Nothing pisses me off more than a Republican calling the social safety net “entitlements,” but I guess we’d better get used to it. At least we’re okay for now — until Ryan gets his Holy Grail:
Donald Trump’s first budget proposal will spare big social welfare programs such as social security and Medicare from cuts, the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Mnuchin said Trump would use his first address to Congress on Tuesday night to preview some elements of his sweeping plans to cut taxes for the middle class, simplify the tax system and make American companies more globally competitive with lower rates and changes to encourage manufacturing.
Speaking on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Mnuchin, who has acknowledged that tax reform is his top policy priority, said the budget plan would not seek cuts to federal benefits programs known as “entitlements”.
“We are not touching those now. So don’t expect to see that as part of this budget, OK,” Mnuchin said of the programs. “We are very focused on other aspects and that’s what’s very important to us. And that’s the president’s priority.”
Everyone keeps says how focused Trump is about delivering on his campaign promises, but what his voters didn’t get is that the one about “saving and protecting” Social Security and Medicare is just typical wingnut talk for “slashing and burning” under the guise of maintaining the programs’ long term stability. But you knew that already, right?
That kind of talk really fries my duck also. I hear it when I tell people that since my stroke (which could have been avoided if I’d had access to even the most basic check up between 2005 and 2008) I have been collecting Social Security Disability as my only income.
Why it bothers me is mostly because as a poor musician with a day job, I was very aware of the 25-26% of every paycheck I ever got that was deducted for payroll taxes, about half of which (according to the stub) went to FICA. So, what? Thirty two years of 12-13% of everything I earned were my premiums for the insurance I’m collecting now?
Because, really, I never minded paying those taxes, even when I barely had enough money to get by. I like living in the USA, and in California, and I feel very lucky to have been born when and where I was. It always seemed worth the money to me.
So maybe if you have a lot of money it might feel different, I don’t know, but my best guess is that the feeling different is really the prerequisite to the making of the lot of money.
““We are not touching those now.” That train coming at you on the tracks is not touching you “now”.
Just like the conservatives making liberal a dirty word, and “progressives” running away from it, now they have succeeded making entitlement a dirty word. You earned those entitlements, that’s why you are entitled to them. Own the word and fight them with it.