McConnell blames GOP control of government for debt

McConnell said it would be “very difficult to do entitlement reform, and we’re talking about Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid,” with one party in charge of Congress and the White House.

“I think it’s pretty safe to say that entitlement changes, which is the real driver of the debt by any objective standard, may well be difficult if not impossible to achieve when you have unified government,” McConnell said.

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CriticalThought said:

Basically, now that the GOP has all the power, they are afraid to do anything with it but cut taxes because they believe they will face a political backlash as a result. I have plenty of reasons to dislike Democrats, but at least they had the balls to govern and make some tough and unpopular political choices. I hope the GOP keeps control of the whole government, so that they and the Trump supporters have nobody to blame but themselves when the economy turns.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/...ames-entitlements-not-gop-for-rising-deficits

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cpwill said:

The refusal to address entitlements was and remains one of my (many) major fiscal criticisms of Trump.


But pretending that Democrats have the guts to take on that issue is laughable.

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CriticalThought said:

Lol. So no matter who leads, the results are the same.

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You can't blame them. We now reward not compromising at the ballot box. We want poilticians who are fiercely partisan to lead us. Lead us to bankruptcy and Oblivion

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cpwill said:

:shrug: As I understand McConnel's argument, it's that you need bi-partisan agreement on big things like changing the entitlements (the Democrat refusal to seek this, I think, was a big part of the backlash that ensued). I hope Democrats prove willing to actually address this threat* to our country.

But, given that they seem unable to avoid trying to seek temporary political advantage by trying to demonize reform efforts and maligning the motives of those who seek to save these programs, I am not optimistic.



*Per SECDEF, the single greatest threat to our national security.





That is certainly true. The American people do not seem to want to be adults, and trying to make them is suicidally unpopular for politicians not skilled enough to actually lead.

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cpwill said:

But pretending that Democrats have the guts to take on that issue is laughable.

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One of the best-kept secrets in American health care might be that Medicare spending — in important ways — is going down. . .

But there’s a sliver of hope buried in federal data: During the Obama era, Medicare’s per-person spending barely budged, inching up only about 1 percent per year. That’s less than the rate of inflation, meaning that per-person Medicare costs, when adjusted for inflation, have been going down.

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CriticalThought said:

So basically McConnell is angry at Democrats for doing with entitlement reform exactly what Republicans did with Obamacare when Democrats were in power.

Watching Lindsey Graham decend fully into Trump rage mode and seeing how he is being rewarded for it with a newfound celebrity status has confirmed to me that our country has lost its collective mind and politics have been reduced to scripted reality television.

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CriticalThought said:

Basically, now that the GOP has all the power, they are afraid to do anything with it but cut taxes because they believe they will face a political backlash as a result. I have plenty of reasons to dislike Democrats, but at least they had the balls to govern and make some tough and unpopular political choices. I hope the GOP keeps control of the whole government, so that they and the Trump supporters have nobody to blame but themselves when the economy turns.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/...ames-entitlements-not-gop-for-rising-deficits

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Cardinal said:

That has never been how it works.

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CriticalThought said:

Well yeah, there could be one Democrat left in the whole damn government and it would still somehow be their fault.

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cpwill said:

:shrug: As I understand McConnel's argument, it's that you need bi-partisan agreement on big things like changing the entitlements (the Democrat refusal to seek this, I think, was a big part of the backlash that ensued). I hope Democrats prove willing to actually address this threat* to our country.

But, given that they seem unable to avoid trying to seek temporary political advantage by trying to demonize reform efforts and maligning the motives of those who seek to save these programs, I am not optimistic.



*Per SECDEF, the single greatest threat to our national security.





That is certainly true. The American people do not seem to want to be adults, and trying to make them is suicidally unpopular for politicians not skilled enough to actually lead.

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Media_Truth said:

So let's see - McConnell, Trump and the cronies passed Tax benefits for 1%ers, who reaped over 80% of the benefit; in a total Party-line vote. But now they want the help of Democrats to take money away from the poor and middle class, who paid into these programs throughout their working lives.

