Oct 28, 2018 2 min read

Here we go again. You wouldn’t need a crystal ball to see this one coming. Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party now – after tax cuts that were supposed to solve all problems but did nothing but help explode the deficit, with the help of massive increases in defense spending and tax cuts for multimillion/billion-dollar corporations – want to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

We have seen this flick before – under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Under a Republican president (Bush), Dick Cheney said, “deficits don’t matter.” They didn’t bemoan that they were stealing from the next generation, that the sky was falling, etc. They just racked up the bill, starting a war without budgeting for it, cutting taxes for corporations and the rich, after not paying for the bills we still owe. But always insisting that we have to “cut entitlements.”

Well, 2018, after Republicans pushed through new tax policy last year, wouldn’t you know it … it’s back! Republicans are now screaming that we must “cut spending!” We have to tackle entitlements! Rinse, repeat. If the benefits are for actual people, they must be cut. If they are for corporations, the ridiculously rich, foreign countries – no problem.

Social Security and Medicare are paid for by workers who pay into it with every paycheck. It is an insurance we pay for, for when we cannot work anymore. It is an “entitlement” prepaid. It is an “entitlement” because that is the agreement we have with our government, that while we are able, while we work, we will pay into a fund so that sometime down the road when we can’t work anymore, we can collect to help cover costs of … wait for it … living! We are “entitled” to it because it is our money. We paid for it.

All the while we are paying into it, Congress continues to raid it for the express purpose of “fudging the books.” Putting in an IOU it doesn’t want to pay back. So, they keep raising the retirement age. They forego cost-of-living adjustments some years. When has the COLA ever gone down? Or even stayed the same in real life?

You have heard it before. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

Christine Kelley

Marianna