need to slash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to pay for its tax cuts. So, now that the GOP has successfully slashed taxes, it’s no surprise that Mitch McConnell is advocating to slash these vital programs. But, only a small fraction of Democrats and Republicans (21 percent) support the GOP plan, according to the poll,
Fortunately, Americans were not fooled by the GOP’s 2018 “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” According to the Congressional Budget Office, it adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit over ten years. And, most Americans realize that this tax law has only benefited wealthy Americans and corporations.
Moreover, Mitch McConnell and the GOP clearly do not understand how Social Security is funded. Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit, as Ronald Reagan explains in this Facebook video. It is entirely funded by employer and employee payroll contributions. Cutting Social Security would simply take money from people who depend on Social Security and put it in the Social Security Trust Fund.
Will the GOP’s agenda affect how well the Republican Party does in the mid-term elections next week? If the Republicans lose the House, after January 1, it will be much harder for the GOP to continue its assault on Americans’ economic and health security.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Housing options for older adults
- How to get free or low-cost dental care
- Medicaid coverage of home and community-based care
- Social Security benefits will rise 2.8 percent in 2019, but checks may not
- What’s the Medicare premium in 2019?
The majority of citizens do not matter to the GOP, only the 1% minority doner class matters
…not just Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid this time, but also funding for low income housing, SNAP, and utility assistance, which many seniors and disabled today also depend on to get by each month. I have watched my SNAP benefits steadily decline by a total of 44% since just over a year ago . The only change in income was the 2% SS living cost increase which didn’t even keep pace with increasing costs. Just last there was month another reduction and now I am to the point of almost buying 2 weeks of groceries out of pocket after rent (50% of my benefit and scheduled to increase after the new year which will effectively wipe out the forthcoming 2.8% living adjustment), utilities, and other necessity costs take their cuts.
It is getting to the point that eating healthy and nutritiously is becoming more and more financially difficult. I tend to avoid factory farmed, poultry, meats and seafood that is often laced with antibiotics, growth hormones, and/or genetically engineered as well as cheap overproduced food products (like “Mac & Orange Chemicals in a Box”, instant Ramen and & noodle bowls (very high sodium), “pink slime” hotdogs, “fake” cheese [actually “fake” anything], those 99¢ Budget Gourmet type entrees & TV Dinners, etc.) since they are low on the “healthy” eating scale.
Sadly doing so tends to be more expensive. I do my best to keep costs down like shop sales & such and am a pretty decent cook. I don’t buy ridiculous items like lobster, crab premium cuts of steak etc and even purchase items like snacks and beverages separately with cash. Still I find myself having to kick in more and more out of pocket each month. I don’t shop those big volume discount food stores as I live alone and don’t need 5# – 10# of something to get a discount, as well as they are all out in the burbs, usually requiring several bus connections to get to.
As to housing, The Trump Regime, though Ben Carson, is looking to reduce funding for low and fixed income housing while increasing minimum rental rates. Carson claims no one will be kicked out on the street, but I’d like to see how he will manage that as again SS living cost increases are minuscule and housing costs do not figure into the equation. next to healthcare, rents in many cities have skyrocketed out of control and out of reach for many either forcing people to move further out (meaning longer commutes to get to work, shopping, schools, clinics and/or often dealing with poor to nonexistent transit) or simply out on the streets. Here in Portland OR the situation is beyond “critical” i spite of a very visible housing boom, with Section 8 enrollment closed indefinitely (since 2016 ) and wait lists for low income units measured in years. All those tower cranes I see are building nothing but upscale developments that are only “affordable” if one makes between 45,000$ and 50,000$ a year. That leaves those on low and fixed incomes out of the picture.
Those tax breaks, yeah, just like in the past, they will never “trickle down” to us as that was never the intent. This is why I call it the “Big Lie” of the current age. After the first major reduction in the 80s by the Reagan Administration, wages in most jobs remained relatively flat for decades while costs and productivity demands kept rising at their normal rates. Business and the wealthy took the mantra from the film “Wall Street” to heart as “greed was good” for them. Since Mr. Reagan took office in 1980 we have seen a 50% decrease in the corporate tax rate. Where did it all go? Buyouts of other companies, stock buybacks, new plants outside our borders to exploit cheap labour, CEO, executive, and upper management salaries, and/or into foreign based tax havens.This is part of the reason for the high profits corporations and the obscene amount of wealth individuals at the top enjoy today. Howard Hughes and H.L. Hunt (once the richest men in the nation), are “minor leaguers” (even adjusted for inflation) compared to the likes of Jeff Bezos, the Walton family, BIll Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the Kochs, and Warren Buffett.
…and those at the top only stand to become richer under Republican economic policy while actually doing very little to bolster the economy as it is the purchasing power of the average citizen (which has been dwindling over the decades) that is the real economic “fuel” for our nation.
I will not be surprised if before 2020, we have another serious crash like 2008, which possibly may be even worse and more prolonged due to the economic policies of the Trump Regime and conservative Republican Congress.