By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...So, is it on the Republican chopping block, or isn't it? You hear enough noise that some of the comments aimed at doing it ring true. Republican politicians can be coy, much more than Democrats. The thinking is that Republicans are comfortable, that they look down on any sort of program benefitting less-wealthy Americans.
Democrats are on record as saying Social Security benefits are off-limits to any government-trimming axe.
Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has played both sides of this card. He has said all "entitlements" are on the table and he has said that, well, Social Secuity is not. To believe him or not is the question. That's a crapshoot with Trump, as we know. He will bend at the drop of a new thought put in his brain by some crazed, far-right zealot.
This from newsweek.com: [ But as Trump gears up for his third run for the White House in November's presidential election, experts have warned that his comments on the nation's largest social insurance program could come back haunt him after he hinted in an interview this month that he could be open to cuts.
"So, first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting," Trump said on the subject of Social Security and Medicaid during a call in to CNBC's Squawk Box program on March 11. ". . . .And in terms of, also, the theft and the bad management of entitlements - tremendous bad management of entitlements - there's tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do." Trump later loosely clarified what he meant by his comments, telling conservative news website Breitbart: "I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare." ]
Of course. Too bad Trump is seen as a world-class liar, as someone who will say anything so long as it suits him in a given moment. Should Americans - aging, retired Americans - trust him?
No.
Nyet!
Trump has proven he will act impetuously. That he, he who seems to disdain all federal bureaucracies, would not look at the Social Security Administration is...dreaming. He'll cut. He'll cut like a sugar cane field-working sumbitch. You know it...and I know it. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is on notice. As is the Department of Education. Same for Housing and Urban Development (HUD), plus a few others.
He's said it. At his rallies and in interviews.
The hot-button issue surfaces every now and then as he speaks about what he will do if elected president. Candidate Trump has railed against the country's huge deficit often enough to make anyone listening believe that he could care less about some budget-sapping government programs - like, we would say, food stamps and housing assistance.
The elderly?
They're annoying fodder for a would-be dictator, dead wood for a working nation.
Social Security, a program heading into its 90th year, was begun by Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the mid-1930s, is on the chopping block for cold-hearted Republicans. To not believe it is to see it slink down the national drain.
Never mind that Social Security is a program funded primarily by way of payroll deductions, money these same monthly-check recipients contributed without fail throughout their working years.
The 70-some million Americans on Social Security are only claiming and receiving what is theirs...
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If Trump dropped out tomorrow, I would not trust Republicans any more than I do today,
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are saying RFK will take votes from Biden. RFK jr. has more in common with Maga than Dems. He's an anti-vaxxer, believes in conspiracy theories like chemicals in water can make kids trans, the entire Kennedy family has come out against his candidacy. He's a spoiler for Trump.
ReplyDeleteTry to imagine any other former president pushing these kinds of cheap scams. W selling Bibles? Ha ha ha
ReplyDeleteHe'd be a fool to say he'll touch SS.
ReplyDeleteEcho that.
DeleteTrump's rants are only of interest to and followed by MAGAloons and other kinds of Trump aficionados. The sane and normal if they read them reported in the media shake their heads and wonder how such a childish and temperamental old man could have ever been elected as president of the United States.
ReplyDeleteJudge rules Trump lawyer John Eastman should be disbarred. But wait! I thought it a legal requirement that ANY attorney wiling to represent Trump MUST be willing to engage in unethical behavior. Isn't that like the HONOR CODE among these distinguished legal professionals?
ReplyDeleteTrump lies and defrauds people and yet, he thinks of himself a "smart guy," when he's a cheat. Most of us hate cheats.
ReplyDeleteThe power reverts to the people in November. We can make a choice to save America. We are a brave and resilient people but we are also fighters. As fighters, we are soldiers for democracy. We must do our duty to our country and to our God and stop the evil in its tracks.
ReplyDeleteNot one judge got the balls to throw Trump in jail. Do that and all the talk will stop. Stop talking about it, do it.
ReplyDeleteYou said it.
DeleteYet the courts disappoint again. Gave him 10 more days and reduced the bond to $175mill. I’m sick of the laws not applying to this scum.
DeleteYou know what is really funny that Trump needs appeals, payoffs, loans, threats, lawsuits and every other trick in the book to prevent the truth from being known. These are not the actions of an innocent man that wants to vindicate himself and have his day in court. Not only will he try every stall tactic in the book he will spend a fortune doing it. The truth can only be silenced for so long. His day of reckoning will be here soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm so tired of the Republican freakshow.
Delete@10:50 ECHO THAT.
DeleteHey, major league baseball season starts today!
