This dust up reminds me of all the Republican over so many years who assured us that Roe v Wade, was a settled constitutional matter. But they lied and connived and soon as they had a chance they jumped on it. Don’t tell me it would be any different, if they saw the slightest window of opportunity to crippling Social Security, and Medicare which has been on the corporate “oligarchs’” funded Alt-Right Wing Extremist’s hit list for decades.
• Feb 8, 2023 •
Chris Hayes: “Biden was right. The jeering crowd of hecklers was wrong. In fact, many Republicans have repeatedly said they want to cut these programs, either by raising the retirement age…or by using euphemistic language like ‘entitlement reform.’”
Fun quote, Mike Lee: 2:06
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2023/02/05/debt-limit-gop-proposals/
By Jeff Stein
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Big cuts to agency spendingThe most likely GOP demand is sweeping cuts to the part of the federal budget known as “discretionary” spending, which excludes programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and Social Security. This type of spending — which includes funding for the Defense Department and other federal agencies — jumped from close to $1.1 trillion a year to $1.6 trillion a year between 2017 and 2023, as Congress went on spending sprees during the Trump administration and the first two years of the Biden administration, said Brian Riedl, a conservative policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank. That number does not adjust for substantial increases in inflation.
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Changes to Social Security and MedicareAfter his meeting with Biden on Wednesday, McCarthy stressed that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are off the table as lawmakers try to craft a deal. Former president Donald Trump has also told the GOP to not push Social Security and Medicare cuts. But many Republicans have raised proposals and ideas that could change these programs in dramatic ways, if not now, then in the future.
House GOP eyes Social Security, Medicare amid spending battle
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Undo Biden’s IRS boostOne of the most popular ideas among Republicans for negotiating over the debt limit would, according to nonpartisan experts, actually push the federal government further into debt.
Few ideas have as firmly united the GOP in opposition as Biden’s $80 billion funding increase for the Internal Revenue Service, approved last year as part of Democrats’ broader Inflation Reduction Act.
House GOP votes to slash IRS funding, targeting pursuit of tax cheats
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Claw back covid aidAt the height of the pandemic, Congress approved more than $5 trillion in emergency aid to help workers, families and businesses facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Nearly every major spending package was bipartisan in nature, except the final measure, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which GOP lawmakers opposed in 2021 — and long have blasted as wasteful.
Federal watchdogs ask Congress for long-delayed help to fight covid fraud …
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Border wall fundingRepublicans have also begun discussing some debt limit demands that have little — if anything — to do with federal spending or taxes.
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New work requirements for federal programsSome congressional Republicans are discussing whether to use the debt limit to impose new work requirements on beneficiaries of federal programs. …
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Go over the cliff
… “We cannot raise the debt ceiling. Democrats have carelessly spent our taxpayer money and devalued our currency,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) tweeted. “They’ve made their bed, so they must lie in it.” …
House Republicans prepare emergency plan for breaching debt limit