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Monday, May 16, 2016

But at Least Donald Trump Won't Cut Social Security-or Would He?

Despite his draconian plan to build a wall-that Mexico is somehow going to pay for-and to deport 12 million illegal immigrants-and 'let the good ones back in after'-Trump in some ways has an image as a kinder, gentler, Republican.

After all, during the primary he said that while his GOP opponents wanted to cut SS and Medicare, he would leave them alone. He mocked them for being willing to let Americans without healthcare 'die in the streets.'

So at least with a President Trump we wouldn't have to worry about Paul Ryan style cuts to entitlements right?

Someone forgot to tell Trump's policy advisor and co-chairman, Sam Clovis this:

"Trump policy adviser and co-chairman Sam Clovis said last week that the real estate mogul would look at changes to all federal programs, “including entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare,” as part of a deficit reduction effort."

"Clovis made the comments at the 2016 Fiscal Summit of the Pete Peterson Foundation, an organization whose founder has spent almost half a billion dollars to hype the U.S. debt and persuade people that the Medicare and Social Security programs are unsustainable. Trump also met privately last week with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., an outspoken Medicare privatization advocate."

"Clovis previously ran for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat in 2014. During his unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination, Clovis made clear that he wanted to privatize the Social Security and Medicare programs."

“I am a strong believer in bringing private models to both Medicare and Social Security,” he told the Des Moines Register. “People my age, we paid in we’re going to get this, people 55 and older probably ought to be sunsetted into these programs, the way they are, 45 to 55 there probably ought to be a chance to opt in or opt out. Below the age of 45, we need a new system. New systems for both. I think — deal with private accounts, put your money into those.”

"He also called for block-granting Medicaid. “Sooner or later, somebody has to stand up and say, ‘We’re going to have to cut programs,’” he said. Turning Medicaid into a block grant program would shift the federal government’s role from paying a fixed percentage of state Medicaid costs to paying a fixed dollar amount, giving the states the flexibility to cut back on eligibility. The block grant proposal floated by House Speaker Ryan in the past would cut Medicaid funding by more than a quarter by 2024."

https://theintercept.com/2016/05/16/donald-trumps-pledge-to-defend-spending-for-old-and-poor-belied-by-staff-picks/

Maybe Trump needs to have a chat with Sam Clovis.

When he gets done with that he can have a chat with another newly hired policy director, John Mashburn, who argues that kids with schizophrenia-aren't really disabled.

Stop faking it!

"Trump’s newly hired policy director, John Mashburn, also advocates block-granting Medicaid to rein in overly generous benefits. “You set a finite amount, states have total flexibility with what they do… if they become too prolific in the benefits they provide, the state voters hold their governor and their legislature accountable for being too free with the taxpayers’ money,” he said during a 2012 interview with the Heartland Institute’s Ben Domenech."

"Medicaid’s eligibility requirements are already steep in many places in the country. In Texas, for instance, families that take in more that 19 percent of the poverty level — $3,670 for a family of three — are considered too wealthy to qualify for Medicaid."

"In the same interview, Mashburn also assailed the Social Security Insurance (SSI) program, complaining that “650,000 — 53 percent of the children on the program — are not really physically disabled, or what most people think are disabled. They are learning disabled in school and stuff, and basically what it is, is becoming a substitute welfare program.”

Maybe this is why Trump was mocking that reporter with a disability.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/26/donald-trump-mocks-reporter-with-disability-berman-sot-ac.cnn

Maybe he thought that Washington reporter was faking like those schizophrenic kids.

2 comments:

  1. Well, so much for the argument coming from some Bernie or Buust! folks that claimed that Trump was to the left of Hillary when it came to protecting Social Security.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Exactly. There have been Berners making this absurd claim

    ReplyDelete