I seem to recall Warren Buffett stating that he pays a lesser percentage in taxes than his secretary.

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cpwill said:

I don't think you're going to make much progress arguing that changes to marginal tax rates for income represent changing part of our governing structure or contact the way that dramatically reorganizing (say) Social Security would be, especially if you are unable to be honest about those you disagree with.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

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cpwill said:

:shrug: As I understand McConnel's argument, it's that you need bi-partisan agreement on big things like changing the entitlements (the Democrat refusal to seek this, I think, was a big part of the backlash that ensued). I hope Democrats prove willing to actually address this threat* to our country.

But, given that they seem unable to avoid trying to seek temporary political advantage by trying to demonize reform efforts and maligning the motives of those who seek to save these programs, I am not optimistic.



*Per SECDEF, the single greatest threat to our national security.





That is certainly true. The American people do not seem to want to be adults, and trying to make them is suicidally unpopular for politicians not skilled enough to actually lead.

Click to expand...

CriticalThought said:

So basically McConnell is angry at Democrats for doing with entitlement reform exactly what Republicans did with Obamacare when Democrats were in power.

Watching Lindsey Graham decend fully into Trump rage mode and seeing how he is being rewarded for it with a newfound celebrity status has confirmed to me that our country has lost its collective mind and politics have been reduced to scripted reality television.

Click to expand...

cpwill said:

:shrug: As I understand McConnel's argument, it's that you need bi-partisan agreement on big things like changing the entitlements (the Democrat refusal to seek this, I think, was a big part of the backlash that ensued). I hope Democrats prove willing to actually address this threat* to our country.

But, given that they seem unable to avoid trying to seek temporary political advantage by trying to demonize reform efforts and maligning the motives of those who seek to save these programs, I am not optimistic.



*Per SECDEF, the single greatest threat to our national security.





That is certainly true. The American people do not seem to want to be adults, and trying to make them is suicidally unpopular for politicians not skilled enough to actually lead.

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SheWolf said:

Maybe they should have tried to balance their tax cuts with spending cuts, when they actually passed the tax cuts

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Media_Truth said:

Yes, but what they don't tell you, is that Republicans intentionally drive up the deficit. It's been going on, since Reagan. It's all about looking like the GOOD GUY, when they give away tax cuts. Every Republican President has increased deficit spending.

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MTAtech said:

Yes, Mitch McConnell blaming Democrats for the deficit and debt is hypocrisy. However, it is nothing like the hypocrisy of Trump claiming in a Tweet that he and Republicans defend pre-existing conditions coverage and "Democrats will destroy your Medicare" -- all while Republicans openly talk about scaling back Medicare and the administration sought to gut two core provisions of the Affordable Care Act that guarantee protections for those with pre-existing conditions.

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When the Trump tax cut was on the verge of being enacted, I called it “the biggest tax scam in history,” and made a prediction: deficits would soar, and when they did, Republicans would once again pretend to care about debt and demand cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Sure enough, the deficit is soaring. And this week Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, after declaring the surge in red ink “very disturbing,” called for, you guessed it, cuts in “Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.” He also suggested that Republicans might repeal the Affordable Care Act — taking away health care from tens of millions — if they do well in the midterm elections.
Any political analyst who didn’t see this coming should find a different profession. After all, “starve the beast” — cut taxes on the rich, then use the resulting deficits as an excuse to hack away at the safety net — has been G.O.P. strategy for decades.
Oh, and anyone asking why Republicans believed claims that the tax cut would pay for itself is being naïve. Whatever they may have said, they never actually believed that the tax cut would be deficit-neutral; they pushed for a tax cut because it was what wealthy donors wanted, and because their posturing as deficit hawks was always fraudulent. They didn’t really buy into economic nonsense; it would be more accurate to say that economic nonsense bought them.

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What do I mean by double talk? Well, consider the fact that even as McConnell blames “entitlements” (that is, Medicare and Social Security) for deficits, and declares (falsely) that Medicare in particular is “unsustainable,” Paul Ryan’s super PAC has been running ads accusing Democrats of wanting to cut Medicare. The cynicism is breathtaking.

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