ReplyDeleteYankees vs. Astros. Go Stros!!!!
DeleteThe RNC and NBC fired Ronna McDaniel. FOX is upset that someone else won't hire her? Give her a call, FOX. She has free time.
ReplyDeleteThey won't. Ronna is history. Just another MAGA loser.
DeleteNBC was paying Ronna $300,000 a year! That's obscene. Glad she was fired. Liar.
DeleteNews: A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event.
ReplyDeleteYay! Three good men!!!
DeleteI'm a 37 year old liberal woman and my dad is a right wing 63 year old. Whenever we get into political discussions it's really just him talking over me and basically telling me I'm naive and I don't understand what's going on. It's pretty hurtful. I wish we could actually engage in a constructive conversation. He doesn't hear me. It goes in one ear and out the other and he is thinking about what he is going to say next, rather than actually hearing what I am saying and responding to it. It's super frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI am not thrilled with Biden or other Democratic leadership.
DeleteBut I will be voting straight Democratic tickets every single election from now until the time when a woman's right to choose is restored across the entire country. The Republicans took a fundamental right away from women.
I'm glad I escaped the Maga cult.
ReplyDeleteAre you in the valley?
DeleteI'm in Harlingen. Born and raised.
DeleteSay NO! to second Putin/Trump administration.
ReplyDeleteRepublican clown Kari Lake rolled over in court and admitting to lying about the election. Loser Mike Lindell evicted from his factory. Bigger Loser James Comer ending the impeachment of Joe Biden. What a hilarious week!
DeleteMy friend said we need to understand that Trump would even take money from the Mexican drug cartels to pay for his court fines.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm. Intriguing.
DeleteI have an older brother who has fallen into this cult and it is creepy as hell to hear him repeating this same nonsense. A man I used to respect now only believes the word of Donald Trump.
ReplyDeleteTrump proverb: Everyone is disposable, including colleagues, including employees, and including family.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fact, Jack!
DeleteRate this joke please. The real reason Trump never had a dog in the White House. There was only enough money in the budget for one pooper scooper.
ReplyDeleteA 10!
DeleteI am so tired of this orange clown every day consuming every ounce of media attention. I just want to turn everything off until his 15 minutes of reality TV pretend life is gone. We were so much better as a country without his fall into disgrace. Move aside MAGA. We've outgrown you. We have adult things to tend to in this ALREADY great country.
ReplyDeleteSeven months to go.
Delete
ReplyDeleteRFK Jr.’s sister says a vote for him is "dangerous."
I don’t know anyone who would get this many chances. I was raised to take my medicine.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump's lawyer in Georgia: election lies are protected speech. ha ha ha ha ha ha
ReplyDeleteWasn’t it Republican Lindsey Graham who said in 2015: “if Trump’s elected it will destroy the Republican Party”?
ReplyDeleteHe was correct.
Prayerfully, in the 2024 election, we will have a lot of us former Trump voters voting for the other side, for the good of the country.
DeleteTrump's not broke! He's just out of other people's money!
ReplyDeleteSo true. He's just a bum, a panhandler.
DeleteTrump's ballyhooed Truth Social stock down in Day 2 of trading. Of course he'll take advantage of anyone who invests. If it benefits him, he'll do it regardless of who it hurts. That's his style. That's how he's operated over decades.
ReplyDeleteA leopard with mange will not change their spots. They'll just look worse.
Can’t wait to watch this stock bottom out! Happens all the time! People are more foolish that follow this guy than ever thought! They will all get exactly what they are paying for!
DeleteMy prof agreed with me that MAGA cult is falling apart and I love it. Every vote for Trump is vote for Putin!
ReplyDeleteThe country is tired of this rolling bad joke. Trump is fast-boring.
Delete"He's worried": Expert says Trump attacks on judge's daughter shows he's "running a bit scared." It's coming for the orange menace!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to hear another word from the MAGA "we can't afford groceries or gas". Keep on donating your hard-earned money, fools.
ReplyDeleteMillions if us former registered lifelong Republicans sealed his fate when we joined the democrats in the last election. I have news for you the numbers have grown since and there is no possibility of Trump ever getting near the white house again.
ReplyDeleteBury MAGA November '24. Vote blue.
ReplyDeleteAfter 36 years, Republicans lost me completely when they nominated Trump the first time. Never again...They showed their true colors on January 6, 2021. Vote BLUE this time! Character counts. Trump has none.
DeleteHeadline: "Idiot Michigan Republicans Confuse Bus of Basketball Players With Migrant Bus." Uh, no. It was the Gonzaga men's basketball team in town for the NCAA tournament.
ReplyDelete